Muhajir

Muhajir or Mohajir (Arabic: مهاجر‎ muhāǧir) 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 refugees:

Muhajir people

Muhajir or Mahajir (Urdu: مہاجر‎, Arabic: مهاجر‎) is an Arabic-origin term used in Pakistan in some regions to describe Muslim immigrants and their descendants of multi-ethnic origin who migrated from regions of India and settled in the Pakistan after the independence of Pakistan from British rule in 1947.

Etymology

The Urdu term muhājir (Urdu: مہاجر‎) comes from the Arabic muhājir (Arabic: مهاجر‎), meaning a "immigrant", and the term is associated in early Islamic history to the migration of Muslims from Makkah to Madinah. After the independence of Pakistan, a significant number of Muslims emigrated or were out-migrated from territory that remained India. A large portion of these migrants came from East Punjab, and settled in Punjab (Pakistan). Sharing a common culture and with tribal linkages, many assimilated within a generation. Another significant percentage are of Gujarati ethnicity.

After the independence, a huge population exchange occurred between the two newly formed states. About 14.5 million people crossed the borders, including 7,226,000 Muslims who came to Pakistan from India while 7,295,000 Hindus and Sikhs moved to India from Pakistan. Of the 6.5 million Muslims that came to West Pakistan (now Pakistan), about 5.3 million settled in Punjab and around 1.2 million settled in Sindh province. The other 5 million Muslims went to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

Muhajirs (Albanians)

Muhajirs (Albanian: muhaxhirë, muhaxherë, Turkish: muhacir, from Arabic muhajir) refers to the Ottoman Albanian communities that left their homes as refugees or were transferred, from Greece and Serbia to Albania and Kosovo during and following various wars. Muslim Albanians, along with Turks, were fleeing and were expelled from parts of the Kosovo Vilayet during and after the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78). During the Balkan Wars, Muslim Albanians were deported from Christian territories, and settled in the Ottoman Empire, as far as the Middle East. Cham Albanians massively fled Greece after World War II, in which they had collaborated with the Italians, fearing reprisals.

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