622 CE, Yathrib and the Rise of the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ: Pinpointing the Date of the Hijrah
When did the Hijrah truly begin?
A question woven into every calendar of the Muslim world — but its answer lies hidden beneath centuries of imperial collapse, prophetic resolve, and celestial cycles that marked a world hurtling toward transformation. The Hijrah, or migration of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from Mecca to Yathrib (later Madinah), is not just a historical milestone. It is the very axis of Islamic time, the zero point of the Hijrī calendar. Yet determining when, precisely, the Prophet ﷺ set out or arrived — and how to align that moment with the Julian calendar — requires far more than opening a textbook.
Tradition tells us that the Prophet ﷺ left Mecca under threat of assassination, took refuge in the Cave of Thawr, and arrived in Yathrib to crowds of joyful welcome. But which day did this journey begin? When did it culminate? Was the Hijrah initiated in September 622 CE? Was it marked by the crescent of Muḥarram or the Prophet’s physical departure in Rabīʿ al-Awwal?
The truth is: the Hijrah was not a single moment. It was a constellation of movements — of feet, hearts, and history — unfolding against one of the darkest backdrops in Roman and Persian memory.
⚔️ In 622 CE, the Roman Empire was on its knees. The Avars and Slavs had overrun the Balkans. Constantinople stood nearly isolated, as the Danubian frontier collapsed under endless barbarian pressure. Entire provinces were lost — and the West could not save the East.
🕌 In the same year, the Persian Empire under Xusro II had reached the shores of the Mediterranean. Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had fallen. Churches were burned, relics stolen, and Roman morale shattered.
🌙 And in the Hijāz, the Meccans plotted the death of one man — a man whose quiet monotheism had now become a movement.
This blog post is not simply about finding a date on a calendar. It is about rediscovering the pulse of a world in upheaval, and the divine strategy unfolding through it. We’ll examine the testimony of early historians like Ibn Isḥāq, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Masʿūdī. We’ll assess classical ḥadīth reports alongside the latest calendrical studies, including the work of 19th-century astronomers and scholars like Mahmud Pasha. And we’ll interrogate the logic behind the official start of the Islamic calendar during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb — when the Prophet’s arrival in Yathrib was chosen as Year 1.
Let’s walk the Hijrah not as an abstraction, but as it was: a moment when heaven moved upon earth, and history split in two.
➡️ Let the reckoning begin.
Section 1: 🌍 A World in Collapse — From Desert Mission to Global Turning Point
The year 622 CE was not a quiet turn of the calendar. It was a global rupture. As the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ prepared to migrate from Mecca to Yathrib, the entire geopolitical order of the Late Antique world teetered on the edge of transformation.
By the year 622 CE, the Sasanian Empire under Xusro II had reached the zenith of its territorial and political power — arguably the most expansive and prosperous the empire would ever be.
🏛️ Strategic Conquests → From the Euphrates to the Nile
✅ Syria, Palestine, and Egypt — the richest provinces of the Roman world — were under firm Persian control by 621 CE. In little more than a decade since crossing the Euphrates, Persian armies had seized:
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🕌 The entire Roman Levant (by 616 CE)
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🌿 The breadbasket of Egypt (by 621 CE)
This gave the Sasanians unprecedented access to Mediterranean trade routes, urban wealth, and food supplies.
🧭 Persian Rule = Pragmatic Occupation
Despite these victories, the Sasanian strategy was not one of scorched earth or total replacement. Persian governance was rooted in:
🗺️ Cities such as Edessa, Caesarea, and even Alexandria were preserved as administrative hubs. Roman provincial frameworks remained intact, with governors, tax officials, and local elites retained under Persian oversight.
📜 Pahlavi Papyrus & Sasanian Bureaucracy
Our deepest insights come from over 350 Pahlavi papyri, especially from Egypt, which reveal:
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📦 Records of food deliveries (grain, meat, wine, quail)
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📜 Official permits, tax notices, and affidavits
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🚢 Mentions of ships, commerce, and military logistics
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🧍 Reports of slave escapes, loans, and manumissions
🏰 Minimal Force, Maximum Leverage
While troops were present, they were concentrated in fortified compounds:
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🏛️ Caesarea: Persian garrison likely stationed in the old Roman theater fortress
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🕊️ Edessa: Troops under a marzbān (regional governor) kept order with minimal friction
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🏙️ Thebes and Elephantine: Fortified and monitored in Upper Egypt
🎯 Persian officials coordinated tax policy, food procurement, and even movement permits across the Nile Valley — from Fayyūm to the Thebaid.
💱 Coins, Cities, and Continuity
Persian silver drachms entered the occupied zones en masse — showing up later in hoards buried during 8th–9th century Arab rule, especially in:
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Damascus
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Upper Mesopotamia
🕌 Even Christian holy cities like Jerusalem were managed delicately. Though Jews had welcomed Persian forces in 614, the Sasanian authorities later restricted Jewish resettlement — a move made to preserve intercommunal peace and avoid Christian backlash.
📊 The Balance Sheet of Empire
Persian rule in the Roman East (616–630 CE) was:
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Efficient ✅
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Light-handed ✅
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Profit-driven ✅
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Strategically flexible ✅
It preserved much of the existing civic architecture, fiscal systems, and social hierarchies, while rerouting Roman revenues into Persian war coffers.
The occupied Middle East under the Sasanians was not a burned-out battlefield. It was a region renegotiated, restructured, and ruled with administrative finesse — all in service of the Persian war effort and imperial ambition.
👷🏻 Roman Collapse: The Last Bastions of Empire
Despite the catastrophic loss of the eastern provinces to the Sasanians, the Roman Empire in 622 CE was far from a spent force. Even as Persia occupied Egypt and the Levant, the imperial system showed resilience in its core regions.
🛡️ The Spirit of Resistance → Faith Amid Disaster
➡️ Half a millennium of imperial rule had cultivated deep ideological reserves within Roman governing elites and the broader population.
➡️ Despite military disaster, there were no widespread signs of despair. The sense of Roman chosenness remained intact, nourished by Christian theology: defeat was interpreted as divine punishment to be redeemed through repentance and suffering.
⛪ Patriarch Zacharias, in his farewell sermon outside Jerusalem, invoked this theodicy — urging the faithful to remain steadfast.
📜 Roman propaganda portrayed Byzantines as a divinely favored people whose revival would follow penance. This fusion of faith, empire, and destiny underpinned public morale.
🏙️ Urban Continuity in Asia Minor → The Cities Hold
While the eastern provinces crumbled, cities in Asia Minor — the empire's Anatolian heartland — continued to thrive:
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🏛️ Ancyra, Amorium, Sozopolis, Pessinus — all remained vibrant urban centers.
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🏺 Archaeology reveals continued commercial exchange via amphorae, African red slipware, and bustling emporia.
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🕍 Christian basilicas, cisterns, baths, and paved roads show ongoing civic investment.
📖 The Life of Theodore of Syceon offers a window into the enduring civic and spiritual life of Galatia and Bithynia. Though city councils had withered under Justinian, local governance persisted through:
🌾 Even village life endured. Though there were sporadic conflicts — often over buried treasure or peasant-landlord tensions — provincial governors and figures like Theodore mediated and calmed unrest.
⚔️ The Balkans: A Region in Ruins
Yet not all regions fared as well. The Balkans suffered the most:
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🛡️ The Danubian frontier had collapsed.
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🏹 Avar and Slav incursions devastated once-prosperous towns.
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🏚️ Cities fell into ruin; imperial presence all but vanished.
Justinian's earlier gamble of employing Avars to contain the Gepids had backfired — empowering the very forces that now ravaged the frontier.
🧱 Asia Minor in Decline? Not Yet
While future decades would bring war, plague, and urban contraction, by 622 CE most of western Asia Minor remained vibrant:
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The coastal cities of Lycia and the Maeander valley remained tied to Mediterranean trade routes.
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Textile hubs like Philadelphia, Laodicea, and Hierapolis still prospered, drawing wool from upland herds.
📉 Later archaeological decline — shrinking city walls, disappearing coinage, repurposed civic monuments — reflects trends of the mid-to-late 7th century, not the early 620s.
Even cities like Sardis, Ephesus, Pergamum, and Smyrna show signs of restructuring rather than abandonment. Fortified citadels were often erected inside older walls, but that suggests contraction, not collapse.
🔍 Economic activity may have slowed, but in 622 CE, Roman Asia remained densely populated, commercially active, and religiously cohesive.
🚀 A First Step Toward Revival
Amid this landscape, Heraclius, crowned in 610, made his move:
➡️ In 622 CE, he launched his first counterattack from Asia Minor against Persian forces in Cappadocia.
This marked the beginning of a long, arduous comeback — one fueled not just by imperial desperation, but by a civilizational confidence centuries in the making.
The Roman Empire had been broken — but it had not yet been beaten.
🌍 Arabia: A Peninsula at the Crossroads
As the Roman–Persian tug-of-war escalated into full-blown dominance, Arabia found itself increasingly peripheral—but not insignificant.
🕌 Mecca in Crisis — A City in Retreat
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The Quraysh, feeling existentially threatened, ramped up persecution of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his early Muslim followers.
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The economic and social boycott imposed by the Quraysh on the Banū Hāshim and Banū Muṭṭalib clans (615–616 CE) was intended to starve the nascent movement into submission. Though it failed in its primary goal, the boycott left the community economically destabilized and morally strained.
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Despite this, Islam’s moral authority continued to grow—quietly and deliberately—while Mecca hardened in resistance.
The Quraysh, feeling existentially threatened, ramped up persecution of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his early Muslim followers.
The economic and social boycott imposed by the Quraysh on the Banū Hāshim and Banū Muṭṭalib clans (615–616 CE) was intended to starve the nascent movement into submission. Though it failed in its primary goal, the boycott left the community economically destabilized and morally strained.
Despite this, Islam’s moral authority continued to grow—quietly and deliberately—while Mecca hardened in resistance.
🌿 Tribal Fragility and Tribal Realignments
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In the Arabian north, the Ghassanids—Rome’s Christian buffer state—had fractured under external pressures, granting northern Arab tribes more autonomy and mobility.
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Without the Ghassanid–Lakhmid buffer zone, the Arabian Peninsula was politically fluid: tribal levies, caravan routes, and alliances were realigning.
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The ancient commercial network via Yemen, Mecca, and Yathrib was splintered, with new tribal realignments forming around blood-ties and religious-political affiliations rather than imperial oversight.
In the Arabian north, the Ghassanids—Rome’s Christian buffer state—had fractured under external pressures, granting northern Arab tribes more autonomy and mobility.
Without the Ghassanid–Lakhmid buffer zone, the Arabian Peninsula was politically fluid: tribal levies, caravan routes, and alliances were realigning.
The ancient commercial network via Yemen, Mecca, and Yathrib was splintered, with new tribal realignments forming around blood-ties and religious-political affiliations rather than imperial oversight.
🕊️ Yathrib: Oasis of Opportunity
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Yathrib (later Medina), perched on fertile northern frontier lands, was internally shattered long before the Prophet’s arrival. Aws and Khazraj, its two dominant tribes, were locked in a lethal cycle of vendettas, arson, and factional murders—a state of internal collapse.
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Shared proximity and Islamic influence had previously softened disputes—with increasing numbers of Quraysh migrants finding refuge there.
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It was into this vacuum of disorder that a revolutionary proposal was made: the Ansār—citizens of Khazraj and Aws—offered the Prophet ﷺ the chance to mediate their tribal conflicts and guide the formation of a new, united polity.
Yathrib (later Medina), perched on fertile northern frontier lands, was internally shattered long before the Prophet’s arrival. Aws and Khazraj, its two dominant tribes, were locked in a lethal cycle of vendettas, arson, and factional murders—a state of internal collapse.
Shared proximity and Islamic influence had previously softened disputes—with increasing numbers of Quraysh migrants finding refuge there.
It was into this vacuum of disorder that a revolutionary proposal was made: the Ansār—citizens of Khazraj and Aws—offered the Prophet ﷺ the chance to mediate their tribal conflicts and guide the formation of a new, united polity.
🛡️ The Hijrah: From Persecution to Statehood
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The Hijrah in 622 CE was not merely a migration—it was a civilizational reset.
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Mecca, with its institutional rejection of Islam, could no longer provide refuge or stability.
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Yathrib, by contrast, offered sanctuary, social contract, and a place where the Prophet ﷺ could transform religion into governance, establishing swift charity redistribution, arbitrating disputes, and fostering legal communal structures.
The Hijrah in 622 CE was not merely a migration—it was a civilizational reset.
Mecca, with its institutional rejection of Islam, could no longer provide refuge or stability.
Yathrib, by contrast, offered sanctuary, social contract, and a place where the Prophet ﷺ could transform religion into governance, establishing swift charity redistribution, arbitrating disputes, and fostering legal communal structures.
📍 Conclusion: The Peninsula at a Turning Point
The Arabian Peninsula in 622 CE stood at a historic threshold:
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Mecca had failed to extinguish Islam despite persecution.
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Coastal tribal networks were unmoored without imperial buffers.
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Yathrib, fractured and desperate, offered a collective invitation—not just political asylum, but an opportunity for prophetic governance and societal transformation.
Arabia’s heartland—long outside the scope of imperial Rome or Persia—was becoming the incubator of a new polity, one that would soon reshape the Middle East not just spiritually, but politically and socially
📆 Section 2: Calculating the Date of Departure
Between History and Moonlight: When Did the Hijrah Begin?
Most readers assume the Hijrah began with 1 Muḥarram 1 AH, but most early Islamic sources agree: the Prophet ﷺ departed Mecca and arrived in Medina in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, not Muḥarram. Understanding this difference is crucial to anchoring the Hijrah within a precise, historically defensible timeline.
🌙 1️⃣ The Islamic Calendar Began in July, Not the Journey
✅ Key: The calendar year began in July, but the actual migration occurred in September.
🗺️ 2️⃣ Al-Wāqidī, Ibn Saʿd, and Early Sources on the Route
Al-Wāqidī and Ibn Saʿd detail each stage meticulously:
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The Prophet ﷺ left Mecca on a Thursday night (27 Ṣafar 1 AH, ~9 September 622).
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Hid in the Cave of Thawr for 3 days (Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday morning).
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Departed the cave on Sunday night/Monday morning, beginning the journey north toward Yathrib.
🕌 3️⃣ Arrival in Qubāʾ: Monday, 12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1 AH
Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ, quoting Ibn Isḥāq, states:
"قَالَ ابْنُ إِسْحَاقَ قَدِمَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ الْمَدِينَةَ يَوْمَ الاثْنَيْنِ حِينَ اشْتَدَّ الضُّحَاءُ لِاثْنَتَيْ عَشْرَةَ لَيْلَةً خَلَتْ مِنْ شَهْرِ رَبِيعٍ الأَوَّلِ."
“Ibn Isḥāq said: The Messenger of God ﷺ arrived in Medina on Monday, during the heat of the forenoon, on the 12th night that had passed of Rabīʿ al-Awwal.”
Qubāʾ, where the Prophet ﷺ first stayed, is administratively part of Medina, so this counts as “arrival in Medina.”
📆 Date Conversion
✅ 12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1 AH = Monday, 24 September 622 (Julian).
This aligns precisely with the day of the week (Monday) reported in the early sources.
🕌 4️⃣ Stay in Qubāʾ and Entry into Yathrib Proper
Ibn Isḥāq continues:
"قَالَ ابْنُ إِسْحَاقَ فَنَزَلَ بِقِبَاءٍ عَلَى كُلْثُومِ بْنِ هِدْمٍ... وَأَقَامَ فِي بَنِي عَمْرِو بْنِ عَوْفٍ يَوْمَ الاثْنَيْنِ وَالثُّلاثَاءِ وَالأَرْبَعَاءِ وَالْخَمِيسِ... وَخَرَجَ... فَأَدْرَكَتْهُ الْجُمُعَةُ... وَصَلَّى الْجُمُعَةَ... ثُمَّ نَزَلَ... عَلَى أَبِي أَيُّوبَ..."
Summary:
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Stayed in Qubāʾ:
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Established the mosque during this stay.
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Departed on Friday, performing Jumuʿah prayer with Banū Sālim ibn ʿAwf in the valley.
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Then entered the city center of Yathrib (Medina proper).
🕎 5️⃣ The ʿĀshūrāʾ / Yom Kippur Connection
A hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī states:
"قَدِمَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ الْمَدِينَةَ، فَرَأَى الْيَهُودَ تَصُومُ يَوْمَ عَاشُورَاءَ... فَقَالَ «فَأَنَا أَحَقُّ بِمُوسَى مِنْكُمْ» فَصَامَهُ وَأَمَرَ بِصِيَامِهِ."
“The Prophet ﷺ arrived in Medina and saw the Jews fasting on ʿĀshūrāʾ. He asked about it, and they said, ‘It is the day God saved the Children of Israel, so Moses fasted it.’ He said, ‘We have more right to Moses than you.’ So he fasted that day and commanded the Muslims to fast it.”
When was Yom Kippur in 622?
✅ Yom Kippur (Tishri 10, 4383 AM) = Wednesday, 20 September 622 (Julian).
🗓️ 20 September 622 (Julian) = 6 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1 AH.
🤔 Alignment with the Arrival Timeline
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The Prophet ﷺ arrived in Qubāʾ on Monday, 24 September 622 (12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal), four days after Yom Kippur.
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The fasting of ʿĀshūrāʾ initially observed by the Jews aligns with Yom Kippur.
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Later, the Islamic ʿĀshūrāʾ became associated with 10 Muḥarram, but at the time of arrival, the practice observed was still linked to the Jewish lunar calendar’s Tishri 10.
🧮 Manual Lunar Calculations for Cross-Checking
The Islamic lunar months for 622 CE approximate as:
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1 Muḥarram: 16 July 622
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1 Ṣafar: 15 August 622
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1 Rabīʿ al-Awwal: 13 September 622
Thus:
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6 Rabīʿ al-Awwal ≈ 18 September 622
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10 Rabīʿ al-Awwal ≈ 22 September 622
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12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal ≈ 24 September 622
Given lunar crescent sighting variations, Yom Kippur on 20 September 622 aligns with 6–7 Rabīʿ al-Awwal, and the Prophet’s ﷺ arrival at Qubāʾ occurred four days later, maintaining coherence between Islamic, Jewish, and Julian dates.
📌 Key Takeaways
🕊️ Section 3: Why the Calendar Begins in Muḥarram, Not Rabīʿ
New Year, New World: ʿUmar’s Decision and the Ethics of Beginnings
When Muslims hear “Hijrah,” they picture the Prophet ﷺ departing Mecca and arriving in Medina in Rabīʿ al-Awwal (September 622). Yet the Islamic calendar begins in Muḥarram (July 622) — why?
The answer reveals how history, faith, and prophetic intent shaped Muslim time.
📜 1️⃣ The Historical Problem: No Standard Dates
As the Muslim community expanded, confusion arose when letters arrived without clear dates.
Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ records:
"كَتَبَ أَبُو مُوسَى الأَشْعَرِيُّ إِلَى عُمَرَ أَنَّهُ تَأْتِينَا كُتُبٌ مَا نَدْرِي مَا تَأْرِيخُهَا"“Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī wrote to ʿUmar: ‘Letters come to us, and we do not know their dates.’”
🗳️ 2️⃣ Shūrā: ʿUmar Consults the Companions
Around 17 AH (638 CE), ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb gathered the Muhājirūn and Anṣār to establish a unified dating system.
Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ narrates:
"جَمَعَ عُمَرُ الْمُهَاجِرِينَ وَالأَنْصَارَ فَقَالَ مِنْ أَيْنَ أَكْتُبُ التَّارِيخَ"“ʿUmar gathered the Muhājirūn and Anṣār and said: ‘From where should I start the dating?’”
Suggestions included:
But the companions reached consensus to anchor the calendar on the Hijrah.
🌌 3️⃣ Why Anchor to the Hijrah?
"فَقَالَ عُمَرُ أَرِّخُوا مِنْ هِجْرَتِهِ فَإِنَّ مُهَاجَرَهُ فَرَقَ بَيْنَ الْحَقِّ وَالْبَاطِلِ"
“ʿUmar said: ‘Date it from his Hijrah, for his migration separated truth from falsehood.’”
The Hijrah was not merely travel; it was the moment Islam transitioned from a persecuted minority to an independent, prophetic polity.
🌙 4️⃣ Why Muḥarram, Not Rabīʿ?
Even though the physical Hijrah occurred in Rabīʿ al-Awwal (September 622), the companions chose Muḥarram because:
"فَأَرَادُوا أَنْ يَبْتَدِئُوا بِشَهْرِ رَمَضَانَ ثُمَّ رَأَوْا أَنْ يَجْعَلُوهُ فِي الْمُحَرَّمِ"“They wanted to begin with Ramaḍān, then saw that they should make it Muḥarram.”
Thus, the year 1 AH began in Muḥarram (16 July 622), while the actual migration took place in Rabīʿ al-Awwal (September 622).
🌱 5️⃣ The Ethics of Beginnings
By choosing the Hijrah as the epoch, the companions ensured:
📌 Key Takeaways
🌿 Section 4: The Arrival at Yathrib — A City Transformed
The Garden Opens: From Yathrib to Madīnat al-Nabī
The Hijrah was not just a migration. It was a turning point that transformed Yathrib into Madīnat al-Nabī (The City of the Prophet) and Madīnat al-Nūr (The City of Light), laying the foundation for the first Islamic polity.
🚶♂️ 1️⃣ A City Waiting in Hope
The people of Yathrib (later Medina) longed for the Prophet ﷺ’s arrival, gathering every morning outside the city after Fajr, scanning the horizon in the heat, hoping to glimpse him.
Khalīfa ibn Khayyāṭ records:
"قَالُوا لَمَّا سَمِعْنَا بِمَخْرَجِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ مِنْ مَكَّةَ تَوَكَّفْنَا قُدُومَهُ... وَقَدِمَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ فَكَانَ أَوَّلُ مَنْ رَآهُ رَجُلٌ مِنْ يَهُودٍ فَصَرَخَ... يَا بَنِي قَيْلَةَ هَذَا جَدُّكُمْ قَدْ جَاءَ."
“They said: When we heard of the Messenger of God’s ﷺ departure from Mecca, we awaited his arrival… On the day he arrived, a Jewish man was the first to see him and cried out loudly, ‘O Banu Qayla! Here is your fortune, he has arrived!’”
🌴 2️⃣ A Joyful Welcome
Men, women, and children poured out to greet the Prophet ﷺ, some singing and beating drums, others raising voices in takbīr.
Many had never seen him before. They initially confused him with Abū Bakr, who stood over the Prophet ﷺ to shade him, revealing the Prophet ﷺ to the people.
"وَقَامَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ فَأَظَلَّهُ، فَعَرَفْنَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ فَرَكِبَهُ النَّاسُ."
“Abū Bakr stood shading him, and thus we recognized the Messenger of God ﷺ, for before that, the people had crowded around him and did not distinguish him from Abū Bakr.”
🐪 3️⃣ The Camel Stops Where the Mosque Will Stand
Upon entering Yathrib, the Prophet ﷺ allowed his camel, al-Qaṣwāʾ, to walk freely.
It stopped on a plot belonging to orphans, which would become the site of Masjid al-Nabī (the Prophet’s Mosque).
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“دعُوها فإنها مأمورة”“Leave it, for it is commanded.”
Here, the spiritual and physical center of the Ummah would take root.
🕌 4️⃣ Yathrib Becomes Madīnat al-Nabī
Yathrib was now transformed:
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“أمرت بقرية تأكل القرى يقولون يثرب وهي المدينة…”“I have been commanded to a town that will consume other towns; they call it Yathrib, but it is Medina…” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī)
💡 Purpose and Transformation
From Yathrib to Madīnat al-Nabī, the Hijrah did not merely change a location; it transformed the course of world history.
📌 Key Takeaways
🚶 Section 5: Final Synthesis — Hijrah as Revelation in Motion
A Journey That Created Time Itself
📜 1️⃣ From Birth to Commissioning
As the Romans and Persians fought, turning the Near East of antiquity into ashes,As the Avars and Slavs overran Thrace and Illyria,A new world was being born in the sands of Arabia.
🕌 2️⃣ From Rejection to Sanctuary
The Hijrah turned rejection into refuge and solitude into society.
🌙 3️⃣ From Silent Revelation to Institutional Islam
The Hijrah was revelation in motion, carrying divine words from individual hearts to the lifeblood of a society.
🕊️ 4️⃣ The Hinge Between History and Prophecy
The Hijrah is the hinge:
💡 5️⃣ A New Era Begins
The Hijrah created Islamic time — a calendar rooted not in conquest or dynasty, but in sacrifice, hope, and faith.
📌 Key Takeaways
🌌 Conclusion: The Year the Earth Moved for Heaven’s Sake
🌌 THE END 🌌
Works Cited
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Primary Sources
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Hāshimī al-Baghdādī. Al-Munammaq fī Akhbār Quraysh. Edited by Khurshīd Aḥmad Fārūq, 1st ed., 1405 AH / 1985 CE, ʿĀlam al-Kutub, Beirut. pp. 433.
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Howard-Johnston, James. Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford University Press, 2010.
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Kardaras, Georgios. Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: Political, Diplomatic and Cultural Relations. Translated from Greek. Brill, 2018.
Pohl, Walter. The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. Translated from German. Cornell University Press, 2018.
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