The
Hegira or
Hijrah , also
romanized as
Hijra and
Hejira, is the migration or journey of the
Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from
Mecca to
Yathrib, later renamed by him to
Medina, in the year
622 CE. In June 622 CE, after being warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly left his home in Mecca to emigrate to Yathrib, north of Mecca, along with his
companion Abu Bakr. Yathrib was soon renamed
Madinat an-Nabi, literally "the City of the Prophet", but
an-Nabi was soon dropped, so its name is "Medina", meaning "the city".