The evening of Wednesday, May 12, marks the beginning of Id al-Fitr (also spelled Eid al-Fitr) in many parts of the world. Id al-Fitr celebrates the end of Ramadan, an Islamic holy month when Muslims may not eat or drink from morning until night. Muslims celebrate their accomplishment of the monthlong fast by offering gifts and charity and sharing festive meals. Id al-Fitr means Feast of Fast-Breaking in Arabic.

Id al-Fitr takes place during the first three days of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic calendar. It moves backward through the seasons, because the Islamic calendar is based on the moon. That makes the Islamic year much shorter than the solar year. Id al-Fitr is also called the smaller festival, in comparison with Id al-Ad-ha, the other major festival of Islam, which lasts four days.

In the morning on the first day of Id al-Fitr, Muslims gather in open spaces or in a mosque an hour after sunrise to perform a special community festival prayer service, which includes a special prayer called the salat al-id. The three days of the festival are filled with visits and meals shared with family, friends, and neighbors. Children receive gifts.

In Turkey, Id al-Fitr is called the sweets festival. A popular dessert is baklava, made of thin layers of pastry, honey, and chopped nuts. Another pastry, kadayif, is made with shredded wheat.

The evening of Monday, April 12, marks the beginning of Ramadan in the United States. Ramadan is an Islamic holy month when Muslims may not eat or drink from morning until night. Muslims celebrate Ramadan as the month in which the prophet Muhammad received the first of the revelations that make up the Qur’ān, the holy book of Islam.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year. Because the Islamic calendar is based on cycles of the moon—rather than the sun, like the Western Gregorian calendar—Ramadan does not fall at the same time each year. This year, Ramadan began the evening of April 12 and ends on the evening of May 12.

The term Ramadan comes from the word Ramz, meaning great heat or burning. Ramadan is believed to cleanse a person of sins. Muslims are supposed to seek forgiveness from God during this month.

All Muslims must fast if they have reached puberty and are of sound mind. Exceptions are made for some groups, such as the sick, the elderly, pregnant women, and travelers. Those who are able, however, must make up the missed fast days at a later time. A Muslim who deliberately breaks the fast must atone by fasting for two months or feeding the poor.

Fasting begins at dawn and lasts until sunset. During this time, Muslims cannot eat food or drink beverages. The daily fast is broken by a light meal called the iftar, followed by the evening prayer.

Fasting helps Muslims to experience and apply many teachings from the Qur’ān in their daily lives. Such teachings include compassion, self-control, and spiritual reflection. Fasting also teaches Muslims to sympathize with those who are less fortunate.

The nights during Ramadan are devoted to special prayers and to recitations from the Qur’ān. During the last 10 days, some Muslims seclude themselves in a mosque to devote time to prayer and religious contemplation. A mosque is a building used for Muslim worship. The end of Ramadan is celebrated by a great festival called Īd al-Fitr.

Like so many events this year, Ramadan might look different than in years past. In many places, efforts are being made to prevent the spread of the pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19. Such efforts often include social distancing, meant to limit contact among people and thus the spread of germs. But, limiting the spread of germs doesn’t mean you can’t observe Ramadan!

One socially distant way to participate in Ramadan is to attend virtual prayer sessions. You can also learn about Islamic art. You might not be able to build a fantastic mosque on your kitchen table. But you can use clay to replicate craftworkers’ detailed carved wood patterns. In Islamic art, wood has been used for doors, boxes, ceilings, panels, prayer niches, and pulpits. Woodworkers often carved elaborate inserts into a plain geometrical framework of star designs. However you choose to observe, we hope you have a safe and spiritual Ramadan!

February 13, 2019

Last week, in celebration of African American History Month, the African and Middle Eastern Division at the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C., hosted an event called “Conversation on the Omar ibn Said Collection.” Omar ibn Said was a western African scholar who was captured and sold into slavery in the United States in the early 1800′s. Noted for his education and intelligence, Said—a Muslim who spoke Arabic—gained notoriety during his lifetime and wrote an autobiography in 1831.

Omar ibn Said in North Carolina in 1850. Credit: Yale University Beinecke Library (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina is the only known memoir written in Arabic by a slave in the United States. The LOC’s Omar Ibn Said Collection includes the original manuscript of his autobiography, as well as texts written in Arabic by western African slaves held in countries other than the United States. The conversation on Said’s autobiography included an examination of Muslim communities in Africa and the people who continued to practice Islam after being forced into slavery.

Credit: © African American History Month

Omar ibn Said was born around 1770 in what is now Senegal. After years of schooling in Africa, he was enslaved and taken by ship to Charleston, South Carolina. Shortly after Said’s arrival in the United States, he escaped but was captured in North Carolina and briefly imprisoned. During his 16-day detainment, Said wrote in Arabic on the prison walls. His writing caught the attention of wealthy farmer James Owen, who purchased Said and apparently encouraged his literary efforts. Said then wrote his autobiography and many works related to the Qur’ān, the sacred book of the Muslims. Although highly critical of Christians who supported and participated in slavery, Said converted to Christianity during his captivity. He died in North Carolina in 1864. An English-language version of Said’s memoir was first published in 1925.

June 18, 2018

Malay is the language of a large group of people in Southeast Asia. The language is spoken by about 13.5 million in Malaysia, plus millions of other people who live in nearby Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore. Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian, a language family that includes Javanese, Sundanese, and Tagalog.

The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

The Malay language has numerous dialects. The official language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, is based largely on the Malay dialect of Johor, a southern state in Peninsular Malaysia. The official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, is based on the dialect used in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Because of the similarities between the language used in Johor and in the nearby Riau Islands, the two forms are sometimes classified together as Johor-Riau Malay. Other dialects include Ambon Malay, Ternate Malay, and Banjar Malay. In most cases, speakers of different dialects can communicate with each other without great difficulty.

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Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Malay language includes elements of Sanskrit and Arabic. These elements entered the language through contact with the culture and religions of India and the Arab world. Contact with traders from many countries led to the development of Bazaar Malay, which became widely spoken in trading communities.

The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription from the early years of the Srivijaya Empire, a Malay kingdom that emerged in the late 600′s and lasted until the late 1300′s. The text is written in the Indian Pallava script, and it tells of military expeditions. Later Malay texts were written in Devanagari, an alphabet and script used to write Hindi. Beginning in the late 1300′s, many Malay literary and religious works were written in an Arabic-based script called Jawi or Classical Malay. Beginning in the 1500′s, Dutch and British influence in Malaysia led to the adoption of a Malay writing system using the Roman alphabet.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a common spelling system for their official languages. Since then, efforts have continued to further standardize the Malay language.

May 28, 2018

Javanese is a unique language spoken by people from Java, the largest island in Indonesia, a large nation in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands and has an extremely diverse population. Its people belong to about 300 ethnic groups and speak more than 250 languages. The Javanese are the nation’s largest ethnic group, and the Javanese language is Indonesia’s most widely spoken traditional language. More than 84 million people speak Javanese, but it is not the nation’s official language. In the late 1920′s, Indonesian nationalists created a modified form of the Malay language, Bahasa Indonesia, to serve as the official language.

The flag of Indonesia flies over thousands of islands in Southeast Asia. The nation’s largest island, Java, is home to the Javanese language. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Javanese belongs to the Austronesian language family that also includes such Indonesian languages as Balinese (spoken on the island of Bali), Madurese (spoken on the island of Madura), and Sundanese (spoken in western Java). The Austronesian language family spreads far beyond Indonesia, reaching many islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

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This map shows the population density in Indonesia. About 60 percent of all the Indonesian people live on the island of Java, though Java accounts for only about 7 percent of the country’s total area. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

A number of languages have influenced Javanese. Ancient overseas trade with India influenced Java’s early culture and language from at least the A.D. 100’s. Javanese contains many words borrowed from Sanskrit, an ancient language of India. The traditional Javanese alphabet also developed from Indian writing. Ancient India’s two great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, are popular among the Javanese people today. The poems often shape the plots in traditional Javanese theater, known as wayang. Javanese also contains many words borrowed from Arabic. Arab traders brought Islam to Indonesia in the 1400’s and 1500’s, and most Javanese today are Muslims.

Traders from the Netherlands reached Java in the 1590’s. During most of the period from the 1600’s until 1945, the Netherlands ruled Java and the other islands that eventually became Indonesia. During those years, when Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies, many Dutch words were absorbed into Javanese. The Dutch period also introduced the Roman alphabet for writing Javanese.

Javanese was Indonesia’s most widely spoken traditional language in the early 1900’s, but Indonesian nationalists wanted a language that could serve as a unifying force for all Indonesians. They believed that making Javanese the national language would give Javanese speakers an unfair advantage. The nationalists developed Bahasa Indonesia, which means language of Indonesia. They based Bahasa Indonesia largely on a dialect called Coastal Malay. People of different ethnic groups had long used the dialect to communicate with one another in marketplaces and ports. Bahasa Indonesia is the official language used in schools, in newspapers, and for official communication throughout Indonesia. It is closely related to Javanese, and the languages share many words and expressions. Javanese, however, remains the primary language for private and individual communication for millions of people.

April 16, 2018

Hindi <<HIHN dee,>>, also called Modern Standard Hindi, is spoken by more than 500 million people. It is the principal official language of India. More than two-fifths of India’s people speak one or more of the dialects (language variations) of Hindi. There are many regional and local dialects in India, and each state has its own official language. Hindi is the official language of the capital, Delhi, and seven states. Hindi speakers live mostly in northern India, but Hindi is commonly heard in other parts of the country. Hindi speakers are also found in Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries.

The flag of India flies over hundreds of millions of Hindi speakers in India. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Urdu is a sister language of Hindi. The languages are similar in grammar and pronunciation. When written, however, they use different alphabets and scripts. Cultural differences further separate the languages. Indian Hindus, people who practice Hinduism, often speak Hindi. Indian Muslims, people who practice Islam, often speak Urdu. Urdu is also spoken in Pakistan and Kashmir. Scholars sometimes speak of the two languages collectively as Hindi-Urdu. The spoken form is sometimes called Hindustani. Hindi-Urdu is the main language used in Indian films (Bollywood) and in much Indian popular music.

The Indian film industry produces hundreds of motion pictures every year. Most films are in Hindi (or Hindustani), but some are made in regional languages. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo by David R. Frazier

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European family. It is part of the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) group. Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, which has roots in Sanskrit, the oldest formal written language of India. Devanagari is a phonetic alphabet, so each letter represents a sound. It has 44 letters, with 33 consonants and 11 vowels. Smaller marks called matras represent vowels preceded by a consonant. Matras are written on the symbol of the preceding consonant. The letters are formed by markings that hang down from a horizontal line (see the red script in the movie poster above).

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Hindi is spoken in Delhi and the northern states of India. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Hindi nouns have gender, number, and case. They can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural, and direct or oblique. Most adjectives agree with the gender, number, and case of the nouns they modify. Hindi has four simple tenses and three aspects. Word order for the Hindi language is subject-object-verb. Hindi is written from left to right, and Urdu is written from right to left. Urdu uses the Persian-Arabic alphabet. English words with Hindi origins include bungalow, shampoo, bandana, and jungle.

Hindi and Urdu are based of the spoken dialect of Delhi, Khari Boli, which means standard speech. The modern literary language is based on Khari Boli, which was written in the Devanagari alphabet. Written Hindi can be traced back to poetry of the 1300′s. Hindi prose became prominent in the early 1900’s.

January 8, 2018

Arabic is one of the world’s most widely used languages. It is the official language of many Arab nations in the Middle East and northern Africa. Nearly 300 million people use Arabic on a daily basis, and it is a major language in international business and politics. Arabic, a unique language that is read right to left, is also the language of the Qur`ān, the sacred book of Islam. Last month, in December 2017, UNESCO—the United Nations (UN) Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization—celebrated World Arabic Language Day. The annual celebration marks the UN’s adoption of Arabic as an official language on Dec. 18, 1973.

The official flag of the Arab League, an organization of Middle Eastern and African countries where Arabic is the main spoken language, is green with the emblem of the league in the center. The emblem features Arabic letters surrounded by a crescent, a yellow chain, and a white wreath. Credit: Flag Research Center

Arabic belongs to the Afro-Asian language family—that is, a group of languages descended from a common proto- or parent language. Other Afro-Asian languages include Amharic, used in Ethiopia; the Berber tongues of northern Africa; and the Hebrew language used by Jewish people throughout their history. Most of the people who speak Afro-Asian languages live in the Near East and in northern and northeastern Africa. Within the Afro-Asian family, Arabic is further categorized as a Semitic language. Semitic languages are some of the oldest in the world. Amharic, Arabic, Hebrew, and Tigre, spoken in Eritrea, are the principal spoken Semitic languages today. No one knows when Arabic originally developed, but people of the Arabian Peninsula were the first to use it. During the 600’s, Islam spread throughout southwestern Asia and northern Africa, and Arabic also spread to those areas.

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The Arab world has both a political and a linguistic (language-related) definition. Politically, it includes many countries in the Middle East and across northern Africa. In a linguistic sense, the Arab world refers to those areas where most people speak Arabic as their native language. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters, only three of which are vowels. In writing, vowels may be included, left out, or indicated by symbols called diacritics. Arabic is written from right to left across a page, or—to people accustomed to languages written from left to right—from the back of a book to the front. There is no distinction between upper- and lower-case letters. The Arabic script features prominently in Islamic art as calligraphy. Simple words, such as Monday (الإثْنَين, or al-ithnayn), can be beautiful simply written on a page. Some modern artists, such as the French-Tunisian eL Seed, have combined Arabic calligraphy with graffiti to create artworks called calligrafitti.

Students learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in a school in the United Kingdom. MSA is a modernized and simplified version of Arabic used to communicate across different dialects. Credit: © Getty Images

Many other languages, including some outside the Afro-Asian family, have borrowed from Arabic. For example, English has many words that developed from Arabic. Such words include alcohol, algebra, checkmate, coffee, cotton, ghoul, lemon, magazine, racquet, and tariff. Some words were adopted and modified for use in another language, such as Spanish, then adopted and further modified in English.

People use different forms of Arabic in different contexts (circumstances or environments) and for different purposes. Native Arab speakers grow up speaking one of many local dialects (varieties). Across the Arab world, some of these dialects are so different that their speakers cannot understand one another. Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur`ān, written down in the 600’s. Today, classical Arabic is more of a written language than a spoken one. It can be found, for example, in literature. Many Muslims learn classical Arabic in school and through study of the Qur`ān. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a modernized, simplified form of classical Arabic. Overall, it is similar to the classical form. MSA is used widely in broadcast and print media, motion pictures and television, modern literature, politics, mosques, and universities. People who speak different Arabic dialects may use MSA to communicate with one another.

September 14, 2016

Since last weekend, nearly 2 million Muslims have descended on Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the 2016 hajj, an annual holy pilgrimage (it ends tomorrow). The hajj (Arabic for pilgrimage) is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, formal acts of worship that provide the framework for a Muslim’s life. The Qur’ān, the holy book of Islam, commands all Muslims to make a hajj at least once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to do so. According to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics, the 2016 hajj truly was a global event. Of the 1.86 million pilgrims who attended, more than 70 percent came from beyond Saudi Arabia. The 2016 hajj also was notable for increased security and crowd-control measures after a stampede in 2015 killed more than 700 people. Such measures included the deployment of security personnel, the installation of hundreds of new surveillance cameras, and the distribution of electronic identification bracelets containing pilgrims’ personal data.

Muslims pray at the Kaaba in Mecca’s Great Mosque during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Credit: © Shutterstock

The hajj takes place each year during Dhūl-Hijja, the 12th month of the Islamic calendar. It includes several rites that commemorate the trials and sacrifices of the prophet Abraham, his wife Hagar, and their son the prophet Ishmael. During the hajj, pilgrims wear special garments and circle the Kaaba, the most sacred shrine of Islam, seven times. Muslims believe that Abraham and Ishmael built the Kaaba as the first house of worship to God. It is an empty, cube-shaped building in the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca. Muslims all over the world face the direction of the Kaaba every day when they pray. During the hajj, pilgrims also visit Mount Arafat, a site outside of Mecca where the prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon. Another rite involves the gathering and casting of stones at special pillars to symbolize a rejection of Satan, or the Devil.

Muslims visit Mount Arafat, the site of Muhammad’s final sermon, during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Credit: © Hikrcn/Shutterstock

The major Muslim festival of `Īd al-Ad-hā (also spelled Eid al-Adha) coincides with the later part of the hajj. The name of the festival means Feast of the Sacrifice in Arabic. During `Īd al-Ad-hā, Muslims gather an hour after sunrise in open spaces or in mosques to perform a community prayer. Muslims who can afford it sacrifice an animal, such as a camel, cow, goat, or sheep. The sacrifice honors Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his older son, Ishmael, and God’s decision to substitute a ram instead. The Qur’ān explains that the sacrifice is not an offering of meat to God, but a holy act of sharing food. Those who sacrifice share with the poor and with their neighbors. During the festival, children receive gifts, and people visit family and friends.

Some Muslims complete the hajj multiple times during their lives. Muslims believe a person who makes such a pilgrimage secures great religious merit. In addition to having religious significance, the hajj has great economic importance for the city of Mecca. The city has some minor industries, but its economy depends on money spent by the great number of pilgrims who visit each year.

June 7, 2016

Muslims pray at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, during the holy month of Ramadan.
Credit: © AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday night, June 5, at the sighting of the new, crescent moon, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began in many parts of the world. Ramadan is a month of fasting when Muslims who are physically able to do so avoid eating or drinking during daylight hours. Such fasting is thought to purify the faithful physically and spiritually. It also helps bring to mind the poor, and many Muslims give to charities or perform charitable acts during Ramadan. According to Islam, Ramadan is the month when the prophet Muhammad received the first of the revelations that comprise the Qur’ān, the holy book of Islam. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, formal acts of worship that provide a framework for Muslim life.

In addition to avoiding food and drink, observant Muslims abstain from smoking and sexual activity from sunrise to sunset. At night, they may eat, drink, and resume other normal activities. They break the daily fast with a meal known as iftar. Later, an extremely early predawn meal prepares Muslims for the day ahead. In some Middle Eastern countries, the government enforces fasting, and people who eat during the day may be fined or even arrested. In addition to being a time for fasting, Ramadan is a period for special prayer and religious contemplation. Nightly prayer at a mosque and recitation from the Qur’ān are common Ramadan practices.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year, which is based on lunar months rather than solar months. For this reason, Ramadan moves backward by about 10 days each year, migrating through the seasons. In many parts of the world, different seasons have longer or shorter days, meaning longer or shorter periods of fasting. In some far northern locations, such as northernmost Sweden, the sun does not set for months at a time during summer. Muslims there observe Ramadan based on the day’s length elsewhere, such as Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city of Islam.

A major Islamic festival called Id al-Fitr (Feast of Fast-Breaking) marks the end of Ramadan. Muslims celebrate Id al-Fitr during the first three days of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. On the first morning of the festival, they attend special prayer services. Throughout the festival, they visit and share meals with family, friends, and neighbors, and children receive gifts.

January 4, 2016

Today, Bahrain and Sudan joined Saudi Arabia in breaking off diplomatic ties with Iran, and the United Arab Emirates downgraded its relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia severed relations with Iran on Sunday after an angry mob stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital. The spark behind this latest row between long-time rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran was the execution of Shī`ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr on terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The people of Saudi Arabia are predominantly Sunni Muslims, and Shī`ite Muslims around the world condemned the cleric’s execution as motivated purely by sectarianism (prejudice in favor of one’s own sect).

Middle East Map. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Differences between Shī`ite and Sunni Muslims have resulted in violence in the Middle East for centuries. Iran is the largest—but also one of the few—Shī`ite-dominated countries. As such, it is often at odds with the Sunni-controlled countries that make up the majority of the Muslim world. Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 for playing a central part in protests against the Saudi government. However, he claimed never to have advocated violence or terrorism. Saturday’s execution in Saudi Arabia also included 3 other Saudi Shī`ites, as well as 43 Sunnis accused of working with Al-Qa`ida.

Other World Book articles: 

•  Islam (2009) – A Back in Time article
• Middle East (2012) – A Back in Time article
• Saudi Arabia (2012) – A Back in Time article