The Islamic calendar, Muslim calendar or Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days.

Being a purely lunar calendar, it is not synchronized with the seasons. With an annual drift of 10 or 11 days, the seasonal relation repeats about every 33 Islamic years.

It is used to date events in many Muslim countries (concurrently with the Gregorian calendar), and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper days on which to observe the annual fast (see Ramadan) and to attend Hajj, in addition to celebrate other Islamic holidays and festivals.

The first year was the Islamic year beginning in 622 CE during which the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra, occurred. Each numbered year is designated either H for Hijra or AH for the Latin anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra), hence, Muslims typically call their calendar the Hijri calendar.

The current Islamic year is 1433 AH, from approximately 26 November 2011 (evening) to 14 November 2012 (evening).

Adnan Karim (Kurdish: عه‌دنان كه‌ریم) (born 1963) is a prominent Kurdish singer from Kirkuk, Iraq.

He was born in 1963 in Kirkuk, an ancient and oil rich city in Kurdistan, with a significant Kurdish minority. Although coming from a financially challenged family, he received a high level of education. The first Iraq war and the rise of sectarian violence forced the family to flee Kirkuk and settle in Sulaimani in the heartland of today's Kurdish autonomous area within Iraq.

Adnan continued his educational path in Sulaimani and graduated as an artist. He grew up with his family in an environment rich with culture. During his early teenage years he was exposed to Kurdish traditional music and story telling. Over the years, famous Kurdish musicians influenced him when developing his musical talent.

Adnan Karim's first public performance as a musical artist was as early as 1979. The authenticity of Adnan's style is admired especially by Kurdish people due to the purity of his traditional melodies and the absence of particularly modern elements. The genuine sound of his compositions is rounded up by the harmony between lyrics, sound, and the choice of musical instruments. Audiences get a genuine feeling of the deep and melancholic message delivered by the songs. His soft, deep voice is accompanied by oriental instruments which are deep rooted in Kurdish music.

Hajji Hazrat Ali bin Bahawal Sheir is a Politician in Afghanistan. He previously served as a military commander for the Northern Alliance in eastern Afghanistan.

Ali was born in 1964 in Kabul to an ethnic Pashai^{[citation needed]} family. He rose to prominence during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. As a commander for Hezb-e Islami Khalis he quickly became an important leader for the Pashai community. Hazrat Ali has also been described as an Afghan Army commander under the Soviet puppet regime. He fled Afghanistan to live in Mashad, Iran, where he is believed to have married an Iranian women.

During the war against the Taliban, Ali is said to have been aligned with Ahmad Shah Massoud. Following the fall of the Taliban Ali joined with two other leaders in the Jalalabad-Tora Bora region, Abdul Qadir and Mohammed Zaman to set up the Eastern Shura, a local provisional government. They were early backers of the first post-Taliban President Hamid Karzai.

The Asia Times reports that, after the fall of the Taliban, Ali's troops executed hundreds of captured Arab prisoners with the complicity of U.S. special forces.

Allama Nasir Abbas was once one of the most wanted Pakistani jihadists in South East Asia. He was a member of al-Qaeda's regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiya (JI).

According to Indonesia's top anti-terrorist police officer, General Ansyaad Mbai, Abbas was a very dangerous man and one of the key figures in the JI.

In a BBC interview, Abbas explained his philosophy of jihad. Abbas stated that he believes it is acceptable to fight and kill foreign forces occupying Muslim countries. He gives as examples the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Americans in Iraq and the Philippine army occupying what he describes as ancestral Muslim lands in Mindanao. According to Abbas, the killing of innocent civilians - men, women and children - is forbidden.^{[citation needed]}

Abbas uses his position to criticize the modern violent jihad philosophy, outlined by Palestinian Abdullah Azzam, acknowledged to be the "father" of modern violent jihad. He stated in his interview the 202 civilian deaths in the 2002 Bali bombings gave him pause. Abbas actively assisted the police in tracking down and arresting some of his former comrades. He explains that from that point on, he tried to persuade his former comrades that their interpretation of the Quran was wrong, and urged them to "return to the right path of Islamic teaching".^{[citation needed]}

M. Ali Manikfan (where "M." stands for Muraiduganduar, also known as Muräduganduar Ali Befanu;manikfan and befanu are actually titles) (born 16 March 1938, Minicoy Island, Lakshadweep) is an Indian marine researcher, ecologist, shipbuilder, and a polyglot. He is noted for his autodidactic research skills in the marine, ecology, and agricultural fields, not holding any formal educational qualification, and for promoting a life of simplicity.

Ali Manikfan was born to Musa Manikfan and Fatima Manika in Minicoy Island of Lakshadweep on 16 March 1938. His father Musa sent him to Kannur for formal education. As he was not interested in formal education, he left his studies and returned to his home land. According to him formal education is artificial and pointless and best way to acquire knowledge is getting wisdom by observing our environment. Ali Manikfan knows a great number of languages. Besides his mother tongue Divehi (Mahl), he learned English, Hindi and Malayalam, Arabic, Latin, French, Russian, German, Sinhalese, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil and Urdu. His other areas of interest are marine biology, marine research, geography, astronomy, social science, traditional shipbuilding, education, fisheries, agriculture and horticulture. In 1956 he worked as a teacher and then became a clerk in Minicoy. (Indian government's chief civil official on the Island). But his interest was in marine life. In 1960s he joined the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute of India.