Calendar: | Islamic calendar |
Num: | 4 |
Days: | 29-30 (depends on actual observation of the moon's crescent) |
Prev Month: | Rabiʽ al-Awwal |
Next Month: | Jumada al-awwal |
Rabiʽ al-Thani (Arabic: رَبِيع ٱلثَّانِي|Rabīʿ ath-Thānī|lit=The second Rabi, also known as Rabi' al-Akhirah (Arabic: رَبِيع ٱلْآخِرَة|link=no|Rabi' al-ʾĀkhirah|lit=The final Rabi), Rabi al-Akhir (Arabic: رَبِيع ٱلْآخِر|Rabīʿ al-ʾĀkhir), or Rabi' II is the fourth month of the Islamic calendar. The name Rabī‘ al-Thani means "the second spring" in Arabic, referring to its position in the pre-Islamic Arabian calendar.
In the days of the Ottoman Empire, the name of this month in Ottoman Turkish was Rèbi' ul-aher, with the Turkish abbreviation Rè,[1] or Reb.-ul-Akh. in western European languages.[2] In modern Turkish, it is Rebiülahir or Rebiülsani.
The word "Rabi" means "spring" and Al-thani means "the second" in the Arabic language, so "Rabi' al-Thani" means "the second spring" in Arabic. As the Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, the month naturally rotates over solar years, so Rabīʽ al-Thani can fall in spring or any other season. Therefore, the month cannot be related to the actual season of spring.[3]
The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the tropical year, Rabī' al-Thānī migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Rabī' al-Thānī are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia[4]):
AH | First day (CE/AD) | Last day (CE/AD) | |
---|---|---|---|
1443 | 6 November 2021 | 4 December 2021 | |
1444 | 26 October 2022 | 24 November 2022 | |
1445 | 16 October 2023 | 14 November 2023 | |
1446 | 4 October 2024 | 2 November 2024 | |
1447 | 23 September 2025 | 22 October 2025 |