The second emigration to Abyssinia took place after some of the first emigrants had returned when word reached them that the idolaters of Quraysh had become Muslims and were performing the prayer. Once they reached Mecca—ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn was among them—they discovered that the report of the polytheists’ conversion was unfounded. Some therefore went back to Abyssinia, while others remained in Mecca.
A further company of Muslims then departed for the land of Abyssinia; this was the second emigration, as will be explained in due course.
Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah states that Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib was among those who left on this second occasion. Yet Ibn Isḥāq’s view—that Jaʿfar departed with the first contingent—is the stronger opinion, as will be clarified below; Allah knows best. At any rate, Jaʿfar unquestionably belonged to an early group of emigrants and was their spokesman before the Negus and others, as we shall detail later.
Ibn Isḥāq then lists those who travelled (1) in Jaʿfar’s company, among them:
• ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ and his wife Fāṭimah bint Ṣafwān ibn Umayyah ibn Muḥarrith ibn Shaqq al-Kinānī;
• his brother Khālid and Khālid’s wife Amīnah (2) bint Khalaf ibn Asʿad al-Khuzāʿī, who bore him Saʿīd while in Abyssinia; and their sister Ama (3), whom al-Zubayr later married, and she bore him ʿAmr and Khālid.
He continues: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh ibn Riʾāb, his brother ʿUbayd Allāh—accompanied by his wife Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān—Qays ibn ʿAbd Allāh of Banū Asad ibn Khuzaymah and his wife Barakah bint Yasār, a freedwoman of Abū Sufyān, and Muʿayqīb ibn Abī Fāṭimah, a freedman of the household of Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ (4).
Ibn Hishām comments: Muʿayqīb was from the tribe of Daws. He adds (5): among them too were Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays (6), an ally of the clan of ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah; we shall discuss him shortly—ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān, Yazīd ibn Zamʿah ibn al-Aswad, ʿAmr ibn Umayyah ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Asad, Ṭulaib ibn ʿUmayr ibn Wahb ibn Abī Kathīr (7) ibn ʿAbd, Suwaybiṭ ibn Saʿd ibn Ḥarmalah, Jahm ibn Qays al-ʿAbdarī (8) together with his wife Umm Ḥarmalah bint ʿAbd al-Aswad ibn Jadhīmah (9) and their two sons, ʿAmr ibn Jahm and Khuzaymah (10) ibn Jahm, Abū al-Rūm ibn ʿUmayr ibn Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf ibn ʿAbd al-Dār, Firās ibn al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah, ʿĀmir ibn Abī Waqqāṣ—the brother of Saʿd—and al-Muṭṭalib ibn Azhar ibn ʿAbd ʿAwf al-Zuhrī, together with his wife Ramlah bint Abī ʿAwf ibn