The Hijri Lunisolar Calendar and Historical Timeline with Common Era and Hegira Era Years, By Michael Elwood
Below are examples of the Hijri lunisolar calendar for the calendar years 2021 CE/1399 AH through 2025 CE/1403 AH. The first column on the calendar is the number of days in a month followed by the names of the Hijri months. The second column is the corresponding Gregorian months followed by the start dates of the Hijri months, which begins with the crescent of the young moon after sunset. On the old Hijri lunisolar calendar, there were two Safars (called Safarayn in the early sources), Safar al-Awwal and Safar ath-Thaani. These were similar to Adar I and Adar II on the Hebrew calendar. The Hijri lunisolar calendar can be either arithmetical (rule-based) or astronomical (observation-based). I have adapted the suggested rules for a lunisolar calendar from Dr Kelley L. Ross and Mark Brustman. There are only a few things to keep track of:
1) A leap day is added to Safar II every 4 years except century years evenly divisible by 300.
2) A leap "month," Safar I, is added several times within the 19-year Metonic cycle. Six of these will be 30 day Safars and the seventh will be a 29 day Safar. For example, the years: 2015 CE/1393 AH; 2017 CE/1395 AH; 2020 CE/1398 AH; 2023 CE/1401 AH; 2026 CE/1404 AH; 2028 CE/1406 AH; 2031 CE/1409 AH; 2034 CE/1412 AH; 2036 CE/1414 AH; 2039 CE/1417 AH; 2042 CE/1420 AH; 2045 CE/1423 AH; 2047 CE/1425 AH; and 2050 CE/1428 AH are leap years.
3) A shift in the order of leap "months" approximately every 341 years.
The YouTube channels of Simply Muslim and Mark Brustman have informative videos about other aspects of the Hijri Lunisolar Calendar not covered here. Mark Brustman’s channel has a lot of informative videos about how to do an astronomical (observation-based) Hijri lunisolar calendar, for example.
Calendar Year 2021 CE/1399 AH
30 Muharram Jan-Feb 1/15 [Sacred]
30/29 Safar I Only in leap years
29/30 Safar II Feb-Mar 2/13
30 Rabi I Mar-Apr 3/15 [Spring Equinox 3/20-3/21]
29 Rabi II Apr-May 4/13
30 Jumada I May-Jun 5/13
29 Jumada II Jun-Jul 6/12 [Summer Solstice 6/20-6/21]
30 Rajab Jul-Aug 7/11 [Sacred]
29 Shaban Aug-Sep 8/10
30 Ramadan Sep-Oct 9/8 [Fall Equinox 9/22-9/23]
29 Shawwal Oct-Nov 10/8
30 Dhu l-Qa'dah Nov-Dec 11/6 [Sacred]
29 Dhu l-Hijjah Dec-Jan 12/6 [Winter Solstice 12/21-12/22] [Sacred]
Calendar Year 2022 CE/1400 AH
30 Muharram Jan-Feb 1/4 [Sacred]
30/29 Safar I Only in leap years
29/30 Safar II Feb-Mar 2/3
30 Rabi I Mar-Apr 3/4 [Spring Equinox 3/20-3/21]
29 Rabi II Apr-May 4/3
30 Jumada I May-Jun 5/2
29 Jumada II Jun-Jul 6/1 [Summer Solstice 6/20-6/21]
30 Rajab Jul-Aug 7/1 [Sacred]
29 Shaban Aug-Sep 7/30
30 Ramadan Sep-Oct 8/29 [Fall Equinox 9/22-9/23]
29 Shawwal Oct-Nov 9/27
30 Dhu l-Qa'dah Nov-Dec 10/27 [Sacred]
29 Dhu l-Hijjah Dec-Jan 11/25 [Winter Solstice 12/21-12/22] [Sacred]
Calendar Year 2023 CE/1401 AH
30 Muharram Jan-Feb 12/25 [Sacred]
30/29 Safar I Only in leap years 1/23
29/30 Safar II Feb-Mar 2/22
30 Rabi I Mar-Apr 3/23 [Spring Equinox 3/20-3/21]
29 Rabi II Apr-May 4/22
30 Jumada I May-Jun 5/21
29 Jumada II Jun-Jul 6/20 [Summer Solstice 6/20-6/21]
30 Rajab Jul-Aug 7/19 [Sacred]
29 Shaban Aug-Sep 8/18
30 Ramadan Sep-Oct 9/17 [Fall Equinox 9/22-9/23]
29 Shawwal Oct-Nov 10/16
30 Dhu l-Qa'dah Nov-Dec 11/15 [Sacred]
29 Dhu l-Hijjah Dec-Jan 12/14 [Winter Solstice 12/21-12/22] [Sacred]
Calendar Year 2024 CE/1402 AH
30 Muharram Jan-Feb 1/13 [Sacred]
30/29 Safar I Only in leap years
29/30 Safar II Feb-Mar 2/11
30 Rabi I Mar-Apr 3/12 [Spring Equinox 3/20-3/21]
29 Rabi II Apr-May 4/10
30 Jumada I May-Jun 5/10
29 Jumada II Jun-Jul 6/8 [Summer Solstice 6/20-6/21]
30 Rajab Jul-Aug 7/7 [Sacred]
29 Shaban Aug-Sep 8/6
30 Ramadan Sep-Oct 9/5 [Fall Equinox 9/22-9/23]
29 Shawwal Oct-Nov 10/4
30 Dhu l-Qa'dah Nov-Dec 11/3 [Sacred]
29 Dhu l-Hijjah Dec-Jan 12/3 [Winter Solstice 12/21-12/22] [Sacred]
Calendar Year 2025 CE/1403 AH
30 Muharram Jan-Feb 1/1 [Sacred]
30/29 Safar I Only in leap years
29/30 Safar II Feb-Mar 1/31
30 Rabi I Mar-Apr 3/2 [Spring Equinox 3/20-3/21]
29 Rabi II Apr-May 3/31
30 Jumada I May-Jun 4/29
29 Jumada II Jun-Jul 5/29 [Summer Solstice 6/20-6/21]
30 Rajab Jul-Aug 6/27 [Sacred]
29 Shaban Aug-Sep 7/26
30 Ramadan Sep-Oct 8/25 [Fall Equinox 9/22-9/23]
29 Shawwal Oct-Nov 9/23
30 Dhu l-Qa'dah Nov-Dec 10/23 [Sacred]
29 Dhu l-Hijjah Dec-Jan 11/22 [Winter Solstice 12/21-12/22] [Sacred]
The formula converting Common Era years to Hegira Era years is AH = CE - 622. The formula for converting Hegira Era years to Common Era years is CE = AH + 622. Below is a historical timeline of events in Common Era and Hegira Era years.
Historical Timeline with Common Era and Hegira Era Years
198 CE/424 BH Christian apologist, Tertullian, writes approvingly of the pre-Islamic pagan Arab practice of completely veiling women (a practice that would later be appropriated by Sunni and Shia scholars and wrongly attributed to Islam): "Arabia's heathen females will be your judges, who cover not only the head, but the face also, so entirely, that they are content, with one eye free, to enjoy rather half the light than to prostitute the entire face. A female would rather see than be seen. And for this reason a certain Roman queen said that they were most unhappy, in that they could more easily fall in love than be fallen in love with; whereas they are rather happy, in their immunity from that second (and indeed more frequent) infelicity, that females are more apt to be fallen in love with than to fall in love." (see "Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. 4, pg. 37)
529 CE/93 BH The fanatical Arab king of the Lakhmids, Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man, sacrifices hundreds of female captives from one of his raids to the pagan Arab goddess al-Uzza, the same pagan Arab goddess mentioned decades later in the Quran 53:19. His great grandmother's name, Hind bint Zayd-Manāt ibn Zayd-Allah al-Ghassani, suggests she may have been a devotee of the pagan Arab goddess named Manat who is also mentioned in the Quran 53:20. This gives us an indication of the belligerent nature of pre-Islamic Arab religion that the Prophet Muhammad and Muslims would encounter nearly eight decades later.
541 CE/81 BH Byzantine military commander Belisarius fought in the Battle of Nisibis. Before the battle, he assured his military council that it was safe for his troops to leave Syria and that Al-Mundhir III ibn al-Nu'man wouldn't attack it because the Arabs wouldn't engage in hostilities during the summer (which corresponded to the sacred month of Rajab on the lunisolar calendar).
567 CE/55 BH Birth of the Prophet Muhammad in the Year of the Elephant. This year, when the Ethiopian general Abraha led an expedition north into the Hijaz, is alluded to in the Quran 105:1: "Have you not noticed what your Lord did to the people of the elephant?"
570 CE/52 BH The Great Dam of Ma'rib, which was originally built in the 8th century BCE, breaks leading to a mass migration of Yemeni (Qahtani) tribes. This event is alluded to in the Quran 34:15-19: "Sheba's homeland used to be a marvel, with two gardens on the right and the left. Eat from your Lord's provisions, and be appreciative of Him - good land, and a forgiving Lord. They turned away and, consequently, we poured upon them a disastrous flood, and we substituted their two gardens into two gardens of bad tasting fruits, thorny plants, and a skimpy harvest. We thus requited them for their disbelief. Do we not requite only the disbelievers? We placed between them and the communities that we blessed other oases, and we secured the journey between them: "Travel therein days and nights in complete security." But they (turned unappreciative and) challenged: ‘Our Lord, we do not care if You increase the distance of our journeys (without any stations).’ They thus wronged their own souls. Consequently, we made them history, and scattered them into small communities throughout the land. This should provide lessons for those who are steadfast, appreciative."
610 CE/12 BH First revelation of the Quran. The Quran 2:185 says: "Ramadan is the month during which the Quran was revealed, providing guidance for the people, clear teachings, and the statute book. . . ."
613 CE/9 BH Some Muslims migrate to Ethiopia to escape religious persecution in Mecca, including Caliph Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqqayah, the prophet Muhammad's daughter.
622 CE/0 Hijra year zero. The Prophet Muhammed and other Muslims emigrate from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution. The Quran 9:117-118 says: “God has redeemed the prophet, and the immigrants (Muhajireen) and the supporters who hosted them and gave them refuge (Ansar), who followed him during the difficult times. That is when the hearts of some of them almost wavered. But He has redeemed them, for He is Compassionate towards them, Most Merciful. Also (redeemed were) the three who stayed behind. The spacious earth became so straitened for them, that they almost gave up all hope for themselves. Finally, they realized that there was no escape from God, except to Him. He then redeemed them that they may repent. God is the Redeemer, Most Merciful.”
622 CE/0 Constitution of Medina is written. The document describes the multi-ethnic and multi-religious inhabitants of Medina as “one Ummah” and extended protection and religious freedom to them (see "The ‘Constitution of Medina’: Some Notes," pp. 12-17)
623 CE/1 AH Battle of Badr. The Quran 3:123 says: "God has granted you victory at Badr, despite your weakness. Therefore, you shall observe God, to show your appreciation."
625 CE/3 AH Battle of Uhud
625 CE/3 AH the Jewish Rabbi Mukhayriq is martyred in the Battle of Uhud
627 CE/5 AH The Battle of the Confederates. The Quran 33:20-21 says: "They thought that the Confederates had not yet mobilized. And if the Confederates do appear, they wish that they were out with the Nomads, seeking out news for you. Even if they were among you, they would not have fought except very little. Indeed, in the messenger of God a good example has been set for you for he who seeks God and the Last Day and thinks constantly about God." Some have falsely claimed that the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayzah was "massacred" by Muhammad after this battle. But some historians have dismissed this claim as a myth. (see "Unraveling the Myth of the Banu Qurayzah: The Origins of Islamicate Genocide")
627 CE/5 AH Roman Emperor Heraclius is victorious against the Persians in 627 at the Battle of Nineveh but is later defeated by the Muslims in 636 at the Battle of Yarmouk. These events are alluded to in the Quran 30:2-6: "The Romans have won, At the lowest point on the earth. But after their victory, they will be defeated. In a few more years. The decision before and after is for God, and on that day those who acknowledge will rejoice. With God's victory. He gives victory to whom He wishes; He is the Noble, the Compassionate. Such is God's pledge, and God does not break His pledge, but most people do not know."
628 CE/6 AH The Prophet Muhammad signs Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
629 CE/7 AH The Battle of Khaybar and the exile of some in the Jewish community who collaborated with the enemy. The Quran 59:2-3 says: "He is the One who drove out those who rejected among the people of the book from their homes at the very first mass exile. You never thought that they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from God. But then God came to them from where they did not expect, and He cast fear into their hearts. They destroyed their homes with their own hands and the hands of those who acknowledge. So take a lesson, O you who possess vision. Had God not decreed to banish them, He would have punished them in this life. In the Hereafter they will face the retribution of the fire." (also see timeline for years 1130-1173 CE-508-551 AH)
629 CE/7 AH Zayd ibn Harithah, an Arab adopted son of the prophet Muhammad, was martyred in the Battle of Mu'tah. He was the husband of Umm Ayman, the father of Usama ibn Zayd, and the only companion of the prophet Muhammad to be mentioned by name in the Quran (see 33:37). Formerly enslaved, he was emancipated by the Prophet Muhammad
630 CE/8 AH The Prophet Muhammad's triumphant and peaceful return to Mecca after years of forced exile. The Quran 48:24-27 says: "He is the One who withheld their hands of aggression against you, and withheld your hands of aggression against them in the valley of Mecca, after He had granted you victory over them. God is Seer of everything you do. It is they who disbelieved and barred you from the Sacred Masjid, and even prevented your offerings from reaching their destination. There were believing men and women (within the enemy camp) whom you did not know, and you were about to hurt them, unknowingly. God thus admits into His mercy whomever He wills. If they persist, He will requite those among them who disbelieve with a painful retribution. While those who disbelieved were enraged, and their hearts were filled with the pride of the days of ignorance, God blessed His messenger and the believers with peaceful contentment, and directed them to uphold the word of righteousness. This is what they well deserved. God is fully aware of all things. God has fulfilled His messenger's truthful vision: 'You will enter the Sacred Masjid, God willing, perfectly secure, and you will cut your hair or shorten it (as you fulfill the pilgrimage rituals) there. You will not have any fear. Since He knew what you did not know, He has coupled this with an immediate victory.'"
630 CE/8 AH surprise attack on Muslims during the Battle of Hunayn inflicting heavy damage. The Quran 9:25-26 says: "God has granted you victory in many battlefields. On the day of Hunayn, when you were pleased with your great numbers but it did not help you at all, and the land became tight around you for what it held, then you turned to flee. Then God sent down tranquility upon His messenger and those who acknowledge, and He sent down soldiers which you did not see. He thus punished those who rejected. Such is the recompense of the ingrates."
632 CE/10 AH Islam spreads to various areas of Western Arabian. Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan, explains it as follows: "The Qur’an, read judiciously alongside later histories, suggests that during Muhammad’s lifetime, Islam spread peacefully in the major cities of Western Arabia. The soft power of the Qur’an’s spiritual message has typically been underestimated in most treatments of this period. The image of Muhammad and very early Islam that emerges from a careful reading of the Qur’an on peace-related themes contradicts not only widely held Western views but even much of the later Muslim historiographical tradition. This finding should come as no surprise. Life in medieval feudal societies did not encourage pacific theologies, and Muslims in later empires lost touch with the realities of the early seventh century." (see "Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires," pg. 3)
632 CE/10 AH Death of the Prophet Muhammad. During the chaos that followed, Umar ibn al-Khattab said: "Whoever worshiped Muhammad, let them know that Muhammad has died, and whoever worshiped Allah, let them know that Allah is alive and never dies."
632 CE/10 AH Umm Ayman, a formerly enslaved Ethiopian companion of the prophet Muhammad, dies. She was emancipated by the prophet Muhammad. She was the wife of the Prophet Muhammad's adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah and the mother of Usama ibn Zayd.
632-633 CE/10-11 AH Caliph Abu Bakr quashes rebellions in various parts of Arabia. Known as the "Wars of Apostasy'' in Sunni sources, this religious aspect of the rebellion is questioned by many historians. Dale F. Eickelman notes: "The assertion of the traditional Muslim historians that the Riddah was a period of religious apostasy has been regarded as untenable by most European scholars; it ls unlikely that more than a few tribes surrounding Mecca and Medina were converts to Islam by the time of the Prophet's death." (see "MUSAYLIMAH: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPRAISAL," pg. 2) Moreover, the Quran doesn't mention any punitive measures to be taken against those who "apostatize from their religion/yartadda minkum an dinihi". (see Quran 5:54)
634 CE/12 AH death of Caliph Abu Bakr Abdullah ibn Uthman
635 CE/13 AH The “Invisible Conquests”. So called because the violent conquests by Muslims mentioned in some dubious sources are conspicuously absent in the archaeological record. Daniel W. Brown, Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion in the Middle East (ISRME), explains it as follows: "If we look for evidence of the burning, looting, or destruction described by Bishop Sophronius in 635, we find none. No systematic sacking of cities took place, and no destruction of agricultural land occurred. The conquests brought little immediate change to religious and communal life. There were no mass or forced conversions. Christian, Jewish, or Zoroastrian communities in Syria and Iraq may have felt threatened, but they continued to thrive. New synagogues, churches, and monasteries were still being built into the eight century, and churches or synagogues were not converted to mosques on any noticeable scale. The first urban mosques were not built until after 690, and the urban landscape of the Near East remained largely unaffected by the conquests (Pentz 1992). There was certainly change, but in the same directions and at the same pace as before the conquests (Morony 1984: 507-26). Two key measures offer telling evidence that the conquests brought little immediate disruption to the patterns of religious and social life in Syria and Iraq: production of wine (forbidden in Islamic Law) continued unchanged, and pigs (considered unclean by Muslims) continued to be raised and slaughtered in increasing numbers (Pentz 1992).” (see "A New Introduction to Islam," pg. 129)
637 CE/15 AH Arab-Ethiopian Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visits Jerusalem and allows Jews to return after a ban that had been in place since the time of Emperor Hadrian
637 CE/15 AH Umar ibn al-Khattab purportedly signs the "The Pact of Umar". The document is believed by historians like David J. Wasserstein to be falsely attributed to Umar: "It is neither a pact nor does it have any real association with a caliph called Umar. It purports to be a political-administrative document of the seventh or eighth century but is probably a literary forgery of the ninth century or later. It appears to lay down the rights and obligations of Christians, as a distinct section of society, towards the Muslims, as their new rulers following the massive Islamic conquests of the seventh-eighth centuries. But its contents reflect what had come to be the status of Christians in the world dominated by Islam centuries after those conquests. Its contents belong to the Middle Ages but it reflects attitudes and practices that survive to this day." (see "YaleBooks," August 16, 2017) Despite its dubious historicity, the Pact of Umar has recently become popular among Islamophobes who believe it to be historical proof of discrimination against non-Muslims under Islam. One infamous Islamophobe admitted its dubious historicity but still uses it in his anti-Islamic polemics: "Now: did I actually say the thing was historical? Nope…I wasn’t actually dealing with the question of whether or not it was a real seventh-century document. I was and am interested in the patent and manifest fact that it became the basis for Islamic law regarding dhimmis. Whether the law came first and then was read into a fictional pact Umar made, or whether there really was a Pact of Umar and the fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) regarding dhimmis was influenced by it, simply doesn’t concern me, except as a matter of historical interest." (see "Loonwatch," March 1, 2010)
640 CE/18 AH Bilal ibn Rabah, a formerly enslaved Arab-Ethiopian companion of Muhammad, dies. Bilal had been emancipated by Muhammad's companion Abu Bakr in concordance with the Quran's abolitionist imperative: "He should choose the difficult path. Which one is the difficult path? The freeing of slaves.” (see Quran 90:11-13)
643 CE/21 AH a bilingual Arabic and Greek papyrus with Hijri and Coptic dates called PERF 558 is written. On the papyrus, the month of Parmouti on the Coptic calendar corresponds with the month of Jumada II on the Hijri lunisolar calendar, which suggests that the lunisolar calendar was still in use at the time.
644 CE/22 AH Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, a prominent Arab-Ethiopian companion of Muhammad, is martyred. (for Umar's Ethiopian ancestry, see Bernard Lewis' article 'The Crows of the Arabs,' in the 1985 journal Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 1, pg. 92)
656 CE/34 AH Caliph Uthman ibn Affan is murdered
661 CE/39 AH Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib is martyred
665 CE/33 AH Arab-Ethiopian Quranic scholar and wife of the Prophet Muhammad, Hafsa bint Umar, dies. Hafsa's Quran manuscript was used by Caliph Uthman to make copies to send to various parts of the world
681 CE/59 AH Usama ibn Zayd, an Arab-Ethiopian companion of the prophet Muhammad, dies. He was the son of Zayd ibn Harithah and Umm Ayman.
9TH CENTURY CE/3RD CENTURY AH Muslims object when Sunni scholars began abrogating the Quran and subverting it to the hadith and sunna. John Burton, Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies at the University of St Andrews, described it as follows: "Attempts by certain Muslim groups about the time of Shafi'i to impose a clear formal distinction between the Kur'an and the extra Kur'anic component of the Islamic Tradition are discernible, and it was chiefly to refute these efforts that Shafi'i composed his Risala. . . . A third, more rigorous opinion, rejected out of hand all sunnas on matters not explicitly mentioned in the Kur'an [laisa fihi nass kitab]. From this we see that Kur'an and Sunna were competing sources. The first group are recognisably 'ahl al-Hadith' while the last group might, with justice, be termed 'ahl al-Kur'an', vigilant against any attempt to introduce from whatever quarter additions to the provisions of the revealed Book of God." (see "The Sources of Islamic Law," pp 22-25)
814 CE/192 AH Persian Muslim poet Abu Nuwas dies after prolonged imprisonment
815 CE/193 AH Arab Muslim scholar Dirar ibn Amr dies. He was among the Ahl al-Quran who opposed subverting the Quran to the hadith and sunna
817 CE/195 AH Arab Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian Abu Bakr al-Asamm dies. He was among the Ahl al-Quran who opposed subverting the Quran to the hadith and sunna
820 CE/198 AH Persian Muslim mathematician and astronomer Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi writes pioneering book on algebra titled "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing" (al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābala). The word algebra comes from al-jabr, the Arabic word he used referring to adding a number to both sides of the equation to consolidate or cancel terms. He also wrote a book on the lunisolar calendar and the 19-year Metonic cycle
845 CE/223 AH African-Arab Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian Ibrahim an-Nazzam dies. His grandfather was an enslaved African. He was among the Ahl al-Quran who opposed subverting the Quran to hadith and sunna. A skeptic who influenced later skeptics like ar-Razi, he believed that "the first absolute requirement of knowledge is doubt." (see "Islamic Thought: From Mohammed to September 11, 2001," pp. 147-152)
857 CE/235 AH death of the Spanish Muslim polymath Abu l-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Nafi'. Originally of African Iraqi descent, he was also known as Ziryab, or Blackbird, because of his dark skin color.
869 CE/247 AH African-Arab Muslim writer and theologian al-Jahiz dies. Al-Jahiz was a student of an-Nazzam and was an early proponent of evolution: "Islamic science had a considerable history of speculation about the evolution of species. Al-Jahiz (real name Abu Uthmen Amr ibn Bahr al-Fuqaimi al-Basri) (ca. 780-ca. 869), an Afro-Arab descendant of an African slave, wrote that the effect of the environment can cause animals to develop new characteristics and can thus lead to new species (Sarton, 1975; Bayrakdar, 1983).” (see "Origins and Evolution of Life: An Astrobiological Perspective")
869 CE/247 AH the Zanj slave revolution begins. Inspired by Islam's egalitarian ethos, free and enslaved Africans and their Bedouin Arab allies revolt against the Abbasid aristocracy in what is now Iraq.
1031 CE/409 AH the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain was overthrown and the Cordoban Republic established. It was the first Islamic republic since the Medinan republic
1037 CE/415 AH Persian Muslim scientist Al-Biruni accurately measures the circumference of the earth
1041 CE/419 AH Arab Muslim scientist Ibn al-Haytham dies. A thoroughgoing scientist, he gave timeless advice on how to approach science and scientists: "Truth is sought for its own sake. Finding the truth is difficult and the road to it is rough. For the truths are plunged in obscurity. . . it is natural for everyone to regard scientists favorably. God however has not preserved the scientist from error and has not safeguarded science from shortcomings and faults. If this had been the case, scientists would not have disagreed upon any point of science, and their opinions upon any question concerning the truth of things would not have diverged. . . A person studying science with a view of knowing the truth ought to turn himself into a hostile critic of everything that he studies. . . He should criticize it from every point of view and in all its aspects. And while thus engaged in criticism he should also be suspicious of himself." (see "The No-Nonsense Guide to Islam," pg. 85)
1084 CE/462 AH Spanish Muslim poet Abu Amir Ahmad Ibn Gharsiya al-Bashkunsi dies. Of Basque descent, Ibn Gharsiya (Garcia) wrote about the value of non-Arab people and cultures.
1099 CE/477 AH The Siege of Jerusalem. Christian Crusaders from Europe lay siege to the city and massacre its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants.
1130-1173 CE/508-551 AH Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela visits the thriving Jewish community in Khaybar centuries after it had supposedly been "massacred" (to use the phraseology of The Jerusalem Post and related hasbara media) by the prophet Muhammad after the Battle of Khaybar. The names of the Nasi of Khaybar and Tayma were R. Hanan and Salmon. Nasi being the Jewish religious title mentioned in the Quran 9:37. The Nasi was responsible for calendrical intercalation among other things (see "The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights," pg. 69). Sunni and Shia extremists are fond of shouting the slogan: "Khaybar, Khaybar ya yahud, jaysh Muhammad qadimun/Khaybar, Khaybar o Jews, the army of Muhammad is coming." And Jewish extremists are fond of pointing to this slogan as proof of the inherently antisemitic nature of Islam. Strange bedfellows. . .
1210 CE/588 AH Persian Muslim scholar and theologian Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi dies. "I have experienced all the methods of theology and all the ways of philosophy, but I did not find in them the benefit which could equal the benefit I derived from the reading of the exalted Qur’an," said ar-Razi. Known as the "Leader of the Skeptics (Imām al-Mushakkikīn)," he debunked popular pseudoscience like the belief in a flat earth using reason and the Quran: "It [God's revealed word] has made certain by way of proof that the earth is a sphere, that the sky surrounds it, and that there is no doubt that the sun is in the heavenly firmament. It also says that 'He of the Two Horns' found a people in the vicinity of the sun. However, it is well known that there are no people in the vicinity of the sun. It is also well known that the sun is many times larger than the earth. Is it rational, therefore, to assume that it enters into one of the springs of the earth?" (see "Sceptics of Islam: Revisionist Religion, Agnosticism and Disbelief in the Modern Arab World" pg. 115)
1240 CE/618 AH female Indian ruler Razia Sultana, known for her wise and just rule, is murdered by aristocrats for her alleged relationship with her African lover Jamal-ud-Din Yaqut
1258 CE/636 AH Hulagu Khan, a son of Genghis Khan, lays siege to Baghdad. Tens of thousands of people were killed and the library known as the House of Wisdom was destroyed.
1311 CE/689 AH Malian emperor Mansa Abubakari Keita II leads an exploratory expedition of 2,000 ships into the Atlantic ocean. They never returned.
1352 CE/730 AH the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta visits the city of Walata, in the West African empire of Mali, and discovers that the Muslim women don't veil themselves or segregate themselves from men: "Their women are of surpassing beauty, and are shown more respect than the men. The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary. Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother's brother. A person's heirs are his sister's sons, not his own sons. This is a thing which I have seen nowhere in the world except among the Indians of Malabar. But those are heathens; these people are Muslims, punctilious in observing the hours of prayer, studying books of law, and memorizing the Koran. Yet their women show no bashfulness before men and do not veil themselves, though they are assiduous in attending the prayers. Any man who wishes to marry one of them may do so, but they do not travel with their husbands, and even if one desired to do so her family would not allow her to go. The women there have 'friends' and 'companions' amongst the men outside their own families, and the men in the same way have 'companions' amongst the women of other families. A man may go into his house and find his wife entertaining her 'companion' but he takes no objection to it. One day at Iwalatan I went into the qadi's house, after asking his permission to enter, and found with him a young woman of remarkable beauty. When I saw her I was shocked and turned to go out, but she laughed at me, instead of being overcome by shame, and the qadi said to me 'Why are you going out? She is my companion.' I was amazed at their conduct, for he was a theologian and a pilgrim [to Mecca] to boot. I was told that he had asked the sultan's permission to make the pilgrimage that year with his 'companion'--whether this one or not I cannot say--but the sultan would not grant it." (see "Illuminating the Blackness: Blacks and African Muslims in Brazil," pg. 233)
1374 CE/752 AH Spanish Muslim philosopher and physician Ibn al-Khatib is martyred after the Sunni scholar Qadi al-Nubahi wrote a fatwa calling his beliefs heretical. Al-Khatib wrote a treatise on the transmission of contagious diseases like the bubonic plague. He was skeptical of the pseudoscience based on hadiths called "Prophetic Medicine/Tibb an-Nabawi". He said: "Traditions concerned with the medicine of the Prophet are of the Bedouin type. It is in no way part of divine revelation. Such medical matters were merely part of Arab custom and happened to be mentioned in connection with the circumstances of the Prophet, like other things that were customary in his generation. They were not mentioned in order to imply that that particular way of practicing medicine is stipulated by the religious law. Muhammad was sent to teach us the religious law. He was not sent to teach us medicine or any other worldly matter. . . None of the statements concerning medicine that occur in sound traditions should be considered to have the force of law. There is nothing to indicate that this is the case." (see "Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia" pg. 37)
1455 CE/833 AH Pope Nicolas V issues papal bull justifying the perpetual enslavement of African Muslims on theological grounds: "We [therefore] weighing all and singular the premises with due meditation, and noting that since we had formerly by other letters of ours granted among other things free and ample faculty to the aforesaid King Alfonso—to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery." (see "Pope Nicolas V and the Portuguese Slave Trade")
1522 CE/900 AH Muslim slave rebellion in Santo Domingo colony in the Caribbean led by the Wolof people from what is now the West African country of Senegal
1614 CE/992 AH expulsion of the Moriscos (i.e., crypto-Muslims) from Spain
1630 CE/1008 AH Muslim businessman Anthony Jansen Van Salee (who was born in Cartagena, Spain in 1607 CE) arrives in New Amsterdam (later renamed New York). The pioneering mulatto immigrant is known to have brought the first copy of the Arabic Quran to North America with him. He counts among his descendants the US President Warren G. Harding and the First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
1638 CE/1016 AH Anthony Jansen Van Salee refused to contribute to the salary of the domine of colonial New Amsterdam's established church, Reverend Everardus Bogardus. In what appears to be motivated by anti-Muslim bias, Reverend Everardus Bogardus sued Anthony Jansen Van Salee. Months later, Van Salee would counter-sue Bogardus.
1671 CE/1049 AH English Enlightenment philosopher Henry Stubbe writes a pro-Islamic tract titled "An Account of the Rise and Progress of Mahometanism, and a Vindication of him and his Religion from the Calumnies of the Christians"
1683 CE/1061 AH a German translation of the Quran is brought to Germantown, PA by a settler
1688 CE/1066 AH the Fulani Muslim scholar Muhammad al-Wali dies. He wrote a critique of astrology, a popular superstition in the area of West Africa where he lived. (see "Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures," pg. 369-370)
1697 CE/1075 AH Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead executed for blasphemy. He was accused of having "preferred Muhammad to Christ". He was the last person to be executed for blasphemy in Britain.
1733 CE/1111 AH formerly enslaved American Quranic scholar Ayuba Suleiman Diallo travels to England and writes Quranic manuscripts
1765 CE/1143 AH American President Thomas Jefferson purchases a copy of the Quran
1776 CE/1154 AH Muslim scholar Abd al-Qadr Kan is elected Almami, or ruler, of Futa Toro (in present day Senegal) and abolishes the European slave trade in his realm. The enslaved Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said and the Muslim abolitionist Emir Samba Makumba were also from Futa Toro. It's interesting to note that modern apologists for the barbaric European slave trade, like the atheist historian Niall Ferguson, often justify it by engaging in whataboutism: "The moral simplification urge is an extraordinarily powerful one, especially in this country, where imperial guilt can lead to self-flagellation," he explains. "And it leads to very simplistic judgments. The rulers of western Africa prior to the European empires were not running some kind of scout camp. They were engaged in the slave trade. They showed zero sign of developing the country's economic resources. Did Senegal ultimately benefit from French rule? Yes, it's clear. And the counterfactual idea that somehow the indigenous rulers would have been more successful in economic development doesn't have any credibility at all." (see “The Guardian,” February 19, 2011) However, the tendency of slavery apologists like Ferguson to blame the victim is rejected by other experts: "It is utterly wrong to assert, for instance, that Africans themselves are to blame for the development of the slave trade or to speak of equal co-operation between European and African slave traders, just as it is absolutely incorrect to exaggerate, as has been done in the last few years, the role of the Arab slave trade in East Africa while diminishing the role and consequences of the Atlantic trade." (see "The African slave trade from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century: reports and papers of the meeting of experts organized by UNESCO at Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 31 January to 4 February 1978," pg. 27)
1790 CE/1168 AH American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin writes a satire of American Christian hypocrisy on slavery titled "Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade"
1790 CE/1168 AH Russian poet Alexander Pushkin reads a Russian translation of the Quran. Inspired, he would later go on to write the poems "Imitations of the Quran" in 1824 and "The Prophet" in 1826.
1790 CE/1168 AH the South Carolina House of Representatives passed the Moors Sundry Act of 1790 after being petitioned by Francis, Daniel, Hammond and Samuel and their wives Fatima, Flora, Sarah and Clarinda. The act allowed some Muslims in early America to get around racist laws like the Negro Act of 1740.
1791 CE/1169 AH Paul Ali fights in the Haitian Revolution
1796 CE/1174 AH Treaty of Tripoli was ratified by the US Senate and signed by President John Adams. Article 11 of the treaty states: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
1806 CE/1184 AH American President John Adams purchases a Quran
1807 CE/1185 AH Muslim abolitionist Jonas Mohammed Bath arrives in Trinidad
1812 CE-1190 AH enslaved American Muslim scholar Bilali Muhammad and other enslaved American Muslims defend Sapelo Island (off the coast of Georgia) from the British during the War of 1812
1814 CE/1192 AH American scholar George Bethune English is excommunicated from the Church of Christ after writing a book questioning the trinity and later converting to Islam
1819 CE/1197 AH American painter Charles Willson Peale paints portait of formerly enslaved American Muslim businessman Yarrow Mamout which is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The village of Yarrowsburg, MD was named after his children who first bought real estate in the area in 1825
1822 CE/1200 AH American painter James Alexander Simpson paints portrait of formerly enslaved American Muslim businessman Yarrow Mamout
1828 CE/1206 AH Abdulrahman Ibrahim ibn Sori, an American Muslim abolitionist, is emancipated by president John Quincy Adams and tours the country speaking out against slavery
1831 CE/1209 AH enslaved American Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said writes an autobiography in Arabic
1835 CE/1213 AH enslaved Muslims fight for their freedom in the Male slave revolt in Brazil
1838 CE/1216 AH Trinidadian Muslim abolitionist Mohammed Jonas Bath dies
1841 CE/1219 AH American Quaker minister and abolitionist John Jackson encounters Quranic scholar and abolitionist Emir Samba Makumba in Trinidad. Jackson describes Makumba's Quranic based abolitionism as follows: "The old man said that he mourned over the condition of the Christian world; he regretted that their youth were in danger of being drawn away by the evil practices of the Christians. He thought it was safe to judge people by their actions. And when he saw the Christians holding those of their own faith in slavery, engaging in wars with members of their own church, and addicted to habits of intemperance, all of which the Koran forbids, he thought it was sufficient evidence that the religion of Mahomet was superior to the religion of Anna Bissa, (Jesus Christ)." (Note: Jackson probably meant to write an-Nabi Issa not Anna Bissa, see "Brief Memoir of John Jackson," pg. 122)
1841 CE/1219 AH Tunisia abolishes slavery. France abolished slavery seven years later in 1848
1850-1855 CE/1228-1233 AH European explorer, Heinrich Barth, encounters an "enlightened" Fulani Muslim philosopher, Faki Sambo, in the "dark" continent: "I could scarcely have expected to find in this out-of-the-way place a man not only versed in all the branches of Arabic literature, but who had even read (nay, possessed a manuscript of) those portions of Aristotle and Plato which had been translated into, or rather Mohammedanized in Arabic, and who possessed the most intimate knowledge of the countries which he had visited. His forefathers, belonging to that tribe of the Fulbe which is called Fittobe, had emigrated into the southern parts of Waday, where they settled in the village of Barekalla. When he was a young man, his father, who himself possessed a good deal of learning, and who had written a work on Hausa, had sent him to Egypt, where he had studied many years in the mosque of El A'zhar. . . . After having once made the acquaintance of this man, I used to visit him daily, and he was always delighted to see, or rather to hear me, for he had nobody with whom he could talk about the splendor and achievements of the Khalifat, from Baghdad to A'ndalos (Spain)--particularly of the latter country, with the history of whose towns, kings, and literary men he was intimately acquainted. He listened with delight when I once mentioned the astrolabe or sextant, and he informed me with pride his father had been in possession of such an instrument, but that for the last twenty years he had not met a single person who knew what sort a thing an astrolabe was. He was a very enlightened man. . . ." (see "Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, Volume 2," pp. 506-507)
1850 CE/1228 AH in a speech to the Senate, Jefferson Davis justifies slavery on theological grounds: "[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God. . . it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation. . . it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts." (see “SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES”)
1856 CE/1234 AH American Senator and abolitionist Charles Sumner almost beaten to death in the Senate chamber by Representative Preston Brooks after saying slavery is not derived from the Quran. In 1853, Sumner quoted from the Quran: "And unto such of your slaves," says the Koran, in words worthy of adoption in the legislation of Christian countries, "as desire a written instrument allowing them to redeem themselves on paying a certain sum, write one, if ye know good in them, and give them of the riches of God which he hath given you." Later, Sumner said: "It [Southern slavery] is not derived from the Mohammedan Law; for, under the mild injunctions of the Koran, a benignant service, unlike yours, has prevailed" (see "White Slavery in the Barbary States," pg. 121)
1861 CE/1239 AH first Tunisian Constitution
1863 CE/1241 AH Tunisian General Husayn Pasha writes to United States Consul Amos Perry calling for the abolition of slavery in America. Pasha wrote: "As regards the effect of slavery and how people were affected by its abolition, the answer is that since ownership of human beings is neither obligatory nor necessary for sustaining life, abandoning it was not difficult, and the people of our kingdom were not grieved at its disappearance. . . . I believe that universal freedom and an end to slavery have a bearing not only on the growth of prosperity but also on elevating human morality. Their bearing on the growth of prosperity is obvious, since there can be no prosperity without justice, and freedom is a product of justice. If it is lacking then there is oppression which heralds the collapse of prosperity and its disappearance through lack of freedom. . . . Finally, Mr Consul-General, we ask you to believe that we are greatly troubled by the wars occurring among your people, that are causing such grief to humanity, and to be assured of our great sympathy for those poor slaves." (see "The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam," pp. 185-187)
1865 CE/1243 AH the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified abolishing slavery
1865 CE/1243 AH the Arab traveler Abdurahman al-Baghdadi al-Dimashqi visits Bahia, Brazil and discovers that the Muslim women there don't veil themselves: “The Muslims wanted to pray tarawih. I led them in this prayer with only ten prostrations, aiming to facilitate the task for them. Their women are like the [European] Frank ones; they do not veil themselves.” (see "Illuminating the Blackness: Blacks and African Muslims in Brazil," pg 232)
1869 CE/1247 AH British scholar John Davenport writes a sympathetic treatment of Islam titled "An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran".
1872 CE/1250 AH Sierra Leonean scholar Edward Wilmot Blyden describes the Islamic abolitionist movement known as Hubbu in what is now the West African country of Guinea. The anti-slavery Hubbus under the leadership of the Islamic scholar Mamadou Juhe were the enemies of the pro-slavery Sori dynasty. Ironically, the abolitionist Abdulrahman Ibrahim ibn Sori belonged to the Sori dynasty and was initially pro-slavery.
1873 CE/1251 AH the Muslim Hausa Force emancipates numerous nnonkofoo (slaves) in what is now the West African country of Ghana
1878 CE/1256 AH Turkish Muslim scientist Hüseyin Tevfik Pasha writes manifesto for the Rhode Island Historical Society debunking stereotypes about Islam and Muslims, specifically about women and slavery
1882 CE/1260 AH Turkish Muslim scientist Hüseyin Tevfik Pasha writes pioneering book on linear algebra
1886 CE/1264 AH American Muslim pioneer Anthony Jansen Van Salee's Quran is sold to a descendant named Richard M. Johnson of Kingston, NJ. It disappeared shortly thereafter
1893 CE/1271 AH American Muslim activist and Civil War vet, John A. Lant, co-founds the First Society for the Study of Islam in America. He was a champion of Islamic and progressive causes.
1893 CE/1271 AH American Muslim, Alexander Russell Webb, gives a lecture at the Manhattan Liberal Club according to the free thought periodical, The Truth Seeker. He told the periodical that Islam had been slandered: "European works on Islam and its founder contain little else than abuse. Dean Prideaux, a Christian author, was naturally biased, and utterly unacquainted with his subject. This man is accused of deliberately inserting in the Koran a line of his own composition and invention to throw discredit upon Mohammed. Sale, in his later translation, exposed the fraud." (see the 1893 periodical The Truth Seeker, vol. 20, pp. 224 and 232)
1895 CE/1273 AH Indian Muslim scholar Chiragh Ali dies
1897 CE/1275 AH English scholar Sir Thomas Walker Arnold publishes a pioneering history of the spread of Islam titled "The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith". It was one of the earliest unbiased treatment of the subject by a non-Muslim. He wrote: "Thus from its very inception Islam has been a missionary religion, both in theory and in practice, for the life of Muhammad exemplifies the same teaching and the Prophet himself stands at an entrance for their faith into the hearts of unbelievers. Moreover it is not in the cruelties of the persecutor or the fury of the fanatic that we should look for the evidences of the missionary spirit of Islam, any more than in the exploits of that mythical personage, the Muslim warrior with sword in one hand and Qur'an in the other,--but in the quite, unobtrusive labours of the preacher and the trader who have carried their faith into every quarter of the globe. Such peaceful methods of preaching and persuasion were not adopted, as some would have us believe, only when political circumstances made force and violence impossible or impolitic, but were most strictly enjoined in numerous passages of the Qur'an. . . ." (see "The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith," pp. 4-5)
1905 CE/1283 AH Iranian Constitutional Revolution
1905 CE/1283 AH Egyptian Muslim physician Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi wrote an article titled "Al-Islam huwa ul-Qur'an Wahdahu/Islam is the Qur'an Alone"
1908 CE/1286 AH Egyptian Muslim physician Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi wrote an article titled "The Qur'an and Science"
1916 CE/1294 AH Indian Muslim scholar Maulvi Abdullah Chakralavi, founder of the Siryan Wala Masjid, dies
1924 CE/1302 AH abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate and the establishment of the Turkish Republic
1927 CE/1305 AH reformist Chinese Muslim scholar Wang Jingzhai translated the Quran into Chinese. Wang Jingzhai said: "Islamic thought strives toward the recognition that there is a Creator. As such, it is scientific, not mythological. This is the single point of our theology. Scientists generally believe that whatever is religious is in all ways superstitious and mythological. In actuality, these two things are, simply, rejected by our religion, because Islam preaches that culture emphasizes the rational." (see "Modernist Islam 1840-1940: A Sourcebook," pg. 371)
1930 CE/1308 AH Chinese Muslim intellectual Uthman Ibn al-Haj Nur al-Haqq al-Sini al-Hanafi promotes Quranic based reforms in China. He was influenced by the reformist ideas of Egyptian physician Muhammad Tawfiq Sidqi.
1930 CE/1308 AH Egyptian Muslim scholar Mohammed Abu Zaid al-Damanhury publishes a Quranic commentary titled "Guidance and Wisdom from Interpretation of the Quran using the Quran/Al-hidaya wal-‘irfan fi tafsir al-Qur’an bil-Qur’an" and is persecuted by the Sunni establishment
1940 CE/1318 AH Egyptian Muslim journalist Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad criticizes Hitler and Nazism
1943 CE/1321 AH Bosnian and Albanian Muslims sheltered Jews from the Nazis. A Sudanese Muslim named Mohammed Helmy also sheltered Jews from the Nazis
1944 CE/1322 AH Iranian Muslim scholar and Imam of the Sepahsalar Mosque, Mirza Rida Quli Shari'at-Sanglaji, dies. He said: "Islam was the religion of the intellect, of logic and of nature (fitrat); the religion of monotheism and the destruction of idols; the religion of virtue and of morals; the religion of patience and of courage, of science and of rectitude. Islam was the law of humanism; it gave man freedom of spirit, of knowledge and intelligence. Islam delivered man from the slavery of priests. It recognized no intermediary between the Creator and the created. Islam annulled the cult of stones [idols] and the cults of anything other than God. When a man became Muslim and took refuge in the Koran, he no longer needed an intermediary between himself and God. Islam has forbidden blind imitation (taqlid-i kurkurana). It opposed action based on personal opinion (zann)." (see "Authority and Political Culture in Shi'ism," pg. 172)
1947 CE/1325 AH Egyptian scholar Muhammad Ahmad Khalafallah writes pioneering doctoral dissertation on parables in the Quran titled "Al-Fann al-Qasas fi l-Quran al-Karim/The Narrative Art in the Holy Qur'an"
1948 CE/1326 AH more than 700,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes in Palestine during the Nakba
1964 CE/1342 AH the Hajj of American Muslim human rights activist Malcolm X and the founding of Muslim Mosque Inc. Malcolm said his human rights activism was motivated by the Quran: "The Koran compels the Muslim world to take a stand on the side of those whose human rights are being violated no matter what the religious persuasion of the victim is. Islam is a religion, which concerns itself with the human rights of all mankind, despite race, color, or creed. It recognizes all (everyone) as part of one human family." (see "Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements," pg. 61)
1964 CE/1342 AH American Muslim human rights activist Malcolm X talks about the importance of women: "If you are in a country that’s progressive, the woman is progressive. If you are in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it is because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you’ll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed it’s because the women don’t have education. So one of the things I became thoroughly convinced of in my recent travels is the importance of giving freedom to the woman, giving her education, and giving her the incentive to get out there and put that same spirit and understanding in the children. And I frankly am proud of the contributions that our women have made in the struggle for freedom, and I’m one person who’s for giving them all of the leeway possible, because they have made a greater contribution than many of us men." (see "The Portable Malcolm X Reader," pp. 570-571)
1965 CE/1343 AH American Muslim human rights activist Malcolm X is martyred
1972 CE/1350 AH Sanaa Quran Manuscript discovered and later dated to second half of the 7th century
1974 CE/1352 AH Egyptian-American Imam Rashad Khalifa discovers the mathematical structure of the Quran
1975 CE/1353 AH American Imam W.D. Mohammed succeeds father Elijah Muhammad as leader of the NOI. He held up a Quran and told his followers that: "We have to take this down from the shelf. . . . We say we are Muslims. What my father taught that is in this book, we will keep. What is not in this book, we have to give up." (see the "Chicago Tribune," October 20, 2002) "If you want all the hadiths, then you should leave this community because I’m telling you, right now, I don’t accept all the hadiths. They have made too much trouble and confusion in the Muslim society," he said. (see "Bilalian News," February 22, 1980, pg. 24)
1978 CE/1356 AH Masjid Tucson founded by Egyptian American Imam Rashad Khalifa
1981 CE/1359 AH Egyptian American Imam Rashad Khalifa publishes English translation of Quran
1985 CE/1363 AH Pakistani scholar Ghulam Ahmed Perwez dies
1986 CE/1364 AH Kurdish American scholar and activist Edip Yuksel rejects hadith based sectarianism after correspondence with Rashad Khalifa
1987 CE/1365 AH Egyptian scholar Ahmed Subhy Mansour is arrested by Egyptian authorities for questioning the authority of hadiths
1988 CE/1386 AH former American NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad publishes autobiography in which he talks about his journey towards Islam: "The only other activity I was interested in was renewing my studies in the Islamic faith. Through Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I was in contact with a major mosque in Washington. They suggested that I might study with a learned Muslim, Rashad Khalifa. As fate would have it, Khalifa lived two blocks from me in St. Louis. I'm not the type to go around preaching my beliefs or to come on strong trying to recruit converts to my religion. If you know anything about the Islamic faith, I don't have to explain. If you aren't familiar with the basics of Islam, you should go and find out before you make any judgements or draw conclusions. All I'll say is that I found my beliefs put into the right words and given full expression in Islam. The more I studied, the more I felt like I'd found my spiritual touchstone. Life was pretty calm for me through the summer, and in training camp under Coryell. In the evenings, I would go to study with Khalifa. Sometimes we talked sports. He was a real fan, and his son, Sammy, would go on to play in the Pittsburgh Pirates infield. Khalifa had organized a study group that met every Friday night at his home. There was an English guy, an Irishman, a Spaniard--a whole slew of individuals. We would study, reading the Koran in English and Arabic, until the sun came up. Then we would join in saying our morning Salat, or prayers, a Muslim tradition. . . . I drove over to Khalifa's house, rejoined my study group, and found the tranquility that was not going to be mine as long as I played football in St. Louis." (see "Rashad: Vikes, mikes, and something on the side," pp. 146-149)
1989 CE/1367 AH Fatwa against Egyptian-American Imam Rashad Khalifa by Saudi Sunni cleric
1990 CE/1368 AH Egyptian-American Imam Rashad Khalifa martyred by Sunni terrorist
1993 CE/1371 AH Indian Muslim scholar Chekannur Maulavi is believed to have been martyred by Sunni terrorists
1993 CE/1371 AH American Muslim scholar and activist Amina Wadud co-founds NGO Sisters in Islam. The NGO promotes women's rights. Wadud said: “I personally began my research, in terms of Quranic studies, simply to determine whether or not the experiences of Muslim women in all parts of the world as I had traveled were in fact the experiences of Islam towards women. In other words, I looked for a source that would most closely point me to, what was the divine intention towards women? If the divine intention was backwardness, prohibitions, narrow confines and subservience, then that was truly Islam, and I personally [did] not want to have anything to do with it. But if the true articulation was more than that, then Islam became something even more meaningful for me. So for me, the more I studied in the Quran, the more liberated I became, and the more affirmed I became as a Muslim.” (see "FRONTLINE," March 2002)
1994 CE/1372 AH Jewish terrorist kills 26 in mosque in Hebron, Israel
1995 CE/1373 AH Bosnian Muslim Genocide
1995 CE/1373 AH Indian Muslim scholar Aslam Jairajpuri dies
2007 CE/1385 AH Muslims are arrested in Egypt for rejecting hadiths
2007 CE/1385 AH American Muslim politician Keith Ellison sworn in with Quran belonging to Thomas Jefferson after election to the US House of Representatives
2007 CE/1385 AH American Muslim activist Kelly Wentworth founds the American Islamic Fellowship (AIF). She is also the Imam of the Atlanta Unity Mosque.
2007 CE/1385 AH Edip Yuksel, Martha Schulte-Nafeh, et al., publish an English translation of Quran
2008 CE/1386 AH American Muslim scholar Aisha Y. Musa publishes pioneering book titled "Hadith as Scripture"
2008 CE/1386 AH Mauritanian Muslim activist Biram Dah Abeid founds the "Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement"
2009 CE/1387 AH Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan is martyred by Shia terrorist
2012 CE/1390 AH Mauritanian Muslim abolitionists burn Maliki Sunni texts that justify slavery
2013 CE/1391 AH Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai criticizes Obama's hypocritical continuation of Bush's drone war in Pakistan in face-to-face meeting. In the same year she also spoke out against the Taliban saying: "They have made it — they have never studied Islam deeply. I think they have not read Koran, even, because in Islam it is said that it is the right of every girl and every boy to get education, to get knowledge. Islam says about equality, there’s no difference between a man and a woman. Islam tells us to respect each other, don’t judge either other on the basis of religion. So I think the terrorists have forgotten that. They only remember jihad and fighting. So I think they must read Koran first. They must learn from it first and then they say. So that’s why — they are just misusing the name of Islam for their own personal benefits." (see "The PBS NewsHour," October 11, 2013)
2013 CE/1391 AH Egyptian Muslim activist Gamal al-Banna dies
2014 CE/1392 AH American Muslim Michael Elwood (the dude who created this historical timeline) writes article critical of the New Atheists and their baseless criticism of Islam and the Quran (see “Loonwatch,” December 10, 2014)
2014 CE/1392 AH Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed says Muslims should make the Quran their only guide (see “Malay Mail,” October 13, 2014)
2014 CE/1392 AH eminent American Muslim mathematician Abdulalim Abdullah Shabazz dies. In 1992, the American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded him the "Mentor Award". And President Clinton awarded Shabazz the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in September 2000.
2015 CE/1393 AH Birmingham Quran manuscript radiocarbon dated to between 568 and 645 CE
2015 CE/1393 AH Sudanese Muslims charged with apostasy for rejecting hadiths
2015 CE/1393 AH Marina Mahathir, daughter of the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, criticizes the Arabization of Islam in Malaysia and Arab colonialism: “Islam has a very strong intellectual history, but there’s no intellect at all in the way Islam is taught here. We’re taught rituals; we’re not taught about the great thinkers and differences between them,” she said. “When you read the history of Islam when it first came down, it was about doing away with tribalism... but you now have this thing where you’re wanting to go to a tribe, or else, the other tribes, even though all are officially Muslim, are not allowed.” (see "Malay Mail," May 23, 2015)
2015 CE/1393 AH female Afghan Muslim religious scholar, Farkhunda Malikzada, is martyred after an argument with a Sunni Mullah
2015 CE/1393 AH the Open Mosque is founded by South African anti-aparthied activist and Muslim scholar Taj Hargey. "There should be a place here for my sisters, my mother, my daughter, my wife," Hargey said. "This place is much more like the prophet's own mosque than any other you'll see. Why? Because it has only one entrance. For both men and women." (see “VICE,” January 15, 2015)
2015 CE/1393 AH American Muslim Judge Carolyn Walker-Diallo sworn in on the Quran
2015 CE/1393 AH an atheist terrorist murders three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “My respect for the Abrahamic religions went up in the smoke and choking dust of September 11th. The last vestige of respect for the taboo disappeared as I watched the ‘Day of Prayer’ in Washington Cathedral, where people of mutually incompatible faiths united in homage to the very force that caused the problem in the first place: religion,” he wrote in 2012. (see "Washington Post," February 11, 2015)
2015 CE/1393 AH an atheist terrorist shoots at and bombs a mosque in Le Mans, France. "I am a Republican, an atheist, and what happened at Charlie Hebdo infuriated me," he said. (see "France24," February 26, 2015)
2016 CE/1396 AH Chinese Muslim, Huang Shike, sentenced to 2 years imprisonment by the atheist CCP for teaching the Quran. (see "HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH," February 24, 2021)
2016-2017 CE/1394-1395 AH Rohingya Muslim Genocide
2016 CE/1394 AH Pakistani Muslim women's rights activist Qandeel Baloch is killed by brother in "honor" killing
2016 CE/1394 AH Turkish Muslim scholar Yasar Nuri Ozturk dies
2016 CE/1394 AH a right-wing Iranian terrorist shoots and kills 9 in a shopping mall in Munich, Germany. The Iranian terrorist fancied himself white, Aryan, and German, and targeted immigrants. Despite his best efforts to pass himself off as white, Aryan, and German, a German man still called him a "fucking foreigner" in the middle of his shooting rampage. “I am German,” he insisted, shortly before shooting himself in the head. (see “The Guardian,” July 5, 2016)
2016 CE/1396 AH American Muslim Michael Elwood accurately predicts that Trump will bring disrepute and ruin to conservatives and Republicans and that some "Muslim" individuals and countries would support him (read the full discussion here)
2017 CE/1395 AH Malaysian Muslim scholar Kassim Ahmad dies
2017 CE/1395 AH Tunisian historian and Quranic scholar Mohamed Talbi dies
2017 CE/1395 AH Saudi Muslim scholar Hassan Farhan al-Maliki arrested by Saudi authorities
2017 CE/1395 AH white nationalist terrorist shoots and kills 6 in mosque in Quebec City, Canada
2017 CE/1396 AH American terrorism expert, Anthony Piel, describes the successful strategy he used to combat terrorism done in the name of Islam: "We made use of the fact that the Quran calls for social justice, the fair treatment of all, including due process of law, and the education of women. By contrast, it is parts of the various so-called Hadiths and Sharia Law, written hundreds of years after the Quran and the death of Mohammad in 632 A.D., and largely in contradiction to the Quran (e.g. the denial of education and the stoning of women), that falsely inspires ignorance, lunacy and terrorism, and calls for ISIS-style jihadi violence against the rest of the world." (see "TCPalm," March 2, 2017)
2018 CE/1396 AH Tunisia's parliament adopts anti-racism law
2018 CE/1396 AH Indian Arabic teacher Jamida beevi becomes the first female to lead mixed gender prayers in India. She said: "The clerics do not go by the Quran in all the instructions they give. They often do not know what is in the Quran. They go by Hadith. They cite ‘charitra rekhakal’ [historical documents] to say ‘good’ women should not go to the mosque, they are better off praying at home. For them, women with a sound moral character pray at home. They often quote a Hadith that a woman’s best prayer is in the innermost room of the house. But they have no evidence from the book [the Quran] in their favour. The Quran is the only solid evidence. And it addresses believing men and believing women, not just men. The Quran does not prohibit women from going to a masjid." (see “Frontline,” March 2, 2018)
2018 CE/1396 AH Indian-American Muslim scholar Irfan Ahmad Khan dies
2019 CE/1397 AH Syrian Muslim scholar Muhammad Shahrur dies
2019 CE/1397 AH Saudi intellectual, Abdul Rahman al-Ahdal, calls for the abandonment of hadiths and a return to the Quran. "If we erased all the jurisprudence and hadith books, and remained only on the book of God, would Islam lack anything," he asked. (see "Middle East Monitor," November 28, 2019)
2019 CE/1397 AH Quran schools shuttered and 100,000 Qurans burned by the atheist CCP in Zhongshahai and Yinchuan, China
2019 CE/1397 AH white nationalist terrorist and Trump admirer shoots and kills 51 in mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand
2020 CE/1398 AH white nationalist terrorist and Trump admirer shoots and kills 9 in 2 hookah bars frequented by immigrants in the German city of Hanau. In a video, the INCEL terrorist spouted wacky Q-Anon beliefs about devil-worshiping and child killing secret societies in America and called for the extermination of various ethnic groups.
2020 CE/1398 AH Danish right-wing extremists burn a Quran in Stockholm, Sweden. “Today, Stram Kurs, burned the Quran in Swedish sh*t hole ghetto Rinkenby. . . . A lot of criminals have said that we would never be able to do this. But we did it. Islam is an evil and primitive religion that has no place in Denmark, Sweden or any other civilised society,” the group wrote on its Facebook page. Burning books instead of reading them is pretty much on brand for the right in Europe. But burning books is not what “civilised” societies do. (see "Aljazeera," September 10, 2020)
2020 CE/1398 AH Daniel N. Jones publishes a study in the journal, "Social Psychological and Personality Science," that finds that Muslims who were familiar with the Quran were less likely to support violence: “It is important to note that all of these findings are similar in Islam (with the Quran) and Christianity (with the Bible). Muslim participants were peaceful when they were accurate in their knowledge of the Quran (or at least honest about what they did not know), and supported violence when they were overconfident in their knowledge of the Quran; identical findings emerged for Christian participants with the Bible,” Jones explained. (see "PsyPost," August 4, 2020)
2020 CE/1398 AH Turkish Muslim woman Zaynep Algi is criticized by Sunni scholar Mustafa Ozel after mocking a misogynistic hadith. Algi said she was a devout Muslim but that she did not "accept made-up hadiths imposed as religion by a patriarchal system that insults women.” She also said, "As a woman of faith, I do not take any discourse other than the Quran as a religious reference. Especially I object to the imposition of fabricated narrations, which I think contradict with the Quran, as religion, which paves the way for discrimination." (see “Serbestiyet,” October 6, 2020)
2020 CE/1398 AH Egyptian security forces arrest nine family members of Sherif Mansour, the DC-based Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists. They were released after being interrogated about him and his father, Dr. Ahmed Sobhy Mansour, a Muslim scholar who rejects the authority of hadiths. Authorities also arrested Sherif Mansour’s cousin, Reda Abdelrahman, who also rejects hadiths, falsely accusing him of joining a terrorist organization. (see "HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH," February 19, 2021)
2020 CE/1398 AH Queen Victoria's mini Quran goes on auction
2020 CE/1398 AH Algerian Muslim astrophysicist Nidhal Guessoum named in Richtopia's list of top 100 leaders in space exploration in 2021
2021 CE/1399 AH Indian Muslim marine scientist, Ali Manikfan, given the Padma Shri award. "The Quran asks us to think. In many places Allah asks us-why are you not thinking? Human beings are endowed with this rare capability to think and innovate, we should tap its full potential," he said. (see "Times of India," January 29, 2021)
2021 CE/1399 AH the Hindu president of the Shankaracharya Parishad says: “One who reads the Quran becomes a beast, they are no longer human. For those who wish to remain connected to India, they must give up the Quran and namaz. If we start boycotting Muslims socially and economically, they will embrace Hinduism.” He went on to say, unironically, that: “We want an army of one crore Hindu youth. We don’t need swayamsevak, we need a swayam-sena now. Pick up swords, guns or whatever you have, war has been declared and it will go on till we have a Hindu rashtra.” (see “ThePrint,” January 13, 2021)
2021 CE/1399 AH Sudanese singer Amna Haider causes a controversy after. . . reciting the Quran. One Sunni preacher accused her of trying to make the Quran sound like Christian hymns and songs. (see "SCOOPEMPIRE," January 25, 2021)
2021 CE/1399 AH Saudi authorities arrest female scholar, Aisha Al-Muhajiri, for teaching the Quran in her own home. (see "Middle East Monitor," February 15, 2021)