| Today (atUTC+00) | |
|---|---|
| Monday | |
| Gregorian calendar | 24 November,AD2025 |
| Islamic calendar | 3Jumada al-thani,AH 1447 (usingtabular method) |
| Hebrew calendar | 4Kislev,AM 5786 |
| Coptic calendar | 15Hathor,AM 1742 |
| Solar Hijri calendar | 3Azar, SH 1404 |
| Bengali calendar | 9Ogrohayon,BS 1432 |
| Julian calendar | 11 November,AD 2025 |
TheHijri era (Arabic:التقويم الهجري,romanized: at-taqwīm al-hijrī) is thecalendar era used to record dates in theIslamic world. Itsepoch (start point of the era) is the year in whichMuhammad and his followers migrated fromMecca toYathrib (nowMedina), in622CE.[1] This event, known as theHijrah, is commemorated inIslam for its role in the founding of the first Muslim community (ummah). Time in this era is measured by two principal calendars: thelunar Hijri calendar (known in the West as the "Islamic calendar"[a]) which countslunar years since the Hijrah and which is used by most Muslims around the world; and thesolar Hijri calendar (also known as the "Persian calendar") which countssolar years since the Hijrah and which is used inIran.
In the West, dates in the lunar Hijri calendar are denoted asAH (Latin:Anno Hegirae) orHijri year (Arabic:سنة هجرية,romanized: sanat hijriyya,lit. 'in the year of the Hijra') in the style of theChristian/Common (AD/CE) andJewish eras (AM) and can similarly be placed before (preferably) or after the date. Inpredominantly Muslim countries, it is also commonly abbreviatedH ("Hijra") from its Arabic abbreviationhāʾ (هـ). Years prior to AH 1 are reckoned in English asBH ("Before the Hijra"), which follows the date.[1] Dates in the solar Hijri calendar are denoted asSH. The current year according to the lunar Hijri calendar isAH 1447;[b] according to the solar Hijri calendar the current year isSH 1404. The difference in numbering arises because a lunar year is about eleven days shorter than a solar year.
A year in a lunar calendar consists of twelvelunar months and has only 354 or 355 days in its year. Consequently, its New Year's Day occurs ten days earlier each year relative to theGregorian calendar. The year 2025 CE corresponds to the Islamic years AH 1446 – 1447; AH 1447 corresponds to 2025 – 2026 in the Common Era.[c] The solar Hijri calendar corresponds closely with the Gregorian calendar but its year begins on theMarch equinox rather than on 1 January.
The Hijri era is calculated according to theIslamic lunar calendar, whoseepoch (first year) is the year of Muhammad'sHijrah, and begins on the first day of the month ofMuharram (equivalent to theJulian calendar date of July 16, 622 CE).[2][d]
The date of the Hijrah itself did not form theIslamic New Year. Instead, the system continues the earlier ordering of the months, with the Hijrah occurring around the 8th day ofRabi al-Awwal, 66 days into the first year.
Unlike Sunnis,Twelver Shias start the Hijri year with the month of the Hijra, Rabi' al-Awwal, rejecting that Muharram is the start of a new year. As a result of this, the dates of some events are described differently by one year. For example, Shias state that the Muharram-transpiringbattle of Karbala occurred 60 years after the Hijra, while Sunnis state it to have occurred 61 years after.[3][4]
In Shia Islam, the calendar year is entirely determined by solar observation or calculation. Each year begins on thenorthward equinox.
By the age of Muhammad, there was already an Arabianlunar calendar, with named months. Likewise, the years of its calendar used conventional names rather than numbers:[5] for example, the year of the birth of Muhammad and ofAmmar ibn Yasir (570 CE) was known as the "Year of the Elephant".[6] The first year of the Hijra (622–23 CE) was named the "Permission to Travel" in this calendar.[5]
17 years after theHijra,[5][7] a complaint fromAbu Musa Ashaari prompted thecaliphUmar to abolish the practice of named years and to establish a newcalendar era. Umar chose asepoch for the new Muslim calendar thehijrah, the emigration of Muhammad and 70 Muslims fromMecca toMedina.[8]Tradition creditsOthman with the successful proposal, simply continuing the order of the months that had already been established byMuhammad, beginning withMuharram,[citation needed] as there was no set order of months during the pre-Islamic era (Age of Ignorance –Jahiliya). Adoption of this calendar was then enforced by Umar.[9]
Differentapproximate conversion formulas between the Gregorian (AD or CE) and the Islamic lunar calendars (AH) are possible:[10][11][12]
AH = 1.030684 × (CE − 621.5643)CE = 0.970229 × AH + 621.5643
or
AH = (CE − 622) ×33⁄32CE = AH ×32⁄33 + 622
Given that the (lunar)Islamic New Year does not begin January 1 and that a linar Hijri calendar year is about 11 days shorter than a Gregorian calendar year,[13][e] there is no direct correspondence between years of the two eras. A given Hijri year will usually fall in two successive Gregorian years. A CE year will always overlap two or occasionally three successive Hijri years. For example, the year 2008 CE maps to the last week of AH 1428,[15] all of 1429,[16] and the first few days of 1430.[17] Similarly, the year 1976 CE corresponded with the last few days of AH 1395, all of 1396, and the first week of 1397.
The solar Hijri calendar year is almost exactly the same length as a Gregorian calendar year and, although it always begins at the March equinox, date conversion between the systems is trivial.
For convenience, it is common to speak of a lunar year of twelve synodic months, or 354.36707 days.(which gives a mean synodic month as 29.53059 days or 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds)
