What was the Hijrah, and why does it mark the start of the Islamic calendar?

In 622 CE, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his companions migrated from Makkah to Yathrib, later renamed Madinah, after years of persecution and boycott by Makkah's tribal leadership. This migration, known as the Hijrah, was far more than a change of residence: in Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ established the first organized Muslim community with its own governance, mutual-defense arrangements, and social order among tribes that had long been at war with one another. The Hijrah became the starting point of the Islamic lunar calendar through a decision formally adopted by Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab around 638 CE, roughly seventeen years after the event, when administrators needed a consistent dating system for correspondence and records. Umar and his advisors chose the Hijrah over the Prophet's birth or the start of revelation because it marked the moment the Muslim community gained the freedom and stability to organize and practice its faith openly. For this reason, the Hijrah is remembered less as an escape and more as the turning point that made possible the survival, consolidation, and eventual flourishing of the early Muslim community.

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