Primary Source: The Hijri; the ancient Islamic Calendar.
In ancient
Islam, the need for a calendar was
driven by pure religious purposes; people needed to know when it was in the
day, so they could complete their 5 prayers throughout the day, and what section
of the year it was, for certain months were reserved as holy months and/or
months of fasting. To create such a calendar, the Muslims turned to the stars
above them, more specifically the moon. Most calendars of this time were based
off of the sun, but the Hijri was a lunar calendar; it was based off of the
lunar phase cycle. There are 12 months in the Islamic Calendar; Muharram,
Safar, Rabi’a I, Rabi’a II, Jumada I, Jumada II, Rajab, Sha’ban, Ramadan,
Shawwal, Dhu al-Q’adah, Duh al-Hijjah, and the number 12 commemorates the
movement of the prophet form Mecca to Medina. Months do not have a set number
of days, for their beginning and end rely solely on first lunar crescent. The
calendar has a thirty year cycle; there are groups of thirty years, and the 2nd,
5th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th,
18th, 21st, 24th, 26th, and 29th
years are leap years. http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html
Primary Source: The Julian calendar: the ancient Byzantine Calendar.
Before
the Julian calendar, the Roman Empire had a huge inaccurate, lunisolular (based
off both the moon and the sun) calendar which required adding an extra month
every two years just for it to roughly stay in line. After the Calendar had
gone 3 months astray, current Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, created the Julian
calendar to compensate for the old one. The new calendar was called the Julian
calendar, and unlike its predecessor, was a purely solar based calendar. In the
Julian calendar, the year had a set number of days; 365, and had 12 months;
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October,
November, and December. Each month had a number of days between 30 and 31,
except for February, which, on leap years, would receive an extra day. Leap
years were designated to occur every 4 years as to make up for the calendar’s
slight inaccuracy. http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html
Outline:
I.)
Calendars
have been around since the beginning of civilization for they fill the need of
telling long term time. Most every civilization has its own unique calendar,
tailored to fit its own, specific needs. The Islamic and Byzantine Empires
constructed the Hijri and Julian Calendars to fill their need of time keeping;
they both did this for different reasons, and their calendars reflect those
reasons in their very image.
II.)
A.) The Islamic Calendar, also known as the Hijri, was
constructed to fit the needs of the Islamic church.
1.) When Holy Months were to be held
a.
The church needs to be able to
account for the months of fasting and the months which Allah made holy
b. Ramadan – the month of fasting begins and ends with the
sight of the first lunar crescent
2.) God gave them the moon to help them divide the year
a.
“it was He that gave the moon its
light ordaining its phases that you may learn to compute the seasons and the
years…” Qur’an 10:5 http://cmes.uchicago.edu/sites/cmes.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Middle%20Eastern%20Calendars.pdf
3.) Days of prayer
a.
Jum’a- the day of congregational
prayer
b. 7 days in a week
c.
Days begin at sunset and end at
sundown the next day
The Islamic Calendar was designed to
suit its people’s religion, it has outcrops of time saved in it just for prayer
and fasting.
B.) The Byzantine or Julian calendar was developed by Julius
Caesar to fix Rome’s old horribly inaccurate Calendar.
1.) the Previous Roman Calendar was wildly inaccurate
a.
required a leap month every 2 years
b. had 355 compared to 365 days in a year
c.
in 45B.C. it 3 months off track http://cmes.uchicago.edu/sites/cmes.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Middle%20Eastern%20Calendars.pdf
2.) Julius fixes the problem
a.
Pushed the calendar forward 90 days
to re align it
b. Makes a year have 365 days
c.
Added a leap year every 4 years
d. Established the days of the month
i.
January, February, March, April,
May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
The Julian Calendar was designed to
fix and replace a withering and out of sync calendar, as a result, it was one
of the most accurate of its time.
C.) Both the Julian and Islamic Calendars reflect what they were
designed for in their construction
1.) The Islamic Calendar was designed to create a functional
time period for religious events
a.
As a result, the calendar is
littered with tiny spiritual allusions
i.
The day begins at sunset
ii.
7days in a week
iii.
A day for Jum’a
2.) The Julian Calendar was designed to fix a major problem in a
calendar
a.
As a result, the calendar is much
more accurate than other calendars of its time
i.
is only 11min and 14 seconds longer than a
solar year http://cmes.uchicago.edu/sites/cmes.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Middle%20Eastern%20Calendars.pdf
1.
Many calendars are days shorter –
the Islamic calendar is 354 days long
Both Calendars have elements in them
which reflect their purpose, and their designers did a masterful job of
integrating their needs into their calendars.
Works
Cited
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E. (1998). Byzantine Astronomy from A.D. 1300 [Abstract]. The Schemata of the Stars. Retrieved from http://lss.fnal.gov/archive/other/do-th-98-18.pdf
Doggett,
L. E. (n.d.). Calendars and their History.
Retrieved from http://astro.nmsu.edu/~lhuber/leaphist.html
Starszak,
Robert J. "It Was In The Stars: Roman And Byzantine Astronomy." History
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