Rabiʽ al-Thani (Arabic: رَبِيع ٱلثَّانِي, romanized: Rabīʿ ath-Thānī, lit. 'The second Rabi', also known as Rabi' al-Akhirah (Arabic: رَبِيع ٱلْآخِرَة, romanized: Rabi' al-ʾĀkhirah, lit. 'The final Rabi'), Rabiʽ al-Akhir (رَبِيع ٱلْآخِر), or Rabi' II is the fourth month of the Islamic calendar. The name Rabī‘ al-Thani means "the second spring" in Arabic, referring to its position in the pre-Islamic Arabian calendar.
In the days of the Ottoman Empire, the name of this month in Ottoman Turkish was Rèbi' ul-aher, with the Turkish abbreviation Rè,[1] or Reb.-ul-Akh. in western European languages.[2] In modern Turkish, it is Rebiülahir or Rebiülsani.
The word "Rabi" means "spring" and Al-thani means "the second" in the Arabic language, so "Rabi' al-Thani" means "the second spring" in Arabic. As the Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, the month naturally rotates over solar years, so Rabīʽ al-Thani can fall in spring or any other season. Therefore, the month cannot be related to the actual season of spring.[3]
The Islamic calendar is a purely lunar calendar, and 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 tropical year, Rabī' al-Thānī migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Rabī' al-Thānī are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia[4]):
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