Ṣafar ( ar, صَفَر) also spelt as Safer in Turkish, is the second month of the lunar

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 ...

. The Arabic word ''ṣafar'' means "travel, migration", corresponding to the

pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE. Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Informatio ...

n time period when muslims flee the oppression of Quraish in Mecca and travelled (most of the them barefooted)to Madina. Most of the Islamic months were named according to ancient Arabian weather conditions; however, since the calendar is lunar, the months shift by about 11 days every solar year, meaning that these conditions do not necessarily correspond to the name of the month.

Timing

The

is a purely

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...

, and its months begin when the first crescent of a

new moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar ecl ...

is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the solar year, Safar migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Safar are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi ArabiaUmm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia
/ref>):

Islamic events

* 01 Safar 61 AH, prisoners of Karbalā entered Yazid's Palace in Syria * 10 Safar 61 AH, death of Sakina bint Husayn, youngest daughter of

Hussain ibn Ali Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...

and a prisoner of Karbalā * 17 Safar 202 AH, martyrdom of

Ali al-Ridha Ali ibn Musa al-Rida ( ar, عَلِيّ ٱبْن مُوسَىٰ ٱلرِّضَا, Alī ibn Mūsā al-Riḍā, 1 January 766 – 6 June 818), also known as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Thānī, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the ...

according to one tradition * 18 Safar, Grand Magal pilgrimage is celebrated at Touba,

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

, commemorating the departure of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba * 18, 19 and 20 Safar, Death Anniversary ( urs) of Ali Hajveri is celebrated at Data Darbar,

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

* Every 20 or 21 Safar, Arba'een or Chehlum (the 40th day after

Ashura Ashura (, , ) is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Among Shia Muslims, Ashura is observed through large demonstrations of high-scale mourning as it marks ...

) * 27 Safar 1 AH, Migration was started (

Hijrah The Hijrah or Hijra () was the journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. The year in which the Hijrah took place is also identified as the epoch of the Lunar Hijri and Solar Hijri calendars; its date e ...

) from Mecca to Medina by

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...

with

Abu Bakr Abu Bakr Abdallah ibn Uthman Abi Quhafa (; – 23 August 634) was the senior companion and was, through his daughter Aisha, a father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, as well as the first caliph of Islam. He is known with the honor ...

* 27 Safar 589 AH, death of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi * 28 Safar 11 AH,

fell deathly ill * 28 Safar 50 AH, Martyrdom of Imam Hasan ibn ‘Alī, grandson of

References

External links

Islamic-Western Calendar Converter (Based on the Arithmetical or Tabular Calendar)
{{IslamicMonths 2 Islamic terminology