Several calendars have been used in pre-Islamic Arabia. Inscriptions of the ancient South Arabian calendars reveal the use of a number of local calendars, as do Safaitic inscriptions from the Harran desert in Syria and Jordan. At least some of the South Arabian calendars followed the lunisolar system, while the Safaitic calendar had fixed months and seasons and, very importantly, a seasonal star calendar strongly connected to the Zodiac and the position of the ʔanwāʔ. The ʔanwāʔ, a series of asterisms on or near the zodiac belt were the most important element in pre-Islamic astronomy. These stars were connected to the season, and they were used to forecast various phenomena such as rain, temperature, wind.[1] Before the rise of Islam, diviners invoked these stars in rainmaking rituals called istisqāʔ.[2] Rituals took place during specific times, when the sun was in one or the other of these ʔanwāʔ, some Safaitic texts speak of ritual cleansing while the sun is in Virgo (ngm) or Sagittarius (ṯbr); another text mentions a libation during the full moon of Gemini (gml).[3] It is thus obvious that Zodiac constellations, the position of stars and the mansion of the Sun were very important criteria and had an important impact on the pre-Islamic Arabian calendar and ritual life.
For Central Arabia, especially Mecca, there is a lack of epigraphic evidence, but details are found in the writings of Muslim authors of the Abbasid era.[4] Some historians maintain that the pre-Islamic calendar used in Central Arabia was a purely lunar calendar similar to the modern Islamic calendar.[5][4][6] Others concur that the pre-Islamic calendar was originally a lunar calendar, but suggest that about 200 years before the Hijra it was transformed into a lunisolar calendar, which had an intercalary month added from time to time to keep the pilgrimage within the season of the year when merchandise was most abundant.[7][8] Safaitic evidence (discussed below) strongly suggests that it was not a Lunar calendar, however this evidence needs yet to be fully taken into account by current scholarship.
Pre-Islamic seasons and the Zodiac
In Safaitic inscriptions, both seasons and Zodiac signs are used to refer to specific times. Four different Safaitic seasons are documented: 'winter' s2ty, which corresponds to early January-mid-February, 'the season of the later rains' dṯʔ, taking place in mid-February till mid-April, 'the early summer' ṣyf, lasting from mid-April till early June and finally the 'dry season' qyẓ, lasting from early June till early October. Rwala bedouins also have a similar system, although it is more complete, and includes aṣ-ṣferi, the fifth season, early October-early January, which is lacking from Safaitic attestations. Besides, they call dṯʔas-smāk, which is from a different root.[9] These Safaitic seasons can be seen in, for instance, Mu 113
l s ʿd bn ḍb bn ʿbd bn ʾdm w ḥll h- dr dṯʾ f ʾyḍ f s2ty f h bʿls1mn qbll
"By Ṣʿd son of Ḍb son of ʿbd son of ʾdm and he camped here during the season of the later rains, then the dry season, and then winter so, O Bʿls1mn, show benevolence" (Baʕl-Samān was the name of a Safaitic god).[10]
These seasons were connected to Zodiac signs which, in any case, had a very important place in the pre-Islamic calendars, whether South Arabian or Safaitic. In many places these Zodiac signs are used to refer to specific past events.[11] Below are cited the names of the pre-Islamic Safaitic Zodiac names (ḏ corresponds to voiced English th in the and ṯ to unvoiced English th in throngs), the list of which is incomplete as the word for Cancer is insecure):
As in some Safaitic texts, series of Zodiac signs correspond to (in other texts) the same series of months, denoting the same seasons of the year,[12] it is obvious that the Arabian nomads from the desert did not use a 360-days calendar without intercalation, nor a purely lunar calendar, as otherwise Zodiac signs would not match the months and seasons. The mention of dṯʔ qyẓ s2ty in Safaitic inscriptions, being a description of the whole year, corresponding to the often re-occurring phrase mlḥ w ḏkr w ʔmt "Aquarius and Aries and Libra", shows that the nomadic year started with the season of rains following the winter, namely dṯʔ (mid-February to mid-April), exactly like the South Arabian year.[13] However, as Al-Jallad (2016: 86) argues, we would then expect the equivalent Zodiacal sequence to start with Aries, and not with Aquarius as it does (mlḥ w ḏkr w ʔmt). This is because the Safaitic Zodiac did not correspond to our notion of the Zodiac, but each sign started when the Sun entered the constellation, and in no way it is connected to a Lunar calendar where the Zodiac names simply could be equated to their corresponding month names.
Pre-Islamic month names
Sources for the names of these pre-Islamic months are al-Muntakhab min Gharīb Kalām al-ʿArab[14] by Ḥasan of Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlīy bin al-Ḥasan bin al-Ḥusayn al-Hunāʾī ad-Dūsā (d. 309 A.H./921 C.E.), better known as "Kurāʿ an-Naml", and Lisān al-ʿArab[15] of Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711 A.H./1311 C.E.). Al-Biruni and al-Mas'udi suggest that the Ancient Arabs used the same month names as the Muslims, though they also record other month names used by the pre-Islamic Arabs.[4]
Unlike the common Arabic usage of equating rabīʿ to the spring (so is its meaning in all modern Arabic dialects), Classical lexicographers translate it as 'autumn' and equate it to xarīf 'autumn'.[16] We have thus the possibility to deduce the general position with the year of the following months, based on the assumption that rabīʿ al-ʾawwal designates, as its name indicates, early autumn.
Occasions
Some suggested that the Arab pilgrimage festivals in the seventh and twelfth months were originally equinoctial festivals[17] and research on the pre-Islamic calendar has been summarized in recent Islamic[18] and secular[19] scholarship which equates the pre-Islamic months from Muharram to Dhu al-Hijjah with the Hebrew religious months of Iyyar (second) to Nisan (first) respectively (Ramadan corresponding to the Fast of Adam in Tevet) rather than Nisan (first) to Adar (twelfth) as might otherwise be presumed. In stark opposition to this opinion however, subsequent Christian[20] then Jewish[21] scholars have both tried to equate the pre-Islamic months from Muharram to Jumādā ath-Thāniya at least with the Hebrew months of Tishrei to Adar I respectively. Nevertheless, the Islamic position equating Nisan with Dhū al-Ḥijja has prevailed.[19] Nisan is the month of spring in the Hebrew calendar and Babylonian calendar, which are both lunisolar calendars with either 12 or 13 months.
The Islamic tradition is unanimous in stating that Arabs of Tihamah, Hejaz, and Najd distinguished between two types of months, permitted (ḥalāl) and forbidden (ḥarām) months.[4] The forbidden months were four months during which fighting is forbidden, listed as Rajab and the three months around the pilgrimage season, Dhu al-Qa‘dah, Dhu al-Hijjah, and Muharram.[4] A similar if not identical concept to the forbidden months is also attested by Procopius, where he describes an armistice that the Eastern Arabs of the Lakhmid ruler, al-Mundhir II, respected for two months in the summer solstice of 541 AD/CE.[4] However, Muslim historians do not link these months to a particular season.[4]
The Qur'an links the four forbidden months with Nasi' (Arabic: ٱلنَّسِيء, an-nasīʾ), a word that literally means "postponement".[4] According to Muslim tradition, the decision of postponement was administered by the tribe of Kinanah,[6] by a man known as the al-Qalammas of Kinanah and his descendants (pl. qalāmisa).[22]
Different interpretations of the concept of Nasī’ have been proposed.[23] Some scholars, both Muslim[24][25] and Western,[4][6] maintain that the pre-Islamic calendar used in Central Arabia was a purely lunar calendar similar to the modern Islamic calendar. According to this view, Nasī’ is related to the pre-Islamic practices of the Meccan Arabs, where they would alter the distribution of the forbidden months within a given year without implying a calendar manipulation. This interpretation is supported by Arab historians and lexicographers, like Ibn Hisham, Ibn Manzur, and the corpus of Qur'anic exegesis.[26]
This is corroborated by an early Sabaic inscription, where a religious ritual was "postponed" (ns'’w) due to war. According to the context of this inscription, the verb ns'’ has nothing to do with intercalation, but only with moving religious events within the calendar itself. The similarity between the religious concept of this ancient inscription and the Qur'an suggests that non-calendaring postponement is also the Qur'anic meaning of Nasī’.[4] Thus the Encyclopaedia of Islam concludes "The Arabic system of [Nasī’] can only have been intended to move the Hajj and the fairs associated with it in the vicinity of Mecca to a suitable season of the year. It was not intended to establish a fixed calendar to be generally observed."[27]
Others concur that it was originally a lunar calendar, but suggest that about 200 years before the Hijra it was transformed into a lunisolar calendar containing an intercalary month added from time to time to keep the pilgrimage within the season of the year when merchandise was most abundant. This interpretation was first proposed by the medieval Muslim astrologer and astronomer Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, and later by al-Biruni,[22][28]al-Mas'udi, and some Western scholars.[29] This interpretation considers Nasī’ to be a synonym to the Arabic word for "intercalation" (kabīsa). The Arabs, according to one explanation mentioned by Abu Ma'shar, learned of this type of intercalation from the Jews.[6][22][28] The Jewish Nasi was the official who decided when to intercalate the Jewish calendar.[30] Some sources say that the Arabs followed the Jewish practice and intercalated seven months over nineteen years, or else that they intercalated nine months over 24 years; there is, however, no consensus among scholars on this issue.[31] The metonic cycle of 19 years was established for intercalating the Hebrew calendar since the time of their exile in Babylonian, and it was also observed in the Babylonian calendar as well, starting in the same period. The Kinānah tribe, during the time of Muhammad, was in charge of authorizing the intercalation; that the Kinānah tribe had taken over this task from the Kinda tribe, which had been Judaized for hundreds of years previously, lends credence to the position that the process of intercalation may have been borrowed from the Jewish tradition.[32] Referring to Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (d. ca. 442 A.H./1050 C.E.), it has been posited that this intercalation was effected in order to accommodate the scheduling of seasonal trade cycles with annual pilgrimages,[33]
The prohibition of nasi' in AH 10 has been suggested as having had the purpose of wresting power from the Kinānah clan who was in control of intercalation, but there is no consensus regarding this position.[citation needed]
Pre-Islamic day names
The names for the days of the week in pre-Islamic Arabia were changed during the era of Islam to numbers ("the first (day)", "the second (day)", etc.) with the exception of the sixth day, "Friday", whose name means "congregation", in reference to this being the Islamic day of communal prayer. The numbering follows the account of the creation in six days, with the seventh the day of rest, in the creation narrative in the Book of Genesis. Prior to this, the pre-Islamic Arabian days of the week were:
The Hebrew calendar, also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance and as an official calendar of Israel. It determines the dates of Jewish holidays and other rituals, such as yahrzeits and the schedule of public Torah readings. In Israel, it is used for religious purposes, provides a time frame for agriculture, and is an official calendar for civil holidays alongside the Gregorian calendar.
The Hijri calendar, or Arabic calendar 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. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the annual fasting and the annual season for the great pilgrimage. In almost all countries where the predominant religion is Islam, the civil calendar is the Gregorian calendar, with Syriac month-names used in the Levant and Mesopotamia but the religious calendar is the Hijri one.
Intercalation or embolism in timekeeping is the insertion of a leap day, week, or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases. Lunisolar calendars may require intercalations of days or months.
Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia included indigenous Arabian polytheism, ancient Semitic religions, Christianity, Judaism, Mandaeism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism.
A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases, in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based on the solar year. The most widely observed purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar. A purely lunar calendar is distinguished from a lunisolar calendar, whose lunar months are brought into alignment with the solar year through some process of intercalation – such as by insertion of a leap month. The details of when months begin vary from calendar to calendar, with some using new, full, or crescent moons and others employing detailed calculations.
A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, incorporating lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Earth's sky. If the sidereal year is used instead of the solar year, then the calendar will predict the constellation near which the full moon may occur. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is an additional requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In some cases ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, which adds a thirteenth intercalary, embolismic, or leap month.
Hillel II, also known simply as Hillel, was an amora of the fifth generation in the Land of Israel. He held the office of Nasi of the Sanhedrin between 320 and 385 CE. He was the son and successor of Judah III. He is sometimes confused with Hillel the Elder, as the Talmud sometimes simply uses the name "Hillel".
Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb rajaba is "to respect", which could also mean "be awe or be in fear", of which Rajab is a derivative.
Dhu al-Hijjah is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. Being one of the four sacred months during which war is forbidden, it is the month in which the Ḥajj takes place as well as Eid al-Adha.
Nasiʾ, also Romanized Nasii, or Nasie, was an aspect of the pre-Islamic Arabian calendar, mentioned in the Quran in the context of the "four forbidden months". In pre-Islamic Arabia, the decision of "postponement" had been administered by the Banu Kinanah, by a man known as the al-Qalammas. Different interpretations of its meaning have been proposed.
Safaitic is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the Arabs in southern Syria and northern Jordan in the Ḥarrah region, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and Ancient North Arabian. The Safaitic script is a member of the Ancient North Arabian (ANA) sub-grouping of the South Semitic script family, the genetic unity of which has yet to be demonstrated.
Ancient North Arabian (ANA) is a collection of scripts and a language or family of languages under the North Arabian languages branch along with Old Arabic that were used in north and central Arabia and south Syria from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE. The term "Ancient North Arabian" is defined negatively. It refers to all of the South Semitic scripts except Ancient South Arabian (ASA) regardless of their genetic relationships.
Muhammad's first revelation was the event that initiated the development of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. The exact date is disputed, but it is generally believed to have occurred in 610 CE. According to the Islamic narrative, Muhammad sought solitude after repeatedly experiencing transcendental dreams in which he was told of his upcoming responsibility as a messenger of God, and thus retreated to Jabal al-Nour near Mecca. While isolating at the Cave of Hira within Jabal al-Nour, he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who revealed to him the beginnings of what would become known as the Quran. At the age of 40, Muhammad's religious career as the "Seal of the Prophets" had begun.
Old Arabic is the name for any Arabic language or dialect continuum before Islam. Various forms of Old Arabic are attested in scripts like Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabatean, and even Greek.
Proto-Arabic is the name given to the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor of all the varieties of Arabic attested since the 9th century BC. There are two lines of evidence to reconstruct Proto-Arabic:
Nabataean Arabic was the dialect of Arabic spoken by the Nabataeans in antiquity. It was succeeded by Paleo-Arabic.
The Bostran era was a calendar era with an epoch corresponding to 22March 106AD. It was the official era of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea, introduced to replace dating by regnal years after the Roman annexation of the Nabataean Kingdom. It is named after the city of Bostra, which became the headquarters of the Sixth Legion stationed in the province.
Paleo-Arabic is a script that represents a pre-Islamic phase in the evolution of the Arabic script at which point it becomes recognizably similar to the Islamic Arabic script. It comes prior to Classical Arabic, but it is also a recognizable form of the Arabic script, emerging after a transitional phase of Nabataean Arabic as the Nabataean script slowly evolved into the modern Arabic script. It appears in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD and, though was originally only known from Syria and Jordan, is now also attested in several extant inscriptions from the Arabian Peninsula, such as in the Christian texts at the site of Hima in South Arabia. More recently, additional examples of Paleo-Arabic have been discovered near Taif in the Hejaz and in the Tabuk region of northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Ahmad Al-Jallad is a Jordanian-American philologist, epigraphist, and a historian of language. Some of the areas he has contributed to include Quranic studies and the history of Arabic, including recent work he has done on the Safaitic and Paleo-Arabic scripts. He is currently Professor in the Sofia Chair in Arabic Studies at Ohio State University at the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures. He is the winner of the 2017 Dutch Gratama Science Prize.
The Qatari Almanac was an annual almanac authored by religious scholar Sheikh Abdullah Ibrahim Al-Ansari that integrated traditional and astronomical knowledge, offering invaluable insights into prayer timings, seasonal weather patterns, and local celestial navigation across the Persian Gulf region. Following his father's legacy, Al-Ansari published the almanac since 1957–58, incorporating knowledge from ancient Arabic texts and almanacs, including one from 1906 by Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Uyuni of Al Hasa, which he republished in 1960 under Emir Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani's sponsorship. It was the most widely disseminated almanac among the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. In 1966, the almanac was formally declared as the official calendar of Qatar by Emir Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani.
References
Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2014). "An Ancient Arabian zodiac. The constellations in the Safaitic inscriptions, Part I." Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 25: 214-230.
Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2016). "An ancient Arabian zodiac. The constellations in the Safaitic inscriptions, Part II" Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 27: 84-106.
Varisco, D.M. 1987. "The Rain Periods in Pre-Islamic Arabia" Arabica 34/2: 251–266.
Varisco, D.M. 1991. "The Origin of the Anwa’ in Arab Tradition" Studia Islamica 74: 5–28.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 F.C. De Blois, "TA’RĪKH": I.1.iv. "Pre-Islamic and agricultural calendars of the Arabian peninsula", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, X:260.
↑ de Blois The Chronology of Early Islam The Ancient Calendar at Mecca and the Origin of the Islamic Calendar in Sasha Stern (ed.) Calendars in the Making The Origins of Calendars from the Roman Empire to the Later Middle Ages p. 194
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