Muhajir
Encyclopedia
Muhajir or Mohajir is an Arabic word meaning immigrant. The Islamic calendar Hejira
starts when Muhammad
and his companions left Mecca
for Medina
in what is known as Hijra
. They were called Muhajirun
. The Arabic
root word for immigration and emigration is Hijrat.
Over centuries, the term has been applied to a number of other Muslim refugee and emigrant groups:
Hijri year
The Hijri year is year numbering system used in the Islamic calendar. It commemorates the Hijra , or emigration of Muhammad and his followers to the city of Medina in 622 CE. In Arabic, AH is symbolized by the letter هـ...
starts when Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
and his companions left Mecca
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
for Medina
Medina
Medina , or ; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, and...
in what is known as Hijra
Hijra (Islam)
The Hijra is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. Alternate spellings of this Arabic word are Hijrah, Hijrat or Hegira, the latter following the spelling rules of Latin.- Hijra of Muhammad :In September 622, warned of a plot to...
. They were called Muhajirun
Muhajirun
Muhajirun are the early, initial Muslims who followed Muhammad on his Hijra . The early Muslims from Medina are called the Ansar .-List:*Muhammad*Ali*Umar *Abu Bakr .*Salman the Persian*Bilal ibn Ribah...
. The Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
root word for immigration and emigration is Hijrat.
Over centuries, the term has been applied to a number of other Muslim refugee and emigrant groups:
- Muhajir KhwarezmMuhajir KhwarezmMuhajir were Muslim refugees that fled Muslim lands in Central Asia due to invasion of the Mongols....
, the Muslim refugees that escaped Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion of Muslim lands in 13th century; they settled in other Muslim lands not touched by the conquerors. Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi fled Afghanistan and settled in Anatolia (modern Turkey) to escape the Mongol army - Muhajir (Albania)Muhajir (Albania)Muhajir , in Albanian-populated regions including Albania and Kosovo, refers to Albanians from Chameria and parts of Vilayet of Kosovo which were ceded to Serbia and Montenegro....
, Albanians that used to live in Serbia (near Nis and Prokuplje). Approximately 30,000 ethnic Albanians retreated from the captured areas (partly under duress), seeking refuge in Kosovo and Metohia, while tens of thousands of Serbs fled Kosovo and Metohia for Serbia ahead of unleashed bashibozouks, irregular auxiliaries of Ottoman troops. As a consequence, thousands of Albanians settled in Kosovo where they live today. - Muhajir Crimean, the converted Muslim refugees of Crimean ancestry, Crimean Tatars, that settled in Ottoman Empire after the Russian Empire captured the Crimea from the Muslim Crimean Khanate.
- Muhajir (Caucasus)Muhajir (Caucasus)Circassians, the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Caucasus were cleansed from their homeland at the end of the Caucasian War by victorious Russia, which by its manner of suppression of the Caucasus directed at the Crimean Tartars and Circassians can be credited with "inventing the strategy of...
, the Muslim population of Caucasus resettled in Ottoman Empire and Middle East after the Caucasian War - Muhajir (Turkey)Muhajir (Turkey)Muhacir is a term of Arabic origin in Turkish language, used across ethnicities, and that corresponds to people whose ancestors migrated from formerly Muslim territories , considered lost to the non-Muslims : the Balkans Muhacir (sometimes maacir in colloquial Turkish) is a term of Arabic origin...
, the Muslims of Balkan ancestry that settled in Turkey after the collapse of Ottoman Empire - Muhajir peopleMuhajir peopleMuhajir [literally – migrants] is a term commonly used especially by Pakistanis to describe the Muslim immigrants who chose to settle in Pakistan and shifted their domicile after partition of British India into Pakistan and India. Some had participated in the movement for creation of Pakistan in...
(Pakistan), Muslim immigrants from India, Burma and other parts of South Asia that migrated to PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
after 1947 and are predominantly native Urdu speakers - Palestinian refugees, Arab refugees, mostly Muslim, who migrated from the territory that became Israel, and are now mostly in neighbouring countries
- Afghan refugees, Muslim muhajirs from Afghanistan who escaped the Soviet invasion in 1979 until the 2001 U.S. invasion in which the Taliban government was overthrown. The vast majority of them settled in Pakistan as well as in Iran
- Rohingya refugeesRohingya peopleThe Rohingya is a predominantly Muslim ethnic group of disputed origin who live in Arakan State, western Burma. The Rohingya population is mostly concentrated to the cities of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, Akyab, Rathedaung and Kyauktaw.-Etymology:...
, Muslim refugees from Burma in Bangladesh and Pakistan