The SeerahJourney
The emigration to Abyssinia
الهجرة إلى الحبشة
The first Muslims to emigrate went to the just king of Abyssinia.
- When
- Rajab, the fifth year of the mission
- Date
- The sources agree on the date.
The event
As the persecution in Makkah grew, the Prophet ﷺ advised his Companions to go to Abyssinia, whose king, the Negus, was known for his justice. The first group left in Rajab of the fifth year of the mission: eleven men and four women (some say two), led by 'Uthman ibn 'Affan with his wife Ruqayya, the Prophet's ﷺ daughter.
A false rumour that Quraysh had accepted Islam brought some of them back, and a larger group then went out: islamweb's article gives eighty-three men and eighteen women, and Ibn Hajar says more than eighty men. islamweb's fatwa on the second emigration places it too in the fifth year, as al-Maqrizi reports from al-Waqidi.