Why the Hijri Year Starts in Muharram, Not Rabi al-Awwal

The Hijri year starts in Muharram because the Companions counted from the year of the Hijra, not from the day of the journey, and Muharram was already the first month of the Arab year. The Prophet's ﷺ migration to Madinah is traditionally placed in Rabi al-Awwal, the third month. When the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab set up the era, the reports collected by the hadith scholar Ibn Hajar say the Companions also weighed Ramadan and Rajab, then chose Muharram. Their reasons were that it was a sacred month, the first month of the year, and the month when pilgrims went home from Hajj. Ibn Hajar records one more explanation, which he judged the strongest: the decision to migrate was made after the pledge of the Ansar in Dhu al-Hijjah, so the first new moon of that resolve was Muharram's.

Key Takeaways

• The Hijri era counts from the year of the Hijra. Year 1 begins on 1 Muharram, about two months before the migration traditionally dated to Rabi al-Awwal.
• Muharram was already the first month of the year in pre-Islamic Arabia, so the era kept the existing order of months.
• Reports in Ibn Hajar's Fath al-Bari say Ramadan and Rajab were proposed, and that Umar, Uthman and Ali favoured Muharram.
• The reasons given are that Muharram is a sacred month, the first of the year, and the month pilgrims return from Hajj. The explanation Ibn Hajar judged strongest links it to the resolve to migrate after the pledge in Dhu al-Hijjah.

The migration and the new year are two different dates

The Hijri era has never claimed that the migration happened on New Year's Day. R.H. van Gent of Utrecht University, in his note on the calendar of early Islam, records that later traditions place the start of the Hijra on the first day of Rabi al-Awwal. They also say the Prophet ﷺ reached the outskirts of Yathrib (Madinah) on the 12th of that month. Van Gent points out that many sources wrongly put the Hijra on 1 Muharram 1 AH, and that the Quran and other early Islamic texts do not give its date at all.

The era itself starts earlier in the same lunar year. Encyclopaedia Britannica's entry on the Hijrah says Umar, the second caliph, introduced the Hijrah era in 639 CE. It says he "started the first year AH with the first day of the lunar month of Muḥarram," which corresponds to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar.

So a gap of roughly two months separates the start of year 1 from the journey it is named after. That gap is the whole question: why not begin the count in Rabi al-Awwal, when the migration actually happened?

What the Companions chose to count from

The starting event is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari 3934. Sahl ibn Sa'd says the Companions did not count from the day the Prophet ﷺ was sent as a messenger, or from the day of his death, "but the day of his arrival at Medina." Imam al-Bukhari placed this under a chapter titled "When did the Muslim calendar start?"

In his commentary on that hadith, the 15th-century scholar Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani explains a word that matters here. The Arabic for "his arrival" (maqdamihi) means the time of his arrival, he writes, not the month of his arrival, "because the dating was set from the beginning of the year." That is from Fath al-Bari, vol. 7, p. 268 in the Salafiyya edition (our translation).

In other words, the Companions picked a year, not a day. Once the event was fixed, they still had to decide which month that year should open with.

Why Muharram was already the first month

Muharram did not become the first month in 639. It already held that place. Britannica's entry on Muharram says the month "was the holy first month of the year in pre-Islamic Arabian culture," and one of four sacred months in which fighting was prohibited.

Islam kept those months. In Sahih al-Bukhari 4662, part of al-Bukhari's commentary on Quran 9:36, the Prophet ﷺ names the four sacred months: Dhu al-Qi'dah, Dhu al-Hijjah and al-Muharram in succession, and Rajab.

Starting the era in Muharram therefore changed nothing about the order of the months. People who already counted Muharram as month 1 and Dhu al-Hijjah as month 12 simply gained a year number. Starting in Rabi al-Awwal would have meant renumbering a calendar everyone already knew.

The reports Ibn Hajar gathers

Ibn Hajar collects several reports about how Umar's council reached its decision. They come from history and biography collections, not from the hadith of al-Bukhari itself, and Ibn Hajar does not grade each one in this passage. They are best read as the historical record of the decision, not as proof texts. The pages are vol. 7, p. 268 and p. 269; the summaries below are our own.

The Ibn Sirin report adds that the decision was made in 17 AH, or by another account 16 AH, and that it was made in Rabi al-Awwal. From the reports taken together, Ibn Hajar concludes that the people who advised starting with Muharram were Umar, Uthman and Ali.

Two of the stated reasons are practical. Hajj falls in Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month, so the pilgrims' return home in Muharram closed one annual cycle and opened the next. The third reason, that Muharram is a sacred month, matches the hadith on the four sacred months above.

Why the Hijra was chosen as the event

The same reports explain why the migration won over other events. In the al-Sha'bi report, Umar says the Hijra "separated truth from falsehood" (our translation). The 11th-century scholar al-Biruni gives a related reason in The Chronology of Ancient Nations (Sachau's 1879 translation, pp. 33–34): the dates of the Prophet's ﷺ birth and of the start of his mission were disputed, so neither could serve as a point everyone agreed on.

The full story of the council, including the options that were set aside and whether it happened in 16, 17 or 18 AH, is in the sister post on how Umar adopted the Hijri calendar.

The explanation Ibn Hajar judged strongest

Ibn Hajar also quotes an explanation that he attributes to "some" scholars and rates above the others. It ties Muharram to the Hijra itself rather than to the Hajj season. In our translation of his words on p. 268:

They moved it back from Rabi al-Awwal to Muharram because the resolve to emigrate began in Muharram. The pledge took place during Dhu al-Hijjah, and it was the prelude to the Hijra. So the first crescent that appeared after the pledge and the resolve to emigrate was the crescent of Muharram, and it was fitting to make it the start.

He then says this is the strongest reason he had found for starting with Muharram.

The pledge in question is the pledge of the Ansar, the Muslims of Madinah, made during the Hajj season. On this reading, the Hijra began as a decision in Muharram and was completed in Rabi al-Awwal. Counting from Muharram counts from the start of that process.

Egypt's official fatwa body, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, gives the same explanation in its answer on why 1 Muharram begins the Hijri year, citing Fath al-Bari vol. 7, p. 268. It states plainly that the migration took place in Rabi al-Awwal and that 1 Muharram does not mark its actual day.

These explanations do not compete. The month was already first in the year, it was sacred, it followed the Hajj, and it followed the pledge that led to the migration. Different reports stress different points.

What this means on a modern calendar

Because the year opens in Muharram, the anniversary of the migration's traditional date and the Islamic New Year fall about two months apart every year.

Dates are calculated from the Umm al-Qura tables in the open-source hijri-converter library that this site uses. Each Hijri date begins at sunset on the evening before, and local announcements based on moon sighting may differ by a day.

This is why the Islamic New Year marks a change of year number, not the day of the journey. The post on 1 Muharram and the Islamic New Year covers how the day is observed, and the Hijra of 622 covers the journey itself.

Common questions

Did the Hijra happen on 1 Muharram?

No. Later traditions place the start of the journey on 1 Rabi al-Awwal and the arrival near Madinah on the 12th, as van Gent's note records. The era is counted from 1 Muharram of that same year.

Was the Hijri year count used during the Prophet's lifetime?

Not as a numbered era. Britannica's entry on the Hijrah says the Prophet ﷺ dated his correspondence, treaties and proclamations by other events in his life. Al-Biruni (p. 35 of the same translation) records that the years after the Hijra were known by names instead, such as "the year of the permission" for the first year. Ibn Hajar mentions a report that the Prophet ﷺ ordered dating on arriving in Madinah, but he calls its chain disconnected (mu'dal) and says the well-known view is that dating began under Umar.

Find the next 1 Muharram

To see when the next Hijri year begins where you live, open the Islamic New Year page, or browse Muharram 1449 day by day. To check any Hijri date against the Gregorian calendar, including the traditional dates of the Hijra in Rabi al-Awwal, use the Hijri date converter.