Mhaggraye,
Because your name is at stake here I'll continue this topic that is way over my head but with Kerr's own explanation:
I have discussed this term at length in a forthcoming essay (“Annus Hegiræ vel
Annus (H)Agarorum? Etymologische und vergleichende Anmerkungen zum
Anfang der islamischen Jahreszählung” in: K.-H. Ohlig and M. Gross (eds.),
Inârah 7 [Berlin–Tübingen, 2014]). Briefly, the traditional account of “Muḥammad’s”
life tells us that in June of 622, upon getting wind of an assassination plot
against him at Mecca, he escaped with some of his loyal followers and eventually
made his way to Yathrib/Medina. The traditionally accepted reference for this
event is in Sura 9: 100 (cited above). In Islam, this event is viewed as so significant
a turning-point that the Islamic calendar commences with the “year of the exile”
(sanat or Âam al-hiǧra, not referred to in the Qur’ān). Traditionally, the ÂÌÆüéÏ„ –
muhaǧirūn (from a supposed root √hǧr “to emigrate, go into exile”) are
interpreted as the “émigrés” who left with “Muḥammad.” However, several
problems arise from this traditional interpretation. First, the Qur’ānic quotation is
vague at best. Second, as the Qur’ān is by all accounts the first book in Arabic, we
lack internal comparative evidence for the meanings of key words as this essay
demonstrates. The root haǧara is only attested in South Semitic in the meaning of
“city(-dweller)” and in Hebrew and Aramaic as the name of Abraham’s concubine,
Hagar. This datum, the lack of comparative Semitic support, is cause for suspicion.
We know about the Islamic dating system, which begins with the “year of the
exile,” from contemporary evidence in Arabic, Syriac, Greek and even Chinese
sources. The Syriac and Greek sources usually refer to a “year of the Arabs.” We
further know that in Late Antique literatures, one of the many synonyms for
Arabs is “Hagarite” (along with Ishmaelite and Saracen, for example), and that in
Syriac we find a derivation æû
ÿ
û
˚ƒ õÂ – mhaggrāyā (also borrowed into Greek as
μαγα£οί). An Greek inscription of the Caliph MuÂawiyah from Hammat Gader,
dated in Classical fashion, includes the year of the colony, the indiction years for
taxation (indicating that there still was some association with Constantinople,
imagined or real) and the year of the local Metropolitan. In addition, it is dated
“year 42 κατὰ Ἀ£αβας” which, based on the other dating systems, denotes the year
664. Arabic sources, such as an inscription of MuÂawiyah from Taif (modern
Saudi Arabia), as well as Chinese sources, mention only the year, without
reference to the dating system employed. Indeed, Muʿawiyah’s inscriptions have
no Islamic content whatsoever, posing additional serious questions about the
traditional narrative. From the comparative evidence we have briefly touched
upon here, it seems clear that the ÂÌÆüéωflç – al-muhāǧirūn are Arabs (æû
ÿ
û
˚ƒ õÂ
– mhaggrāyā) and not otherwise unknown ‘émigrés
from:
http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Kerr,%20R%20-%20Aramaisms%20in%20the%20Quran%20and%20their%20Significance.pdf
Topic: Qur'anic studies today