Migration to Abyssinia Migration to Abyssinia The Migration to Abyssinia (, "al-hijra ʾilā al-habaša"), also known as the First Hegira ( "hijrah"), was an episode in the early history of Islam, where Prophet Muhammad's first followers (the "Sahabah") fled from the persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe of Mecca. They sought refuge in the Christian Kingdom of Aksum, present-day Eritrea and Ethiopia (formerly referred to as Abyssinia, an ancient name whose origin is debated), in or . The Aksumite monarch who received them is known in Islamic sources as the Negus ( "najāšī") "Ashama ibn Abjar". Modern historians have alternatively identified him with
SS Abyssinia sale of "Oregon" to Cunard. In 1885, Stephen Guion himself died and his firm was reorganised with Sir William Pierce of Elders as the new chairman. In 1887, Pierce chartered Guion's "Abyssinia" along with Elder's two other former Cunarders to Sir William Van Horne to begin steamship service in the Pacific, extending the Canadian Pacific Railway's transportation services from England, across the Atlantic to Canada by steamship, across Canada by railroad, and finally across the Pacific to Japan, China and India by steamship. "Abyssinia" opened the new Pacific service, with 22 first-class and 80 steerage passengers. She required only 13