Calculating Islamic holidays

autumnleaf · May 8, 2015

My Google-fu has finally failed me. Does anyone know of a resource for calculating when particular Islamic holidays occurred in the past?

Specifically, I want to know when Eid al-Adha occurred in the year 1681-1682! I could probably write around it by being vague about the season, but I'd rather not do that.

snafu1056 · May 8, 2015

That would fall on Saturday, December 20, 1681 AD (Islamic year 1092 AH). Since the festival lasts four days, it wouldn't cross over into 1682.

Here's a handy Islamic date converter if you need to figure out any other ones

http://www.islamicfinder.org/dateConversion.php?mode=ger-hij&day=1&month=1&year=1681&date_result=1

It will also probably help to know the names of the Islamic months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar

For conversion purposes it's easier if you know the Muslim dates of holidays because those dates are fixed.

autumnleaf · May 9, 2015

Thank you! This is really helpful. I'm now better able to move around in my characters' world. Will bookmark that site.

Silenia · May 15, 2015

Depending on what country your story is set in, also keep in mind that in 1681, parts of the world (mostly the catholic parts) had switched over to the Gregorian calendar while others (usually non-catholic) were still on the Julian calendar. If your story is set in an area that still worked with the Julian calendar, you'll further need to convert from Gregorian to Julian. In this case, a ten-day difference (the date snafu1056 gave would've been 10 December 1681 in the Julian calendar). And many areas under Julian calendar worked with a different official start of the year than January 1st, or even acknowledged both January 1st and whatever was local custom (often though not always 25th of December or 25th of March).

Yup, date conversions between calendars get confusing really quickly. XD Double-conversions...doubly so.

autumnleaf · May 18, 2015

Thanks Silenia. This part of the story takes place in Algiers, after my MC has been captured by Barbary pirates. And it does get confusing with the Catholics celebrating Christmas 10 days before the Protestants.
I think I need a spreadsheet.

Silenia · May 19, 2015

autumnleaf said:
Thanks Silenia. This part of the story takes place in Algiers, after my MC has been captured by Barbary pirates. And it does get confusing with the Catholics celebrating Christmas 10 days before the Protestants.
I think I need a spreadsheet.

Ouch, in that case also keep in mind that various parts and regions of North-Africa traditionally made use of a/the Berber calendar because the Islamic calendar isn't season-bound and thus not particularly practical for agricultural use. Not a 100% sure if that goes for Algiers itself as well, but if I remember correctly, other Algerian areas certainly did make use of it.

snafu1056 · May 20, 2015

I'm glad I don't have to write this. It's getting more complicated with every new calendar.

autumnleaf · May 21, 2015

My head is hurting now

I've read the Wikipedia article about the Berber calendar. It looks like it's based on the Julian calendar. My guess is that the Algerians would have used the Berber calendar to calculate when to plant and harvest, and the calendar of their own religion to calculate when to celebrate feast days (the majority religion being Islam, but there were also Christians and Jews in the city).

Algiers at the time was a dependency of the Ottoman Empire and was very multicultural, including Turks, Arabs, Berbers, Jews, Europeans, Sub-saharan Africans, and probably some people I've forgotten.

My only consolation is that my MC will initially be as confused as I am. At one stage, he realizes that he's missed Lent (he's a Catholic) and that he's not sure exactly what age he is.

It's probably not necessary to know exact dates for every scene, but I at least need to know what season it is. So at least I know that this particular Eid al-Adha doesn't occur in mid-summer (so I can ease up on descriptions of intense heat and sweaty hand grabbing the sheep's fleece) and I can have my MC think about Christmases past (how they involved more snow and significantly less mutton).

Calculating Islamic holidays

autumnleaf

practical experience, FTW

snafu1056

autumnleaf

practical experience, FTW

Silenia

autumnleaf

practical experience, FTW

Silenia

snafu1056

autumnleaf

practical experience, FTW