Safar (Arabic: صَفَر, romanized: Ṣafar), also spelt as SaferinTurkish,[1] is the second month of the lunar Islamic calendar. The Arabic word ṣafar means "travel, migration", corresponding to the pre-Islamic Arabian time period when Muslims fled the oppression of Quraish in Mecca and travelled (mostly barefooted) to Madina.
Safar
Medina, the city to which Muhammad migrated from Mecca (see Hijrah)
Most of the Islamic months were named according to ancient Sabean/Sabaic weather conditions; however, since the calendar is lunar, the months shift by about 11 days every solar year, meaning that these conditions do not necessarily correspond to the name of the month.
The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, and its 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 solar year, Safar migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Safar are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia[2]):
