The Hijri Calendar or the Islamic Lunar Calendar 2011

When Islam emerged in the 7th century, there were a number of calendars in use all around the world. Most of them were solar, some of them were lunar and the lunisolar ones. All of them unlike 2010 calendar or 2011 calendar were created and implemented in different civilizations in the world. Significantly all of them had different starting dates called as epochs. This inconsistency among various calendars eventually became a problem for young Muslims. They started to find it difficult to consistently record various dates especially those on documents and correspondences within the fast-rising Muslim world.

In order to solve this issue and to establish an effective dating system that clearly marked the Islamic holy months and their holidays, Umar ibn Al-Khattab who was the 2nd Muslim caliph ordered the establishment of an Islamic lunar calendar. This was in the year 638 AD. The number of months was twelve. Using the lunar cycle for measuring time was decided by the different verses in holy Koran.