Pre-Islamic Arabian calendar

Inscriptions of the ancient South Arabian calendars reveal the use of a number of local calendars. At least some of these South Arabian calendars followed the lunisolar system. For Central Arabia, especially Mecca, there is a lack of epigraphical evidence, but details are found in the writings of Muslim authors of the Abbasid era.[1] Some historians maintain that the pre-Islamic calendar used in Central Arabia was a purely lunar calendar similar to the modern Islamic calendar.[2][1][3] 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.[4][5]

Four forbidden 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. 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. Information about the forbidden months is also found in the writings of Procopius, where he describes an armistice with the Eastern Arabs of the Lakhmid ruler, al-Mundhir II, which happened in the summer of 541.[1] However, Muslim historians do not link these months to a particular season.[1]

Nasi'

The Qur'an links the four forbidden months with Nasī’ (an-nasīʾ, النسيء), a word that literally means "postponement".[1] According to Muslim tradition, the decision of postponement was administered by the tribe of Kinanah,[3] by a man known as the al-Qalammas of Kinanah and his descendants (pl. qalāmisa).[6]

Different interpretations of the concept of Nasī’ have been proposed.[7] Some scholars, both Muslim[8][9] and Western,[1][3] 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.[10]

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’.[1] 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."[11]

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,[6][12] al-Mas'udi, and some Western scholars.[13] 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.[3][6][12] The Jewish Nasi was the official who decided when to intercalate the Jewish calendar.[14] 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.[15] 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 Kindah 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.[16] 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,[17]

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.

Pre-Islamic month names

Sources for the names of these pre-Islamic months are Al-muntakhab min gharīb kalām alʿarab [18] of Abū al-ḥasan ʿalī bin al-ḥasan bin al-ḥusayn al-hunāʾī ad-dūsā (d. 309 A.H./921 C.E.)(known more commonly as "Kurāʿ an-naml") and Lisān al-ʿarab[19] 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.[1]

Number / رقمJāhiliالشهور الجاهليةIslamicالشهور الإسلامية
1muʾtamir or al-muʾtamirمُؤْتَمِر أو المُؤْتَمِرmuḥarramمُحَرَّم
2nājirنَاجِرṣafarصَفَر
3khawwān or khuwwānخَوَّان أو خُوَّانrabīʿ al-ʾawwalربيع الأول
4wabṣānوَبْصَانrabīʿ al-ʾākhir or rabīʿ ath-thānīربيع الآخر أو رابيع الثاني
5ḥanīnحَنِينjumādā al-ʾūlāجمادى الأولى
6rubbaرُبَّىjumādā al-ʾākhirah or jumādā ath-thāniyahجمادى الآخرة أو جمادى الثانية
7al-ʾaṣamm or munṣil al-ʾasinnah or al-muḥarramالأَصَمّ أو مُنْصِل الأَسِنّـَة أو المُحَرَّمrajabرجب
8ʿādhilعَإذِلshaʿbānشعبان
9nātiqنَاتِقramaḍānرمضان
10waʿl or waʿilوَعْل أو وَعِلshawwālشَوّال
11warnahوَرْنَةdhū al-qiʿdahذو القعدة
12burak or maymūnبُرَك أو مَيْمُونdhū al-ḥijjahذو الحجّة
(an-nasīʾ)(النسيء)

Some suggested that the Arab pilgrimage festivals in the seventh and twelfth months were originally equinoctial festivals[20] and research on the pre-Islamic calendar has been summarized in recent Islamic[21] and secular[22] scholarship which equates the pre-Islamic months from Muharram to Dhu al-Hijjah with the Hebrew religious months of Iyyar to Nisan respectively (Ramadan corresponding to the Fast of Adam in Tevet) rather than Nisan to Adar as might otherwise be presumed. In stark opposition to this opinion however, subsequent Christian[23] then Jewish[24] 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.[22]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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.
  2. ↑ Mahmud Effendi (1858), as discussed in Sherrard Beaumont Burnaby, Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan calendars (London: 1901), pp. 460–470.
  3. 1 2 3 4 A. Moberg, "NASI'", The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd, VII: 977.
  4. ↑ Bonner, Michael (2011). "Time has come full circle": Markets, fairs, and the calendar in Arabia before Islam" in Cook, Ahmed, Sadeghi, Behnam, Bonner, et al. The Islamic scholarly tradition : studies in history, law, and thought in honor of Professor Michael Allan Cook. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011. ISBN 9789004194359. page 18.
  5. ↑ see also Shah, Zulfiqar Ali and Siddiqi, Muzammil (2009). The astronomical calculations and Ramadan: a fiqhi discourse Washington, D.C.:The International Institute of Islamic Thought. ISBN 9781565643345. page 64.
  6. 1 2 3 Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886), Kitab al-Uluf, Journal Asiatique, series 5, xi (1858) 168+. (in French) (in Arabic)
  7. ↑ For an overview of the various theories and a discussion of the problem of "hindsight chronology" in early and pre-Islamic sources, see Maurice A. McPartlan, The Contribution of Qu'rān and Hadīt to Early Islamic Chronology (Durham, 1997).
  8. ↑ Mahmud Effendi (1858), as discussed in Sherrard Beaumont Burnaby, Elements of the Jewish and Muhammadan calendars (London: 1901), pp. 460–470.
  9. ↑ According to "Tradition", repeatedly cited by F.C. De Blois.
  10. ↑ Muḥammad al-Khuḍarī Bayk (1935). Muḥāḍarāt tārīkh al-Umam al-Islāmiyya. 2 (4th ed.). Al-maktaba al-tijāriyya. pp. 59–60.
  11. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Index, p. 441
  12. 1 2 al-Biruni, "Intercalation of the Ancient Arabs", The Chronology of Ancient Nations, tr. C. Edward Sachau, (London: William H. Allen, 1000/1879), pp. 13–14, 73–74.
  13. ↑ A. Moberg, "NASI'", E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam
  14. ↑ Bab. Talmud, Sanhedrin, p. 11.
  15. ↑ Bonner 2011, page 21
  16. ↑ Khanam, R. (editor) (2005). Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia. New Delhi : Global Vision Publishing House. ISBN 8182200628. Page 442.
  17. ↑ Bonner 2011, page 22
  18. ↑ 'Al-muntakhab min gharīb kalām alʿarab Cairo: Dār al-fajr li-n-nashr wa-t-tawzīʿ, 1989.
  19. ↑ Lisān al-ʿarab Beirut: Dār Lisān al-ʿarab, 1970.
  20. ↑ Peters, Francis E. Muhammad and the Origins of Islam. Albany, New York (1994). ISBN 0791418758.
  21. ↑ Fazlur Rehman Shaikh, Chronology of Prophetic Events (London: Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 2001) p. 52.
  22. 1 2 Hideyuki Ioh, "The Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca", Arabica, 61 (2014), pp. 471–513; 758–59.
  23. ↑ "Hebrew and Islamic Calendar Reconciled (No. 53)".
  24. ↑ Abrahamson, Ben; Katz, Joseph. "The Islamic Jewish Calendar" (PDF). Retrieved 14 June 2016.
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