Islamic calendar
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Used By
Other Name Total Number Of Days In A Year Total Number Of Month In A Year Abbreviated as Starting Of Month Adoption Year Adopted By Suggestion to start calender |
Muslim World
Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar or Hijri calendar 354 or 355 days 12 H or AH (Mean Hijri or Anno Hegirae :Hijri year) Based on sighting of new Moon (Halal) 638 Umar ibn Al-Khattab (Second Caliph) Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari |
The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar or Hijri calendar (Arabic: التقويم الهجري; At-taqwim al-hijri; Persian: تقویم هجری قمری Taqwim-e hejri-ye qamari; Turkish: Hicri Takvim; Urdu: اسلامی تقویم Islami taqwim) is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries (Concurrently with the Gregorian calendar), and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic holy days and festivals. The first year was the year during which the emigration of the Islamic prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra, occurred. Each numbered year is designated either H for Hijra or AH for the Latin anno Hegirae (In the year of the Hijra).A limited number of years before Hijra (BH) are used to date events related to Islam, such as the birth of Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in 53 BH.
History
In pre-Islamic Arabia, it was customary to identify a year after a major event which took place in it. Thus, according to Islamic tradition, Abraha, governor of Yemen, then a province of the Christian Kingdom of Aksum (Ethiopia), attempted to destroy the Kaaba with an army which included several elephants. The raid was unsuccessful, but that year became known as the Year of the Elephant. It saw the birth of Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) . That corresponded to the year AD 570 or 571, though many western scholars say the expedition of Abraha was in fact much earlier.
In 638 (The year 17 AH), Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari, one of the officials of the second Caliph Umar in Basrah, complained about the absence of any dating system in the correspondence he received from Umar, making it difficult for him to determine which instructions were most recent. This report convinced Umar of the need to introduce a calendar system for Muslims. After debating the issue with his Counsellors, he decided to start the calendar with the date of Mohammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) arrival at Madina tun Nabi (known as Yathrib, before Mohammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) arrival).
Uthman ibn Affan then suggested to start the calendar with the month of Muharram, in line with the established custom of the Arabs at that time.
The Islamic calendar numbering of the years thus began with the month of Muharram in the year of Mohammad's arrival at the city of Medina. According to calculations, the first day of the first year corresponded to Friday, July 16, 622 (Even though the actual emigration took place in September).Because of the Hijra event, the calendar was named the Hijra calendar.
Though Cook and Crone in "Hagarism" cite a coin form 17 AH, the first surviving attested use of a Hijri calendar date alongside a Coptic calendar date is on a papyrus from Egypt in 22 AH.
In 638 (The year 17 AH), Abu-Musa al-Asha'ari, one of the officials of the second Caliph Umar in Basrah, complained about the absence of any dating system in the correspondence he received from Umar, making it difficult for him to determine which instructions were most recent. This report convinced Umar of the need to introduce a calendar system for Muslims. After debating the issue with his Counsellors, he decided to start the calendar with the date of Mohammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) arrival at Madina tun Nabi (known as Yathrib, before Mohammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) arrival).
Uthman ibn Affan then suggested to start the calendar with the month of Muharram, in line with the established custom of the Arabs at that time.
The Islamic calendar numbering of the years thus began with the month of Muharram in the year of Mohammad's arrival at the city of Medina. According to calculations, the first day of the first year corresponded to Friday, July 16, 622 (Even though the actual emigration took place in September).Because of the Hijra event, the calendar was named the Hijra calendar.
Though Cook and Crone in "Hagarism" cite a coin form 17 AH, the first surviving attested use of a Hijri calendar date alongside a Coptic calendar date is on a papyrus from Egypt in 22 AH.
Months In Islamic Calendar
Month Number1
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Days of the week
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Astronomical considerations
The Islamic calendar is not to be confused with a lunar calendar that is based on astronomical calculations. The latter is based on a year of 12 months adding up to 354.37 days. Each lunar month begins at the time of the monthly "conjunction", when the Moon is located on a straight line between the Earth and the Sun. The month is defined as the average duration of a rotation of the Moon around the Earth (29.53 days). By convention, months of 30 days and 29 days succeed each other, adding up over two successive months to 59 full days. This leaves only a small monthly variation of 44 mn to account for, which adds up to a total of 24 hours (i.e. the equivalent of one full day) in 2.73 years. To settle accounts, it is sufficient to add one day every three years to the lunar calendar, in the same way that one adds one day to the Gregorian calendar, every four years.The technical details of the adjustment are described in Tabular Islamic Calendar.
The Islamic calendar, however, is based on a different set of conventions.Each month has either 29 or 30 days, but usually in no discernible order. Traditionally, the first day of each month is the day (beginning at sunset) of the first sighting of the hilal shortly after sunset. If the hilal is not observed immediately after the 29th day of a month (either because clouds block its view or because the western sky is still too bright when the moon sets), then the day that begins at that sunset is the 30th. Such a sighting has to be made by one or more trustworthy men testifying before a committee of Muslim leaders. Determining the most likely day that the hilal could be observed was a motivation for Muslim interest in astronomy, which put Islam in the forefront of that science for many centuries.
This traditional practice is still followed in the overwhelming majority of Muslim countries. Each Islamic state proceeds with its own monthly observation of the new moon (or, failing that, awaits the completion of 30 days) before declaring the beginning of a new month on its territory. But, the lunar crescent becomes visible only some 15–18 hours after the conjunction, and only subject to the existence of a number of favourable conditions relative to weather, time, geographic location, as well as various astronomical parameters.Given the fact that the moon sets progressively later than the sun as one goes West, Western Muslim countries are likely to observe the new moon one day earlier than Eastern Muslim countries. Due to the interplay of all these factors, the beginning of each month differs from one Muslim country to another, and the information provided by the calendar in any country does not extend beyond the current month.
A number of Muslim countries try to overcome some of these difficulties by applying different astronomy-related rules to determine the beginning of months. Thus, Malaysia, Indonesia, and a few others begin each month at sunset on the first day that the moon sets after the sun (moonset after sunset). In Egypt, the month begins at sunset on the first day that the moon sets at least five minutes after the sun. A detailed analysis of the available data shows, however, that there are major discrepancies between what countries say they do on this subject, and what they actually do.
The Islamic calendar, however, is based on a different set of conventions.Each month has either 29 or 30 days, but usually in no discernible order. Traditionally, the first day of each month is the day (beginning at sunset) of the first sighting of the hilal shortly after sunset. If the hilal is not observed immediately after the 29th day of a month (either because clouds block its view or because the western sky is still too bright when the moon sets), then the day that begins at that sunset is the 30th. Such a sighting has to be made by one or more trustworthy men testifying before a committee of Muslim leaders. Determining the most likely day that the hilal could be observed was a motivation for Muslim interest in astronomy, which put Islam in the forefront of that science for many centuries.
This traditional practice is still followed in the overwhelming majority of Muslim countries. Each Islamic state proceeds with its own monthly observation of the new moon (or, failing that, awaits the completion of 30 days) before declaring the beginning of a new month on its territory. But, the lunar crescent becomes visible only some 15–18 hours after the conjunction, and only subject to the existence of a number of favourable conditions relative to weather, time, geographic location, as well as various astronomical parameters.Given the fact that the moon sets progressively later than the sun as one goes West, Western Muslim countries are likely to observe the new moon one day earlier than Eastern Muslim countries. Due to the interplay of all these factors, the beginning of each month differs from one Muslim country to another, and the information provided by the calendar in any country does not extend beyond the current month.
A number of Muslim countries try to overcome some of these difficulties by applying different astronomy-related rules to determine the beginning of months. Thus, Malaysia, Indonesia, and a few others begin each month at sunset on the first day that the moon sets after the sun (moonset after sunset). In Egypt, the month begins at sunset on the first day that the moon sets at least five minutes after the sun. A detailed analysis of the available data shows, however, that there are major discrepancies between what countries say they do on this subject, and what they actually do.
