HEGIRA. - From the Arabic hijrah, "emigration." It designates the emigration of the prophet Muhammad (v.) from Mecca to Medina; with it the Muslim era begins.

The precise day of the prophet's emigration, according to the most widespread opinion, would be 8 Rabi' al-awwal (that is, 20 September 622); according to other Muslim sources the day would be the 2nd or the 12th of the same month. It was the caliph 'Umar, the first organizer of the new Muslim State, who established the introduction of the new era for dating purposes, because he was reproached, it seems, for sending letters without a date. The use of this dating was introduced, according to the most widespread tradition, in the year 17 of the era.

Previously, the Arabs gave each year a special name (for example, "year of the earthquake," etc.), or else they counted the years from some extraordinary or important event. It should be noted that in fact the new era (based on a purely lunar calendar) does not begin with the hijrah itself, that is, with 8 Rabi' al-awwal of 622, but rather with 1 Muharram (the first month of the Muslim year) of the same year.

Alessandro Bassani

@incollection{ec5_egira, author = {Bausani, Alessandro}, title = {Egira}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {144--145}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/egira} }

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Hegira

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