Content area
Full text
Keywords:
Mahmud Pasha Falaki, calendrical System of the Arabs, Prophet Muhammad's date of birth, date of hijrah, nasi'.
In 1858, Mahmud Ahmad Hamdi (1815-1885), later known as Mahmud Pasha Falaki1 wrote an article2 on Arabian calendar and the dates of the prophetic events. Ever since the publication of this work, writers the world over have started using his dates in the modern biographical works on the Prophet (peace be on him). Two of the dates, just to cite as instances, he found out with reference to the Julian calendar were April 20, 571 CE for the birthday of the Prophet and September 20, 622 CE for the Prophet's flight to Madinah. Many writers quote these dates time and again in modern works without caring to know whether these were truly correct. The following paragraphs are the results of revisiting the Nata'ij al-afham,3 the Arabic version of his work.
Pasha states that although the historians unanimously maintain that the pagan Arabs employed a luni-solar system in their time calculation, the lexicologists and commentators of the Qur'an and hadith hold that they used a purely lunar system based on the phases of the moon. In support of the latter view, he established three important dates in the life of the Prophet and by examining the intervals amongst them he came to the conclusion that the pagan Arabs did employ a purely lunar system of calendar. Although all along he argues for a lunar system vehemently rejecting the luni-solar theory, he slipped twice from his stand and had to admit tacitly the luni-solar aspect of the calendar.
Once he wrote, “It is a clearly known fact that since the tenth year of hijrah till now nasi', that is, the practice of annexing one extra month at the end of the year has never intervened in the course of the Islamic months.”4 This was an admission of the fact that prior to the tenth year the practice of nasi' was very much in use. At another place he stated, “For every two years, the Arabs used to count twenty-five months.”5 This amounts to say that one extra month was added at the end of every two years.
These contradictions killed the spirit of his arguments. Nevertheless, we will examine...