Ideas · 622 CE
Muhammad's Hijra to Medina
Medina (Saudi Arabia)
Muhammad, born in Mecca around 570, began around 610 to report revelations that Muslims believe were delivered by the angel Gabriel and that form the Quran. Facing hostility from Mecca's ruling Quraysh, in 622 he and his followers migrated to Medina, then called Yathrib, where he became the community's leader and judge.
Mecca surrendered to him in 629–630, and by his death in 632 most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.
Why it mattered
The Hijra marks the founding of the first Muslim community, and the caliph Umar later made it year one of the Islamic calendar, which Muslims still use.
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