Hegira

I came across recently a word I did not recall seeing before, Hegira, and was inspired to look it up. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, it means "a flight to escape danger." It's origins are given as "Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijra, emigration, flight, from hajara, to depart." It seems to me to be a useful word, particularly when dealing with difficult people (-:

Reading this reminded of the wonderful old Joni Mitchell album, Hejira. Its Wikipedia article talks about a Hejira/Hegira as "a journey of religious or mystical experience." It seems that the sense of "escape from danger" is not mandatory. Indeed, just yesterday I saw the word used again, in James Michener's "The Covenant" (which I'm reading following my trip to South Africa), in this case referring to  a journey of exploration taken by two young men. In their case, more of a journey into danger.