Arabic runs two calendars. The Islamic (Hijri) year has twelve lunar months, Muharram through Dhū al-Ḥijja, and it starts about eleven days earlier each Gregorian year. The Gregorian months have Arabic names in two competing sets: كانون الثاني (kānūn al-thānī) for January in the Levant and Iraq, يناير (yanāyir) in Egypt and the Gulf.
Almost every English-language list of Arabic months gives you only one of those three. That is why a learner who studied in Cairo lands in Beirut and cannot read the date on a newspaper masthead. All three lists are below, side by side.
The 12 Islamic (Hijri) months
The Hijri months are Muharram, Ṣafar, Rabīʿ al-Awwal, Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, Jumādā al-Ūlā, Jumādā al-Ākhira, Rajab, Shaʿbān, Ramaḍān, Shawwāl, Dhū al-Qaʿda and Dhū al-Ḥijja. They are the same twelve everywhere in the Muslim world, spelled the same way, so this is the one list on this page with no regional variants to worry about. The names are older than Islam and most of them describe the pre-Islamic season they originally fell in.
| No. | Arabic | Transliteration | What the name means | Notable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | محرم | Muḥarram | Forbidden | Sacred month. Ashura falls on the 10th |
| 2 | صفر | Ṣafar | Empty, as houses were when people left to travel | No fixed observances |
| 3 | ربيع الأول | Rabīʿ al-Awwal | The first spring | The Prophet's birth is marked on the 12th |
| 4 | ربيع الآخر | Rabīʿ al-Ākhir | The last spring | Also written ربيع الثاني, Rabīʿ al-Thānī |
| 5 | جمادى الأولى | Jumādā al-Ūlā | The first of the dry months | Also written Jumādā al-Awwal |
| 6 | جمادى الآخرة | Jumādā al-Ākhira | The last of the dry months | Also written Jumādā al-Thāniya |
| 7 | رجب | Rajab | To revere | Sacred month. The Night Journey is traditionally placed on the 27th |
| 8 | شعبان | Shaʿbān | To scatter, as tribes did when looking for water | The run-up to Ramadan |
| 9 | رمضان | Ramaḍān | Scorching heat | The month of fasting. Laylat al-Qadr falls in the last ten nights |
| 10 | شوال | Shawwāl | To lift or raise | Eid al-Fitr is the 1st |
| 11 | ذو القعدة | Dhū al-Qaʿda | The one of sitting, meaning sitting out of war | Sacred month |
| 12 | ذو الحجة | Dhū al-Ḥijja | The one of the pilgrimage | Sacred month. Hajj, and Eid al-Adha on the 10th |
Four of the twelve are sacred months, الأشهر الحرم (al-ashhur al-ḥurum): Dhū al-Qaʿda, Dhū al-Ḥijja, Muḥarram and Rajab. Three of them run back to back across the turn of the year and Rajab sits on its own in the middle. Fighting in them was forbidden, which is what let the pilgrimage and the trade fairs happen safely. If you are reading the Quran, this is the group referred to in Sūrat al-Tawba 9:36, and our Quran study resources page covers the tools for working through passages like it.
The Gregorian months in Arabic, in both regional sets
There is no single Arabic word for January. The Levant and Iraq use a set of Babylonian and Syriac names that arrived through Aramaic thousands of years ago. Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf use phonetic spellings of the Latin names. Both sets are standard written Arabic and an educated speaker will recognize either one. Only one of them sounds normal in any given country.
| Month | Levant and Iraq | Transliteration | Egypt, Sudan, Gulf | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | كانون الثاني | kānūn al-thānī | يناير | yanāyir |
| February | شباط | shubāṭ | فبراير | fibrāyir |
| March | آذار | ādhār | مارس | māris |
| April | نيسان | nīsān | أبريل | abrīl |
| May | أيار | ayyār | مايو | māyū |
| June | حزيران | ḥazīrān | يونيو | yūniyū |
| July | تموز | tammūz | يوليو | yūliyū |
| August | آب | āb | أغسطس | aghusṭus |
| September | أيلول | aylūl | سبتمبر | sibtambir |
| October | تشرين الأول | tishrīn al-awwal | أكتوبر | uktūbar |
| November | تشرين الثاني | tishrīn al-thānī | نوفمبر | nūfambir |
| December | كانون الأول | kānūn al-awwal | ديسمبر | dīsambir |
The Levantine column has a detail worth knowing. Several of those names are the Babylonian month names that also survive in the Hebrew calendar: Nisan, Iyar, Tammuz, Av and Elul are the same words as نيسان, أيار, تموز, آب and أيلول. They do not mean the same thing. Hebrew Nisan is a lunar month that drifts around spring; Arabic نيسان is April, exactly, always. Same name, different calendar underneath.
How to read these tables
Read left to right: script, then transliteration, then what it means. The Arabic is written unvocalized, the way it appears in a newspaper or on a form, because that is what you will actually meet. The vowels live in the transliteration column. Long vowels carry a macron (ā, ī, ū), the emphatic consonants carry a dot (ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ḥ), ʿ is the letter ayn and ʾ is hamza. That scheme is used consistently across this page.
The word for month is شهر (shahr). It has two plurals, and which one you use depends on the number in front of it: أشهر (ashhur) for three to ten, شهور (shuhūr) for eleven and up. Month names take في (fī, in) with no article, so "in April" is في نيسان (fī nīsān). Six phrases cover most of what you need:
| Arabic | Transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| أي شهر هذا؟ | ayy shahr hādhā | which month is this? |
| هذا الشهر | hādhā al-shahr | this month |
| الشهر الماضي | al-shahr al-māḍī | last month |
| الشهر القادم | al-shahr al-qādim | next month |
| كل شهر | kull shahr | every month |
| شهر رمضان | shahr Ramaḍān | the month of Ramadan |
Why the Hijri dates move
The Hijri calendar is lunar, and twelve lunar months come to about 354 days against the Gregorian year's 365. Every Hijri date therefore lands roughly 11 days earlier each Gregorian year, with no leap month inserted to correct it. That drift is the whole reason Ramadan travels: it works its way backwards through the seasons and returns to the same point after about 33 years, so a Muslim who lives long enough fasts through summer and winter both.
This has a consequence for tables like the ones above. No Hijri month maps onto a Gregorian month, so a chart pairing Muharram with January would be wrong in most years, and we have deliberately not built one. Month lengths are 29 or 30 days, and across much of the Muslim world the switch is settled by someone actually sighting the new crescent. That is why Eid can land on different days in neighboring countries. Printed conversion calendars are calculated in advance, so treat them as close rather than final.
Regional exceptions and the mistakes learners make
The mistake that costs most is assuming one Arabic word per month. A learner who memorized يناير in an Egyptian course will read كانون الثاني on a Syrian document and not recognize it as a month at all. Learn the pairs together. It costs you a few minutes and it is the difference between reading a Levantine newspaper and staring at one. Our Levantine Arabic resources and Egyptian Arabic resources pages cover the wider vocabulary split between the two regions.
North Africa adds a third layer. Algeria and Tunisia inherited French month names, so January is جانفي (jānfī), February فيفري (fīfrī), April أفريل (afrīl), May ماي (māy), June جوان (jwān), July جويلية (jwīliya) and August أوت (ūt). The remaining five look close to the Egyptian set. Morocco has its own list again, with forms like غشت (ghusht) for August that appear nowhere else; the Maghrebi Arabic resources page covers that family.
On the Hijri side the trap is smaller. The fourth and sixth months each go by two accepted names, ربيع الآخر or ربيع الثاني and جمادى الآخرة or جمادى الثانية. Neither version is wrong, and a calendar printed in one country may not use the version you learned. Do not read the seasonal meanings too literally either: Rabi means spring and Jumada means the dry season, but the drift has been running for fourteen centuries and the months stopped matching those seasons a very long time ago.
More Arabic reference tables
This page is one of a set of reference charts we keep for looking things up rather than reading through:
- Arabic numbers 1 to 100, with Eastern Arabic numerals alongside the written words
- Common Arabic phrases, each one given in Modern Standard, Levantine and Egyptian Arabic
- Our Arabic vocabulary lists, downloadable as plain files or ready-made Anki decks
Frequently asked questions
What are the 12 Arabic months?
If the question means the Islamic (Hijri) calendar, the twelve months are Muharram, Safar, Rabi al-Awwal, Rabi al-Akhir, Jumada al-Ula, Jumada al-Akhira, Rajab, Shaban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qada and Dhu al-Hijja. If it means January to December said in Arabic, there is no single answer: the Levant and Iraq use one set of names and Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf use another. Both sets are on this page.
Why does Ramadan move every year?
Because the Hijri calendar is lunar. Twelve lunar months run about 354 days against the Gregorian year's 365, so every Hijri date lands roughly 11 days earlier each Gregorian year. Ramadan therefore moves backwards through the seasons and returns to the same point after about 33 years.
Do all Arab countries use the same words for January and February?
No, and this is the single most common mistake in English-language month lists. Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Iraq say kanun al-thani and shubat. Egypt, Sudan and the Gulf states say yanayir and fibrayir. Algeria and Tunisia use French-derived names again, such as janfi for January. Everyone understands the Egyptian set in writing, but people will not use it in speech outside their own region.
What are the four sacred months in Islam?
Dhu al-Qada, Dhu al-Hijja, Muharram and Rajab. Three of them run consecutively at the turn of the year and Rajab stands alone in the middle. They are called al-ashhur al-hurum, the inviolable months, and fighting in them was forbidden in pre-Islamic Arabia as well as after.
What is the Arabic word for month?
Shahr, written shin-ha-ra. It takes two plurals: ashhur for counts of three to ten, and shuhur for eleven or more. The word also does duty as a title, so Ramadan is often called shahr Ramadan, the month of Ramadan.