Lunar Hijri Calendar: Difference between revisions

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 month 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]].

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 its beginning.<ref>[https://hawzah.net/fa/Question/View/63835/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B4_%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84_%D9%87%D8%AC%D8%B1%DB%8C_%D9%82%D9%85%D8%B1%DB%8C The formation of the Hijri year (Persian).]</ref> Muslims have used this calendar to organize their religious deeds and rites, and thus the calendar is also called the Islamic calendar as well. <ref>See: Granville Freeman, ''Taqwīm-hā-yi Islāmī wa Masīḥī wa jadwal-hā-yi tabdīl-i ānhā bi yikdīgar'', p. 73.</ref>

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,<ref> Ḥāʾirī, ''Rūz shumār-i shamsī'', p. 7.</ref> and the same change was made in [[Afghanistan]] in 1301 Sh/1922.  

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.<ref>Miskawayh, ''Tajārub al-umam'', vol. 1, p. 413.</ref> 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.<ref>Miskawayh, ''Tajārub al-umam'', vol. 1, p. 413; Ṭabarī, ''Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk'', vol. 2, p. 388.</ref> Thus, Umar established a council to set a starting point for the Muslim calendar.<ref>Ṭabarī, ''Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk'', vol. 2, p. 388; Ibn Kathīr, ''al-Bidāya wa l-nihāya'', vol. 3, p. 207.</ref> In this council, three dates in the Prophet's (s) life were suggested: the beginning of his mission, his demise, and his emigration.<ref>Ṭabarī, ''Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk'', vol. 2, p. 389.</ref> The latter suggestion put forward by [[Imam Ali (a)]] was accepted and set as the starting point of the Muslim calendar. <ref>Yaʿqūbī, ''Tārīkh al-Yaʿqūbī'', vol. 2, p. 145; Masʿūdī, ''Murūj al-dhahab'', vol. 4, p. 300.</ref>

The lunar hijri year starts with the month of Muharram and ends with Dhu l-Hijja.<ref>See: Masʿūdī, ''Murūj al-dhahab'', vol. 2, p. 188-189.</ref> This is because the lunar year of the Arabs before Islam began with Muharram<ref>Masʿūdī, ''Murūj al-dhahab'', vol. 2, p. 189.</ref> 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.<ref>Ṭabarī, ''Tārīkh al-umam wa l-mulūk'', vol. 2, p. 389.</ref>  

[[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<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid'', vol. 2, p. 539.</ref> and ended them with the rites of the month of Sha'ban.<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid'', vol. 2, p. 825.</ref> He also regarded the month of Rajab as the last of the [[sacred months]].<ref>Ṭūsī, ''Miṣbāḥ al-mutahajjid'', vol. 2, p. 797.</ref>  

[[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. <ref>Ibn Ṭāwūs, ''Iqbāl al-aʿmāl'', vol. 1, p. 4-5.</ref>

The lunar hijri year contains twelve months,<ref>See: Masʿūdī, ''Murūj al-dhahab'', vol. 2, p. 188-189.</ref> 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.<ref>ʿAbdullāhī, ''Muʿarrifī-yi du taqwīm-i dāʾimī-yi jadid gāhshumārī-hā-yi hijrī shamsī wa hijrī qamarī'', p. 734, note. 2.</ref> 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, note. 3, 4.<ref>ʿAbdullāhī, ''Muʿarrifī-yi du taqwīm-i dāʾimī-yi jadīd gāhshumārī-hā-yi hijrī shamsī wa hijrī qamarī'', p. 734-735.</ref>

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 in every three years, and this is what the [[Quran]] calls "nasīʾ" and criticizes. <ref>Masʿūdī, ''Murūj al-dhahab'', vol. 2, p. 189.</ref>

The months of a lunar hijri year are as follows: