The Muslims Internet Directory

The Islamic Calendar

Brief Introduction to the Islamic Calendar

The Islamic or Hijra calendar is made up of 12 lunar months. The Hijra year is therefore 354 11/30 days long, which means that it migrates through the solar year, starting about 11 days earlier each (Gregorian solar) year. The Islamic year is considered to have started at sunset of Thursday, July 15, 622 in the Julian calendar and has twelve months of alternately 29 and 30 days, the last month having 30 days only in leap years:-