Despite officially being a Christian kingdom, Islam's history in Ethiopia is nearly as old as Islam itself. The first Muslims fled persecution in Arabia in 613 or 615, seeking refuge in the Kingdom of Aksum in an event known as the Migration to Abyssinia. The Dahlak Archipelago, now part of Eritrea, came under Muslim rule in the early 8th century; the Muslims there constituted the first permanent Muslim population in Ethiopia/Eritrea. By the 11th century, the area became the independent Sultanate of Dahlak.