First hijra: Muslim refugees at the court of the Negus

Stand-in

Under persecution in Mecca, Muhammad advised a group of his followers to seek refuge with the Christian king of Aksum, 'a land where no one is wronged.' Ibn Ishaq says they crossed from the Hijaz (later accounts often name the port of Shu'ayba and an arrival via Adulis) and were received at the Aksumite court. When Quraysh envoys, including 'Amr ibn al-'As, demanded their return, Ja'far ibn Abi Talib is said to have explained their religion and recited the opening of Surat Maryam. The king wept, declared that their faith and his came from the same source, and refused to surrender them. That courtroom scene is a literary set-piece of the sira; it should be presented as tradition, not as a stenographic report. The migrants' later association with the village of Negash, and the tombs shown there, belong to Ethiopian Muslim memory and are first attested in writing in the 16th century. The event is one of the earliest reported encounters of the new Muslim community with a Christian kingdom in Africa.