Migration to Abyssinia

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Migration to Abyssinia

Part of the diplomatic career of Muhammad
1314 manuscript illustration by Rashid ad-Din depicting the Negus of medieval Abyssinia declining a Meccan delegation's request to surrender the early Muslims.
Native name	الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎
Date	c. 613-615 CE (9-7 BH)
Also known as	Hijrah Habshah ʽUla (الهجرة الأولى إلى الحبشة‎) or Hijrah il-al-Habshah (الهجرة إلى الحبشة‎)
Motive	To escape persecution by the Quraysh
Participants	The early Sahabah: Eleven men and four women
Outcome	Some of the early Muslims settle in Aksum
Departure location	Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia
Destination	Aksum, Kingdom of Aksum

The migration to Abyssinia (

Some Western historians such as Leone Caetani (1869–1935) and William Montgomery Watt (1909–2006) questioned the account of two migrations.^[5] Although Ibn Ishaq provided two partially overlapping lists of migrants, he did not mention that the first group returned and went back a second time.^[5] Watt argued that the word used by Ibn Ishaq (tatāba‘a, transl. 'followed one after another') and the order of the names on the lists suggests that the migration may have taken place in a number of smaller groups rather than two large parties, while the appearance of the two lists reflected the controversies surrounding the assignment of priority on official registers during the reign of the second Rashidun caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab.^[5]

In Aksum

Much of the coverage of this event comes from the historian Ibn Ishaq.^[11][12]

When the Quraysh learned that the early Muslims were planning to move to the Aksumite kingdom, they sent a delegation to the Negus to demand the surrender of the fugitives. They selected two envoys: ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and Abdullah bin Rabiah. The Meccan envoys were given gifts for the Aksumite king Najashi and his generals. The gifts were made up of leather and prepared by fine skin.^[11][12] The Meccans appealed to the generals, arguing that the Muslim migrants were rebels who had invented a new religion, the likes of which neither the Meccans nor the Aksumites had heard of, and that their relatives were asking for their return. The king granted them an audience, but ultimately refused to hand over the migrants until he heard their defence.^[11][12]

The Sahaba were later brought in front of the Negus and his bishops. Jaʽfar ibn Abi Talib, who acted as the leader of the exiles, spoke in their defence:

O king, we were a wicked and ignorant people who

prophetic biography by Ibn Hisham^{[citation needed}

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