On the Origins of the Hijrī Calendar
A Multi-Faceted Perspective Based on the Covenants of the Prophet and Specific Date Verification
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3365256 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ibrahim Zein (0000-0001-6545-4132, Hamad bin Khalifa University), Ahmed El-Wakil (0000-0002-7689-0447, Hamad bin Khalifa University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 42 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-08 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religions (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/rel12010042 |
| OpenAlex | W3119611806 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 13 |
There has been much speculation as to the type of calendar that was used by the pre-Islamic Arabs and the early Muslim community. The Hijrī calendar is said to have been adopted by 'Umar b. al-Khaṭṭāb during his Caliphate despite evidence suggesting that it was instituted as soon as the Prophet emigrated to Madīnah. In this paper, we argue that a number of competing Arabian calendars existed up until 17 AH/AD 638, after which the Hijrī calendar was adopted as the definitive calendar of the Muslims. We propose that attempts at reconciling dates emanating from different calendars for major events in the Prophet's life led to miscalculations which subsequently affected the chronology of the sīrah. This study ultimately argues that a purely lunar calendar was used by the pre-Islamic Arabs in parallel to a lunisolar calendar, and that specific dates reported in the covenants of the Prophet and in the historical works could shed new light in reconstructing the chronology of major events in the Prophet's life
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Caliphate · Chronology · Covenant · Genealogy · Islam · Political science · Speculation · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It
The Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca
The Prophet’s Treaty with the Christians of Najran
The First Decade in Islam a Fresh Approach to the Calendrical Study of Early Islam a Paper Submitted to the Colloquium on Islamic Culture
Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest
The Arabic Portion of the Cairo Genizah at Cambridge
Some Chronological Data relating to the Sasanian Period
| Citations per year | 0.8 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |