THE HISTORY OF THE 'HIJRI' LUNAR CALENDAR

THE evening of July 6 to the morning of July 7 was the dawn of Hijrah, the Islamic New Year.

- Renuka narayanan

It was the first day of the Islamic lunar month of Muharram. The era begins with the journey of Prophet Mohammed and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, where he established the first Muslim community. It is said 'Hijrah does not signify merely a journey between two cities but the movement of the caravan of history'.

Umar I, the second Sunni caliph, instituted the Islamic calendar in 639 CE as an attempt to standardise and organise Muslim life and traditions. There is an Islamic account of how it came about.

Umar is reported to have said to assembled dignitaries among the men around the Prophet: "Our income is considerable. But what we have distributed has been without fixed dates. How can we remedy that?"

An answer came from a man called AlHurmuzan. He was the king of a place in Iran called Ahvaz. After his capture during the Arab conquest of Persia, he was brought to Umar and became a Muslim. He said, "The Persians have a method of calculation that they call mahroz, which they ascribe to their Sassanid rulers". The word mahroz was Arabicised as mu'arrakh, and the infinitive ta'rikh was formed from it (tarikh today is used in Urdu to mean both 'calendar date' and 'history'). Al-Hurmuzan then explained how to use it. Umar reportedly said: "Give the people an era which they can use in business and which permits them an exact indication of the date in their mutual dealings."