- 著者
-
医王 秀行
- 出版者
- 一般社団法人 日本オリエント学会
- 雑誌
- オリエント (ISSN:00305219)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.43, no.2, pp.30-52, 2000 (Released:2010-03-12)
In the Jahiliya period, sanctuaries that enshrined various idols existed all over the Arabian Peninsula, and the Arab tribes who guarded the sanctuaries organized and ran various festivals and annual markets. A sacred month was fixed as the pilgrimage period (it was also the time for trade) in the peninsula to ensure the safety of pilgrims coming from a great distance. Since it was necessary to maintain this system and furthermore to trade with merchants outside the peninsula, the pilgrimage event was held in a particular season every year. Since the lunar calendar of 12 months results in a discrepancy with the solar calendar every year, a leap month was inserted into a year approximately every 3 years to adjust this discrepancy. This makes 13 months a year.The sixth to seventh century, when the Prophet Muhammad was active, was an era when Meccan people were under the influence of Judaism and Christianity. We cannot examine the calendar of that time without taking into account the leap system in the Jewish calendar or the movable feasts of Christianity. At the time when the Prophet Muhammad started propagating Islam in Mecca, a leap month was inserted into a year in the same period as in the Jewish calendar. Therefore, I consider that it is possible to determine the cycle of the leap year in this era from this.Starting in the first year of the Islamic calendar, there were three leap years until the 10th year of the Hijra when the prophet abolished the leap month. The Islamic calendar's New Year's Day was April 18, 612 AD. I conjecture that it was June 28th, the day of the summer solstice when Muhammad arrived at Medina.Knowing the fact that the pilgrimage was carried out during Pesach and Easter in the spring and that they introduced the Judaic and Christian systems into the calendar, combined with the worship of Abraham in the surrounding area of Mecca in the Jahiliya period, the author conjectures that these facts laid the groundwork for the birth of a new religion, i. e. Islam, in this region. The Prophet Muhammad destroyed the idols and the function of the pilgrimage spread in various places of the peninsula and introduced the pure lunar calendar. In addition, he nullified the conventional pilgrimage cycle of the peninsula and the Arabic order associated with the conventional pilgrimage cycle, and simultaneously eliminated the influence of Judaism and Christianity. He brought forth a new Islamic order in which Mecca was worshipped as the sole pilgrimage ground.