Lunar Hijri Calendar

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The lunar Hijri calendar is a calendar based on the cycles of the Moon’s phases and is used, among other things, to organize Islamic rituals. This calendar begins its count from 622 CE when Prophet Muhammad (s) emigrated from Mecca to Medina. This year was reportedly chosen as the first year of the Muslim calendar during the caliphate of Umar with the suggestion of Imam Ali (a).

A lunar Hijri year has 354 or 355 days; it is ten or eleven days shorter than a solar Hijri year. The first month in this calendar is Muharram, and the last month is Dhu l-Hijja. According to some hadiths, the month of Ramadan is the first month of the Hijri lunar year, and thus religious practices and rituals begin, in some prayer books, with the rites of the month of Ramadan and end with the practices of the month of Sha'ban. Al-Sayyid b. Tawus, a renowned Shia scholar in the seventh/thirteenth century, held that the month of Ramadan was probably the beginning of the religious calendar and the month of Muharram was the beginning of the ordinary calendar.

The months in a lunar Hijri year are in the following order: Muharram, Safar, Rabi' I, Rabi' II, Jumada I, Jumada II, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu l-Qa'da, and Dhu l-Hijja.

Place and Importance

The lunar Hijri calendar is a calendar based on the cycles of the Moon’s phases. It was called Hijri because the "hijra" (emigration) of the Prophet (s) in 622 CE marked it's beginning.[1] Muslims have used this calendar to organize their religious deeds and rites, and thus, the calendar is also called the Islamic calendar as well. [2]

The lunar Hijri calendar was the official calendar of the Muslim countries prior to the First World War (1914-1918 CE). In Iran, the lunar Hijri calendar was replaced by the solar Hijri calendar in Farvardin 11th, 1304 SH/ March 31, 1925,[3] and the same change was made in Afghanistan in 1301 Sh/1922.

Starting Year

The lunar Hijri calendar begins its count from the year the Prophet (s) emigrated from Mecca to Medina. However, there is disagreement as to when this year was chosen as the beginning of the Muslim calendar. According to some reports, the decision was made during the caliphate of 'Umar in 17/638 or 18/639.[4] According to these reports, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari wrote a letter to Umar complaining about the lack of fixed dates on the letters he received from Umar, which made him confused about the order of the letters.[5] Thus, Umar established a council to set a starting point for the Muslim calendar.[6] In this council, three dates in the Prophet's (s) life were suggested: the beginning of his mission, his demise, and his emigration.[7] The latter suggestion put forward by Imam Ali (a) was accepted and set as the starting point of the Muslim calendar. [8]

According to another view, it was the Prophet (s) himself who set the year of his emigration as the starting point of the Islamic calendar,[9] because in some texts dating back to the time of the Prophet (s), such as the text of the pact between the Prophet (s) and the Christians of Najran[10] and the Prophet's written advice to Salman al-Farsi, the Hijri dates are written.[11]

First Month

The lunar Hijri year starts with the month of Muharram and ends with Dhu l-Hijja.[12] This is because the lunar year of the Arabs before Islam began with Muharram[13] and thus the second caliph decided to choose the same month as the first month of the year in the Muslim calendar and rejected the suggestion of choosing Ramadan as the first month.[14]

Al-Shaykh al-Tusi, the jurist and traditionist of the fifth/eleventh century, maintained that according to widely transmitted Shi'a hadiths, the first month of the Hijri year was the month of Ramadan. Accordingly, in his book Misbah al-mutahajjid, he began writing about annual rites with the rites of the month of Ramadan[15] and ended them with the rites of the month of Sha'ban.[16] He also regarded the month of Rajab as the last of the sacred months.[17]

Al-Sayyid b. Tawus, a prominent Shi'a scholar of the seventh/thirteenth century, also held that based on the practice of a great number of past scholars and their books, the month of Ramadan is the beginning of the lunar Hijri year. However, he thought it was probable that the month of Ramadan could be the first month of the religious year and the month of Muharram the beginning of the ordinary year. [18]

Months

The lunar Hijri year contains twelve months,[19] with each month containing twenty-nine or thirty days. However, whether a given month contains twenty-nine or thirty days is determined based on moon phases and, therefore, is not fixed.[20] Nevertheless, in conventional lunar Hijri calendars, the odd months are considered thirty days and the even months twenty-nine days. The last month in leap years is always thirty days.

The number of days in a lunar year is ten or eleven days less than that of solar years. Therefore, the number of days in an ordinary lunar year is 354, and in a leap year, 355.[21]

According to Ali b al-Husayn al-Mas'udi, a historian of the fourth/tenth century, the Arabs of the Age of Ignorance would add one month to the lunar year every three years, and this is what the Quran calls "nasīʾ" and criticizes. [22]

The months of a lunar Hijri year are as follows:

  1. Muharram
  2. Safar
  3. Rabi' I
  4. Rabi' II
  5. Jumada I
  6. Jumada II
  7. Rajab
  8. Sha'ban
  9. Ramadan
  10. Shawwal
  11. Dhu l-Qa'da
  12. Dhu l-Hijja.[23]

Notes

  1. ↑ The formation of the Hijri year (Persian).
  2. ↑ See: Granville Freeman, Taqwīm-hā-yi Islāmī wa Masīḥī wa jadwal-hā-yi tabdīl-i ānhā bi yikdīgar, p. 73.
  3. ↑ Ḥāʾirī, Rūz shumār-i shamsī, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Miskawayh, Tajārub al-umam, vol. 1, p. 413.
  5. ↑ Miskawayh, Tajārub al-umam, vol. 1, p. 413; Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk, vol. 2, p. 388.
  6. ↑ Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk, vol. 2, p. 388; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya, vol. 3, p. 207.
  7. ↑ Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk, vol. 2, p. 389.
  8. ↑ Yaʿqūbī, Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī, vol. 2, p. 145; Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 4, p. 300.
  9. ↑ See: Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk, vol. 2, p. 388.
  10. ↑ Subḥānī, Sayyid al-mursalīn (s), vol. 1, p. 610.
  11. ↑ Subḥānī, Sayyid al-mursalīn (s), vol. 1, p. 609.
  12. ↑ See: Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 188-189.
  13. ↑ Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 189.
  14. ↑ Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk, vol. 2, p. 389.
  15. ↑ Ṭūsī, Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid, vol. 2, p. 539.
  16. ↑ Ṭūsī, Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid, vol. 2, p. 825.
  17. ↑ Ṭūsī, Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid, vol. 2, p. 797.
  18. ↑ Ibn Ṭāwūs, Iqbāl al-aʿmāl, vol. 1, p. 4-5.
  19. ↑ See: Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 188-189.
  20. ↑ ʿAbdullāhī, Muʿarrifī-yi du taqwīm-i dāʾimī-yi jadid gāhshumārī-hā-yi Hijrī shamsī wa Hijrī qamarī, p. 734, note. 2.
  21. ↑ ʿAbdullāhī, Muʿarrifī-yi du taqwīm-i dāʾimī-yi jadīd gāhshumārī-hā-yi Hijrī shamsī wa Hijrī qamarī, p. 734-735.
  22. ↑ Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 189.
  23. ↑ Masʿūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, vol. 2, p. 188-189.

References

  • Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. Tajārub al-umam. Edited by Abu l-Qāsim Imāmī. Tehran: Surūsh, 1379 Sh.
  • Ḥāʾirī, ʿAlī. Rūz shumār-i shamsī. Qom: Daftar-i ʿAql, 1386 Sh.
  • Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. Al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr, 1407AH.
  • Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. Iqbāl al-aʿmāl. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1409 AH.
  • Masʿūdī, ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn al-. Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿadin al-jawhar. Edited by Asʿad Dāghir. Qom: Dār al-Hijra, 1409 AH.
  • Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. Sayyid al-mursalīn (s). Qom: Muʾassisat al-Nashr al-Islāmī Tābiʿat li Jamāʿat al-Mudarrisīn, [n.d].
  • Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-.Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk. Edited by Muḥammad Abu l-faḍl Ibrāhīm. Second edition. Beirut: Dār al-Turāth, 1387 AH.
  • Ṭūsī, Muḥamamd b. al-Ḥasan al-. Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid wa silāḥ al-mutaʿabbid. Beirut: Muʾassisat Fiqh al-Shīʿa, 1411 AH.
  • Yaʿqūbī, Aḥmad b. Abī Yaʿqūb al-. Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, n.p.
  • پیدایش سال هجری قمری (The formation of the Hijri year (Persian)). Accessed: 2024/02/22.
  • Saudi Arabia Switches to Gregorian Calendar. Accessed: 2024/02/22.
  • Granville Freeman. Taqwīm-hā-yi Islāmī wa Masīḥī wa jadwal-hā-yi tabdīl-i ānhā bi yikdīgar. Translated to Farsi by Firiydūn Badrihʾī. Taḥqīqāt-i kitābdārī wa iṭṭilāʿrisānī-yi dānishgāhī 2 (1374 Sh).
  • ʿAbdullāhī, Riḍā. Muʿarrifī-yi du taqwīm-i dāʾimī-yi jadīd gāhshumārī-hā-yi Hijrī shamsī wa Hijrī qamarī. Gawhar 8 (1352 Sh).
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