”O King! We were ignorant people and we lived like wild animals. The strong among us lived by preying upon the weak. We obeyed no law and we acknowledged no authority save that of brute force. We worshipped idols made of stone or wood, and we knew nothing of human dignity. And then God, in His Mercy, sent to us His Messenger who was himself one of us. We knew about his truthfulness and his integrity. His character was exemplary, and he was the most well-born of the Arabs. He invited us toward the worship of One God, and he forbade us to worship idols. He exhorted us to tell the truth, and to protect the weak, the poor, the humble, the widows and the orphans. He ordered us to show respect to women, and never to slander them. We obeyed him and followed his teachings. Most of the people in our country are still polytheists, and they resented our conversion to the new faith which is called Islam. They began to persecute us and it was in order to escape from persecution by them that we sought and found sanctuary in your kingdom.

A summary of speech by Ja’far ibn Abī Tālib in the court of Abyssinia (today Ethiopia) in answer to the questions posed by the Christian king.

After the conversion of many prominent Meccans to Islam, the companions of Muhammad began to offer prayers publicly in 613. In turn, the Quraysh intensified their opposition by torturing the Muslims. Muhammad told his followers to leave for Ethiopia, where “a king rules without injustice, a land of truthfulness—until God leads us to a way out of our difficulty.”

The migration known as the first Hijarat was made in two groups totalling more than a hundred persons. According to Islamic tradition, eleven male and five female Sahabah, the Muslims who originally converged in Mecca, sought refuge from Quraysh persecution in the Kingdom of Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia) in seventh Islamic month (Rajab) of 7 BH (614–615 CE) in the first batch. Later on, a bigger group of eighty-three men and eighteen women emigrated (separately). This is called the second emigration. This group was headed by Ja’far ibn Abī Tālib—the son of Abu Talib ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib (the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad)—who was the only person from the Banu Hashim clan who migrated to Abyssinia. Abyssinia at that time was ruled by a Christian King, Aṣḥama ibn Abjar, or King Armah locally, famous for his mercy and equity. — Wiki