Names Of Months And The Lunar Calendar
In essence, the original meaning was lost when it changed to a lunar only cycle. The names were remnants of what they originally represented and so names like Rabbi Ul Awwal meant first month of spring, Rabi Uthhani meant second month and so on. The actual names of these months was lost and the meaning went too when Arabia expanded as an empire during the Ummayad period. It would be odd to think that the Arabs who made their living off farming would call January “first spring” and February “second spring”. They would have kept these seasons the same in order to make farming easier. If we calculate when Ramadan was based on when the Byzantines recorded the battle of Yarmouk then the Islamic date is Rajab which corresponds to August which the Byzantines had. This would make Shaban in September and Ramadan would be in October during those times. This does seem to suggest at least during those times, Ramadan was during October. It also makes the idea of Eid more interesting because then it would seem that during this period, they would harvest their crops, fast, and then at the end of the month they would celebrate by having a feast. Following this, camels would give birth during this time and it’s well established that camels mate during cooler months and if the pregnancies last around a year then the entire process takes place in winter. This would make sense for shawwal to be consistent with the society of Arabs at the time and then this would be followed by Hajj which would be during the winter which is in line with Qur’an 106:2. By switching to a lunar calendar, the days are not in sync because the actual orbit takes 365 days and the lunar months are 354 days and so you’re 11 days off each year and over time, the months will shift.