Frequently Asked Questions

The Hijri calendar is the lunar calendar used by Muslims. It has twelve months and a year of 354 or 355 days, and it counts years from the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE.

The Gregorian calendar is the solar calendar used for civil purposes in most of the world. It was introduced in 1582 as a correction to the Julian calendar and has a year of 365 or 366 days.

Use the converter on the home page. Enter the Hijri day, month and year and press Convert. The Gregorian date and weekday are shown immediately.

An Islamic year has 354 days, or 355 in some years. That is about 11 days shorter than a Gregorian year.

Muharram, Safar, Rabi' al-Awwal, Rabi' al-Thani, Jumada al-Awwal, Jumada al-Thani, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qadah and Dhu al-Hijjah.

Four months are sacred: Muharram, Rajab, Dhu al-Qadah and Dhu al-Hijjah.

The Islamic year is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year, so each Hijri date falls about 11 days earlier in the following Gregorian year.

Saudi Arabia uses the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar, while Pakistan waits for the crescent to be sighted locally. The crescent is usually seen later further east, so Pakistan is often one day behind.

It is the official Islamic calendar of Saudi Arabia. Its months are worked out in advance from astronomical calculations for Makkah, which makes it suitable for planning and official documents.

At sunset. The night belongs to the day that follows it, so the evening of Thursday is the start of Friday in the Islamic calendar.

AH means "after the Hijrah" and marks years of the Islamic calendar. BH means "before the Hijrah" and is used for years earlier than 622 CE.

The usual form is day, month name and year followed by AH, for example 10 Muharram 1447 AH. In numbers it is written day/month/year, such as 10/1/1447.

Yes. For dates before 1582 the converter uses the Gregorian calendar extended backwards. Historical sources from that period often quote Julian dates, which differ by several days.

It follows the Umm al-Qura calendar, which matches Saudi official dates. For legal or immigration paperwork, always check the result against the issuing authority, because some offices use their own records.