The Muslim calendar is otherwise called "hijra"or "hijrat". Therefore, quite often when using the Muslim chronology they say: such and such or such and such a year of hijra. This is an Arabic word, which means breaking something, separating the soul from the body, parting, but more often it means “moving from place to place”. In the Islamic tradition, the word is taken not so much from the Koran as from the Hadith, that is, the statements of the Prophet Muhammad.
Like many terms, revered in Islam andused in the interpretation of theology, the Muslim calendar or the hijrata has a historical and symbolic meaning - that is why its first year is the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The historical meaning of this term is that the word “hijrat” traditionally meant the resettlement of Muslim communities led by the prophet from Mecca to Medina (which is often called Ansara), when they were forced to evade persecution arranged by local pagans. The story also says that the Ansara population happily greeted the first harbingers of the new faith and shared with them all that they had.
That is why the year 622 marks the beginning of a new,Islamic era and is considered the first year of the hijrat, that is, the resettlement of communities. In this regard, the use of the term “hijrat” in the sense of “the flight of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina”, which is widespread in Russian-language literature, is incorrect because in Islam it is believed that the Prophet moved to Medina, fulfilling the will of God, to spread Islam, not to save own life. In addition, the Muslim calendar symbolizes a person’s leaving from sin, and the desire and even the duty to spread faith, and the duty to overcome difficulties. The fact is that the concept of “hijrat” also has a figurative meaning, really meaning “escape”, but it is a question of the believer’s flight from everything that is forbidden by God or causes harm to others.
The history of the introduction of hijrata is associated with manybeautiful stories, in particular, testifying to the mutual attraction and harmony between Muslims and Christians in the time of the Prophet and his first followers. So, for example, one of the significant resettlements, due to which the Muslim calendar originated, was committed by the Muslim community to Christian Ethiopia. The pagan rulers of Mecca sent an embassy there asking them to return the refugees to their homeland, and they even sent gifts to the Ethiopian emperor. But he decided to first speak with the Muslim community. Muslims told him that before they were idolaters, they despised the poor, unwanted daughters buried alive in the sand. And after the Prophet's sermons, they decided to believe in the One God, do good deeds, do no harm to others, help the poor and protect women and offended people, and then they were persecuted. The emperor shed a tear and said that in no case would he return them to his homeland. He even declared that they were free to profess their faith in Ethiopia, because the source of the sermons of the Prophet and Savior (Jesus Christ) is the same.
In 637, when the rules caliph Omar, the eventHijrata (resettlement), was considered the beginning of a new era, and the month when it happened (Muharram) - the first month of the year according to a new year. Although the first day of this month is in fact the new year according to the Muslim calendar (رأس السنة الهجرية), but there are no special ceremonies to celebrate this day. The first day of the first year on this calendar corresponds to July 16, 622.
The year of the Islamic calendar also consists offor twelve months, it is based on the lunar calendar, and all major holidays are calculated on it. This means that months are calculated from one new moon to another and consist of either 29 or 30 days. Thus, it turns out that the Muslim lunar calendar divides the year into 354 days. In this regard, and the beginning of the year each time is shifted by 11 days.
