The Early Muslim Community
Makkah, the Hijrah, and the founding of Madinah
The first Muslim community formed in Makkah under boycott and persecution, migrated to Yathrib in 622 CE — the Hijrah — and built a written multi-community agreement (the Constitution of Madinah) that later became the anchor of the Islamic calendar.
Overview
What you will learn: the shape of the early Muslim community in Makkah, why the Hijrah (migration to Madinah) was necessary, what the Constitution of Madinah actually did, and why the year 622 CE — not the year of the Prophet's birth or the first revelation — became year 1 of the Islamic calendar.
Context
The Qur'an began to be revealed to Muhammad ﷺ in Makkah around 610 CE. For the first three years the message was shared privately with close family and companions; from around 613 CE it was proclaimed openly. Early converts came from every social level — the wealthy merchant Abu Bakr, the enslaved African Bilal ibn Rabah, young men of the Quraysh elite like Uthman ibn Affan and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, and women including Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (the Prophet's first wife and the first Muslim), Sumayyah bint Khayyat (the first martyr in Islam) and Umm Salama.
Context
Persecution followed. The Quraysh imposed a full trade boycott on Banu Hashim (the Prophet's clan) for about three years in the valley of Abu Talib. Poorer Muslims — notably enslaved Muslims like Bilal, Ammar ibn Yasir and his mother Sumayyah — were tortured openly. A first group of Muslims migrated to Christian Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) under the Negus around 615 CE seeking asylum, a well-documented early episode.
What this means
The Hijrah — the migration to Yathrib (renamed Madinat an-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, or simply Madinah) — took place in 622 CE, in response both to increasing plots against the Prophet's life and to a formal invitation from the tribes of Yathrib who had accepted Islam at the pledges of al-Aqabah. Most companions travelled ahead in small groups. The Prophet ﷺ left last, together with Abu Bakr, hiding for three nights in the cave of Thawr before completing the journey. Sahih al-Bukhari preserves the detail; Ibn Hisham's Sirah gives the fuller narrative.
What this means
In Madinah the Prophet ﷺ drew up the Sahifah al-Madinah — often translated as the Constitution of Madinah — a written agreement between the emigrants (Muhajirun), the local Muslims (Ansar) and the Jewish tribes of the city. It defined mutual defence, dispute resolution and freedom of religion for the signatories. It is one of the earliest written multi-community constitutions on record. W. Montgomery Watt's Muhammad at Medina and more recent scholarship treat it as a genuine early document, though the details of its clauses are debated.
Context
About seventeen years after the Hijrah, during the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634-644 CE), Muslims adopted the year of the migration as year 1 AH — after Hijrah. Notably, the event chosen to anchor the calendar was not a battle, a birth or a revelation, but a community rebuilding itself in a new place under a written agreement.
Application today
The Hijrah is used in Muslim tradition as a metaphor for any migration away from what harms your faith — a workplace, a relationship, a habit — toward a place where you can practise it. It is not only a historical date. It is also a reminder that community-building in Islam has, from the beginning, involved written agreements with non-Muslim neighbours.
Reflection
The Islamic calendar begins with a community relocation under a written agreement — not a birth or a battle. What does that choice say about what Muslims are meant to value?