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Islamic calendar stamp issued at King Khalid International Airport on 10 Rajab 1428 AH (24 July 2007 CE). The Hijri calendar (Arabic: ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, romanized: al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days.
The Hijri year has twelve months, whose precise lengths vary by sect of Islam. Each month of the Islamic calendar commences on the birth of the new lunar cycle. Traditionally this is based on actual observation of the moon's crescent marking the end of the previous lunar cycle and hence the previous month, thereby beginning the new month ...
The Islamic calendar is based on the synodic period of the Moon's revolution around the Earth, approximately 29 1 ⁄ 2 days. The Islamic calendar alternates months of 29 and 30 days (which begin with the new moon). Twelve of these months make up an Islamic year, which is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year.
The Arabic names of the months of the Gregorian calendar are usually phonetic Arabic pronunciations of the corresponding month names used in European languages. An exception is the Assyrian calendar used in Iraq and the Levant, whose month names are inherited via Classical Arabic from the Babylonian and Aramaic lunisolar calendars and correspond to roughly the same time of year.
The Islamic prophet Muhammad said of these months in his Hadith: "The time has turned its form on the day God created the heavens and the earth, the twelve months, including four sanctuaries; three of them sequential: Dhul Qa'dah, Dhu al-Hijjah and Muharram, as well as Rajab Mudar, between Jumada and Sha'baan." [2]
In principle, each Islamic month begins with sighting of the new crescent moon (after a New Moon) at sunset. Because of this, the calendar is dependent on observational conditions and cannot be predicted or reconstructed with certainty, but tabular calendars are in use which determine the dates algorithmically. Because of this, dates may vary ...
The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the lunar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Rajab migrates throughout the seasons.
The Tabular Islamic calendar, a rule-based variation of the Islamic calendar. It has the same numbering of years and months, but the months are determined by arithmetical rules rather than by observation or astronomical calculations. In Iran The Solar Hijri calendar, whose year begins at the moment of the Spring equinox in the northern hemisphere.