These conquered countries Persia, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt all used a calendar with a different New Year date and a different historical starting point even though all four of them were solar calendars of 365 days. In 638 CE, about six years after the death of Prophet Muhammad, and sixteen years after the Hijra, (the escape of Muhammad and most of his followers, from oppression and persecution in the Arabian city of Makkah), Islam's second caliph, 'Umar, decided to create a new calendar to govern the affairs of Muslims and the lands newly conquered by them. We can learn some valuable lessons from the three different religions’ calendar systems. On September 1, Muslims celebrated the beginning of 1441 in the Islamic calendar, and on September 30, Jews will celebrate the beginning of 5780 in the Jewish calendar. In our modern era, using BCE and CE to stress a more universal, less sectarian Christian view of historical time seems to be growing. So, they have now started using the label CE (common era) and BCE (before the common era) for dating years. (the year of our Lord-Jesus) is sectarian. Although both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church calendars mark January first as the Feast of the Circumcision (of Jesus) few Americans or Europeans of any religion, would consider January first to be a religious holiday today.īut a growing number of academics in the disciplines of Comparative Religion, Asian History, and Archaeology do think that, if the New Year date of January 1 is not a sectarian day, to label the new year itself as A.D.
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