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HEJIRA

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 218 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HEJIRA ,' or HEGIRA (Arab. hijra, See also:

flight, departure from one's See also:country, from hajara, to go away), the name of the See also:Mahommedan era. It See also:dates from 622, the See also:year in which See also:Mahomet " fled " from See also:Mecca to See also:Medina to See also:escape the persecution of his kinsmen of the Koreish tribe. The years of this era are distinguished by the See also:initials " A.II." (See also:anno hegirae). The Mahommedan year is a lunar one, about 11 days shorter than the See also:Christian; See also:allowance must be made for this in translating Hegira dates into Christian dates; thus A.R. 1321 corresponds roughly to A.D. 1903. The actual date of the " flight " is fixed as 8 Rabia I., i.e. loth of See also:September 622, by the tradition that Mahomet arrived at See also:Kufa on the See also:Hebrew See also:Day of See also:Atonement. Although Mahomet himself appears to have dated events by his flight, it was not till seventeen years later that the actual era was systematized by See also:Omar, the second See also:caliph(see See also:CALIPHATE), as beginning from the 1st day of Muharram (the first lunar See also:month of the year) which in that year (639) corresponded to See also:July 16. The See also:term hejira is also applied in its more See also:general sense to other " emigrations " of the faithful, e.g. to that to See also:Abyssinia (see MAROMET), and to that of Mahomet's followers to Medina before the See also:capture of Mecca. These latter are known as Muhajirun. For the problems of Moslem See also:chronology and See also:comparative tables of dates see (beside the articles See also:CALENDAR, CHRONOLOGY and ea_ i The i in the second syllable is See also:short. MAHOMET),Wiistenfeld, Vergleichungstabellen der muhammedanischen and christlichen Zeitrechnung (2nd ed., See also:Leipzig, 1903); Mas Latrie, Tresor de chronologie (See also:Paris, 1889) ; Durbaneh, Universal Calendar (See also:Cairo, 1896); Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, ii.

326-350; D. Nielson, See also:

Die altarabische Mondreligion (See also:Strassburg, 1904) ; See also:Hughes, See also:Dictionary of See also:Islam, s. v.

End of Article: HEJIRA

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