Islamic calendar

The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar (also called 'Hijri calendar') is the calendar used to date events in predominantly Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Muslim holy days. It is a purely lunar calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. Because this lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Muslim holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar. Islamic years are also called Hijra years because the first year was the year during which the Hijra occurred—Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina. Thus each numbered year is designated either H or AH, the latter being the initials of the Latin anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra).

Names of the days of the week

The Islamic week is derived from the Jewish week, as was the medieval Christian week, all of which have numbered weekdays in common. All three coincide with the Sunday through Saturday planetary week. The Islamic and Jewish weekdays begin at sunset, whereas the medieval Christian and planetary weekdays begin at the following midnight. Muslims gather for worship at a Masjid or mosque at noon on "gathering day", which corresponds to the sixth day of the Jewish and medieval Christian weeks, and to Friday of the planetary week.

Related Topics:
Masjid - Mosque

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• yaum as-sabt يوم السَّبْت (sabbath day)
• yaum al-ahad يوم الأحد (first day)
• yaum al-ithnayn يوم الإثنين (second day)
• yaum ath-thalatha' يوم الثُّلَاثاء (third day)
• yaum al-arba`a' يوم الأَرْبعاء (fourth day)
• yaum al-khamis يوم الخَمِيس (fifth day)
• yaum al-jum`a يوم الجُمْعَة (gathering day)