Hijra of Muhammad
In June 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly escaped out of Mecca with Abu Bakr. Muhammad and his followers immigrated to the city of Yathrib, 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Mecca, in several steps. Yathrib was soon renamed Madinat un-Nabi, literally "the City of the Prophet", but un-Nabi was soon dropped, so its name in English is Medina, meaning "the city". The Muslim year during which the Hijra occurred was designated the first year of the Islamic calendar by Umar in 638 or 17 AH (anno hegirae = "in the year of the hijra"). In the following chronology the city will be referred to as Medina, and the region surrounding it as Yathrib.
| Day | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 Thursday |
26 Safar AH 1 (13 June 622) |
Left home in Mecca. Hid three days in the Cave of Saur south of Mecca. |
| Day 9 Monday |
1 Rabi' I AH 1 (17th June 622) |
Left the environs of Mecca. Traveled north to the region of Yathrib. |
| Day 16 Monday |
12 Rabi' I AH 1 (27th June 622) |
Arrived at Quba' near Medina. |
| Day 20 Friday |
16 Rabi' I AH 1 (1st July 622) |
First visit to Medina for Friday prayers. |
| Day 30 Monday |
26 Rabi' I AH 1 (11 July 622) |
Moved from Quba' to Medina. |
NB, Al-Biruni alone is in disagreement with Alvi, Ibn Sa'd, Abu Ja'far and Ibn Hisham on the above dates. The hypothetical dates in the retro-calculated Islamic calendar extended back in time will differ from the actual dates as they would have been be on the modern international Gregorian calendar. The Hijra is celebrated annually on 1 Muharram, the first day of the Muslim year, causing many writers to confuse the first day of the year of the Hijra with the Hijra itself, erroneously stating that the Hijra occurred on 1 Muharram AH 1 (i.e. 18th April 622) or even the hypothetical Gregorian date from retro-calculating on the Hijri calendar 16 July 622 even though it actually occurred on 12 Rabi' I (i.e. 27th June 622.
Thus it is important to remember that whenever the tabular Islamic calendar invented by Muslim astronomers is extended back in time it changes all these dates by about 88 days or three lunar months as the first day of the year during which the Hijra occurred, 1 Murhamman AH 1, would be mistaken from Monday 19 April 622 to Friday 16 July 622. The Muslim dates of the Hijra are those recorded in an original lunisolar Arabic calendar that were never converted into the purely lunar calendar to account for the three intercalary months inserted during the next nine years until intercalary months were prohibited during the year of Muhammad's last Hajj (AH 10).
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