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Calendar Systems of the Gulf Almanacs

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Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies ((IOWS))

Abstract

The Gulf almanacs are primarily arranged according to the twenty-eight lunar stations, locally known as anwā’. These represent thirteen-day periods throughout the solar year and are correlated to the solar calendar of the Syriac month-name reckoning and usually to a specific Islamic lunar year. In addition, the Gulf almanacs record a local zodiacal month calendar, a monthly calendar based on the conjunction of the moon and the Pleiades, and a year-long nayrūz navigational calendar from the summer dawn rising of Canopus (suhayl). Specific Omani star calendars are used for the underground infiltration (falaj) systems and fishing cycles. The almanacs routinely record the shadow lengths for the daily prayers.

Each of the nations scattered over the different parts of the world has a special era, which they count from the times of their kings or prophets, or dynasties, or of some of those events which we have just mentioned. And thence they derive the dates, which they want in social intercourse, in chronology, and in every institute (i.e. festivals) which is exclusively peculiar to them.

—al-Bīrūnī, tenth century CE

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For information on calendars used in the Islamic era, see Varisco (2021).

  2. 2.

    There are many discussions of the origin of these month names, but one of the most useful is by Abū Zakarīyā Yahyā al-Farā’ (1980:41–59), who died in 207/822. See also al-Bīrūnī (1879:70–71).

  3. 3.

    There are several online conversion pages; for a list of these, see https://webspace.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/islam/islam_tabcal_others.htm. One of the more useful is at https://www.linktoislam.net/islamic-calendar/hijri-date-converter/

  4. 4.

    Glaser (1885:92), who mentions that only the scholars used this system in their calendars (jadāwil).

  5. 5.

    Al-Bīrūnī (1879:70).

  6. 6.

    Recognizing the need for a perpetual almanac, in the fourteenth century the Rasulid Yemeni sultan al-Malik al-Afḍal created a unique almanac according to the degree of the zodiacal arc rather than the specific day of the month (Varisco and Smith 1998:97–114).

  7. 7.

    The Gregorian equivalent would be about IV:4 in the ninth century.

  8. 8.

    For a discussion of this system in the UAE, see Umm Sheikha (2008).

  9. 9.

    See pp. 41–42 for a discussion of the rising times of Canopus. In the Gulf of Aden, according to Grosset-Grange (1972:47), the start of this navigational calendar at the rising of Canopus was said to be VIII:10. It is important to note that it is not always clear if the rising is on a flat horizon or is affected by the local point of view.

  10. 10.

    See the translation of the account on the site of the Kuwait Oil Workers on pp. 369–372.

  11. 11.

    Umm Sheikha (2008).

  12. 12.

    Based on the Persian nayrūz the earlier navigational calendar lost four days per year, but it provided a system of reckoning the number of days, as opposed to star periods or seasons, from the nayrūz (Varisco 1994:73–74).

  13. 13.

    For details on the use of the Persian nayrūz calendar in the Islamic era, see Abdollahy (1990). In the Abbasid period this was also celebrated as an annual festival.

  14. 14.

    See Varisco (1994:73–74) for details on this navigational calendar.

  15. 15.

    Khūrī (1990(1):196).

  16. 16.

    Ibn Qutayba (1956:86; al-Khaṭib al-Baghdādī 2004:28). Abū Isḥāq al-Zajjāj places conjunction #5 under jabha (II:10–22). In Palestine Dalman (1928(I/1):23) notes that conjunction #5 occurs in Nīsān.

  17. 17.

    This poem is edited and analyzed in Varisco (1989b) and translated in Varisco (1997:#XI). For more details on the use of the Pleiades conjunction calendar in Yemen, see al-Ansī (1998:81–87) and Gingrich (1994:214–215). The same system is found in Palestine (Dalman 1928(I/1):23) and Afghanistan (Bausani 1974).

  18. 18.

    Al-Ẓafīrī (2010).

  19. 19.

    This saying is recorded in al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):964).

  20. 20.

    This saying is recorded in al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):964). Rāshid al-Khalāwī also refers to this conjunction.

  21. 21.

    This saying is recorded in al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):965).

  22. 22.

    Al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):965) reads ghāmis rather than ṭāmis, explaining that ghāmis refers to plenty and abundance.

  23. 23.

    This saying is recorded in al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):965).

  24. 24.

    Al-‘Ubbūdī (1979(3):965) reads al-qalīb (well) rather than al-mā’, explaining that it is the start of qayẓ and domestic animals do not abstain from going to the well for water.

  25. 25.

    See the translation of al-‘Amrānī (2012) on pp. 373–375.

  26. 26.

    In Yemen this last conjunction is called layla wa-lā shī’ (the night when there is nothing), as noted by Glaser (1885:91) around V:18 in the late nineteenth century.

  27. 27.

    Wilkinson (1974:47, 1977:110). For the work of Harriet Nash, see Nash (2011a, b, 2007); Nash and Agius (2009); and al-Ghafrī, Abdullah, Harriet Nash, and Mohammed al-Sarmi (2013).

  28. 28.

    Wilkinson (1974:47), who does not identify the scientific names for the stars.

  29. 29.

    Nash and Agius (2011:166).

  30. 30.

    Nash (2011b:40).

  31. 31.

    Nash (2011b:66).

  32. 32.

    Oman (2015:34, 82–84). The text is not always clear on where the heritage information is taken from.

  33. 33.

    See Nash, Agius, Al-Mahrooqi, and Al-Yahyai (2016:189–191) for Nash’s tentative identification of local star names in southern coastal Oman.

  34. 34.

    This calendar is recorded in Nash, Agius, Al-Mahrooqi, and Al-Yahyai (2016:182).

  35. 35.

    Nash, Agius, Al-Mahrooqi, and Al-Yahyai (2016:187).

  36. 36.

    For Mahra, see Bā Kurayt (1992), discussed on pp. 112–115.

  37. 37.

    See King (1990) for a thorough discussion of shadow lengths as a feature of Islamic folk astronomy as well as the astronomical theory underlying the schemes. The system of shadow lengths cast by a person’s body extends back to Greek tradition.

  38. 38.

    King (1990:242). The same conclusion was reached by Neugebauer (1979:209–210) for Ethiopian shadow lengths.

  39. 39.

    These are discussed by Charbonnier (2014), al-Ghafri et al. (2013), and Nash (2011b).

  40. 40.

    Nash (2011b:34).

  41. 41.

    Nash, Al Musharafi, and Al Harthi (2014:66).

  42. 42.

    In al-Ahjur, Yemen, the shadow cast by a nearby mountain plateau either progresses along the western mountain wall of the valley or reaches a defined marker throughout the day to allow for a very general local method of time-telling for roughly three-hour periods during the day (Varisco 1982:264–265). Serjeant (1974:31) observed a similar shadow scheme on a hill near the town of Rayda in Yemen for marking the time to plant sorghum.

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    Daniel Martin Varisco

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Varisco, D.M. (2022). Calendar Systems of the Gulf Almanacs. In: Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95771-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95771-1_4

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