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XXVIII. On the Era of the Mahometans , called the 
Hejera * {*y=d)' By William Marfden, Efy. 
iA R. S. and A. S. 
Read June 12, 1788. 
I N their computation of time, the Arabs, and other Maho- 
metan nations, reckon by a year which is purely lunar. It 
has no reference to the folar revolutions,, and is of courfe un- 
connected with the viciflitude of feafons. The purpofe of 
its adoption appears to have been chiefly religious, for the re- 
gulation of fafls and ceremonies, rather than of the civil 
concerns of the people. Perhaps a confcious ignorance in mat- 
ters of fcience might have determined the inftitutors to prefer 
a period whofe limits were marked and obvious to the lenfes, 
to one whofe fuperior accuracy depended upon aftronomical 
calculation ; and it may alfo be conje&ured, that their habits of 
life rendered the adjuftment of the tropical year lefs interefting 
to thefe turbulent and wandering fanatics, than to nations 
whofe attention was directed to agriculture and other peaceful 
arts. 
The era of the Mahometans, called by them the Hejera, or 
Departure, is^accounted from the year of the flight of Maho- 
As this mode of fpelling the word differs from that commonly followed, it 
may be proper to obferve, that the Arabic letters of which it is compofed are 
Hj r, a or ab , and that the fupplied vowels are to be pronounced fhort. 
2 met* 
