Refuge · a Light

The first Muslim refugees were sheltered by a Christian king

Around 615 CE, with the Makkan boycott closing in, the Prophet ﷺ told a small group of his followers to cross the Red Sea to Abyssinia, telling them there was a king there under whom no one was wronged. A first party of about a dozen went, and more followed. Quraysh sent envoys with gifts to demand their return. The Aksumite ruler, called the Negus in Arabic sources, heard both sides, listened to a passage of the Qur'an about Jesus and Mary read aloud in his court, and refused to hand them over. The first migration in Islamic history was not to a Muslim country. It was asylum granted by someone of another faith.

Aksum, Abyssinia · c. 615 CE