The Muslim or Islamic Calendar (also known as the Hijri Calendar) is a religious calendar which is used in many Muslim countries throughout the world, though primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. The Muslim Calendar is a lunar calendar made up of twelve months and so amounting to only 354 or 355 days. As such, it differs from the solar calendars in use in most countries, which divide the year into 365 days, or 366 days in a leap year, to follow one complete revolution of the Earth around the sun per year. However, nearly all countries which employ the Muslim Calendar only do so for religious purposes and most use the solar Gregorian Calendar for civil and business matters.
The Muslim Calendar dates years from 622 CE, the year that the Prophet Muhammad and his followers left Mecca and moved to Medina, an event known as the Hijrah. However, because the Muslim Calendar is a lunar calendar, the year 2023 CE is actually 1444 and 1445 AH (Anno Hegirae, in the year of the Hijrah), even though just over 1400 solar calendar years have elapsed since 622 CE.[1]
Historical context
The Muslim Calendar emerged as the religious calendar of the Muslim world in the course of the seventh and eighth centuries, though it is based on lunar calendars and traditions which pre-existed the emergence of Islam as a religion. Moreover, the concept of forbidden months and permissive months, which are included in the Muslim Calendar, most notably Ramadan, have their roots in pre-Islamic traditions in Arabia, some of which were drawn from Judaism and pre-Islamic Pagan traditions which pertained across the Arabian Peninsula.[2]
The major Islamic innovation was in dating the beginning of recorded time to 622 CE, the year that the Prophet Muhammad and his followers first undertook the Hijrah. This event, which translates roughly as ‘a severing of ties of kingship or association’, followed from Muhammad’s first period of preaching in his native town of Mecca. This had stirred up resentment amongst the Quraysh, Muhammad’s fellow tribesmen, such that in the summer of 622 CE the prophet and his followers were forced to flee from Mecca to the city of Medina. In Medina he then found a large following which allowed him to return to Mecca in years to come and conquer it, beginning the Arab Conquests which would extend Muslim rule all over the Middle East and North Africa in due course. The Hijrah became the point from which Muslims began to record time in much the same way as the Christian tradition dates time from the alleged year of Jesus Christ’s birth.[3]
Details of the calendar
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The Muslim Calendar is divided into twelve months of either 29 or 30 days. It is a lunar calendar and so the size of the months from year to year is dependent on the visibility of the moon. What this means in practice is that the calendar year only lasts 354 or 355 days. Some of these twelve months are deemed to be sacred months, most notably Rajab or Ramadan, which takes place over four weeks in either January, February or March in each year, while the twelfth and final month of the Muslim Calendar Dhu al-Hijja, meaning ‘Possessor of the Pilgrimage’, occurs in the summer months and is the month in which the pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca is undertaken by Muslims. The Muslim Calendar and the months in particular are firmly rooted in the traditions which obtained in the deserts of Arabia in early medieval times when the calendar was first developed.[4]
Relevance in modern times
The Muslim Calendar is widely used in Islamic countries today. It exists as the religious calendar which is followed by all observant Muslims in countries from North Africa to Southeast Asia and from the northern stretches of the Middle East south to the Islamic countries of the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is used in almost all instances alongside the civil calendar based on the Gregorian Calendar which dates the year from the birth of Jesus Christ and which is a solar calendar which equates the year to lasting 365 days or 366 in a leap year. As such, while the Muslim Calendar is in use across the Islamic world today, it is only used for religious purposes, while the same countries use the Gregorian Calendar for the most part for civil, political and business life. Officially, though, the Islamic Calendar is employed by countries like Saudi Arabia and the Gregorian Calendar only in an unofficial capacity.[5]
In some countries altered versions of the Muslim Calendar to apply solar calendar methods to it are in use. For instance, the Solar Hijri Calendar dates the beginning of history to 622 CE, but it uses a solar calendar methodology so that the year is calculated in line with a year of 365 or 366 days. This is partially employed in countries like Iran. Thus, using this Solar Hijri Calendar the 1st of January 2023 fell in the year 1401 AH, instead of 1444 AH, in which latter year the same date fell in the Lunar Hijri Calendar.[6]
Explore more about historical calendars
- Understanding Historical Dates and Calendars for Genealogical Research, article by James Tanner on the MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Understanding Dates: Five Common Mistakes to Avoid from the MyHeritage Blog
References
- ↑ https://www.ilmuk.org/news/the-history-of-the-islamic-calendar/
- ↑ https://islamqa.info/en/answers/170242/the-calendar-used-by-the-arabs-before-islam
- ↑ https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/24-september/muhammads-flight-to-medina-results-in-founding-of-islam
- ↑ https://teachmideast.org/articles/9422/
- ↑ https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/islamic-calendar-how-does-it-work-and-how-does-it-differ
- ↑ https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/persian-calendar.html