The article examines the phenomenon that occurs in three monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - and which has been constantly referred to in the European tradition under the Greco-Latin term, Exodus. The Islamic variant of it (in Arabic, hijra - emigration, or originally and more precisely, cutting kin and tribal (ties) is briefly defined and put into the broader historical context. At the same time the article comprises partial information and critical remarks on the state of the research in relation to the issue of Islamic hijra, including a list of bibliographic data, based on the collection of relatively representative samples of sources and studies. The contribution also includes a preliminary survey of typified cases of hijra-style events n the course of the history of Islamic countries, as well as a concrete example of how this "archaic" religious pattern functions, if utilized as an ideological framework of a particular politcal process. The relevance of the phenomenon for modern and contemporary history is demonstrated through reference to the sedentarization of Bedouin tribes during the Ikhwan movement in the Arabian peninsula (1912-30).