This book makes accurate calendrical algorithms readily available for computer use.

Expanded coverage includes generic cyclical calendars, astronomical lunar calendars, and the Korean, Vietnamese, Aztec, and Tibetan calendars.

The Calendar was invented in ancient times to allow nations to pace their economic and social activities with climatic seasons. Throughout the history of civilizations, much depended on organizing and administering an accurate calendar. Hunter-gatherers needed the calendar to predict the migrations of herds of wild animals. As humanity advanced, farming communities required calendars to predict the coming of rain or the time of the flooding of rivers. Traders and seafaring communities needed to map the best time of the year to tackle the dangers of seas when sailing far from home. In contemporary times of globalization, calendars have become even more critical in optimizing the complex supply chains of local and global production cycles. Oral traditions ascertain that the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula used a rudimentary lunisolar calendar, called in the literature the “Arabian Calendar.” Like with all nations, the lunisolar Arabian Calendar helped the Arabs organize their meager resources in the best ways possible. For example, research showed that the Ḥajj season and its pan-Arabian markets were scheduled to coincide with the date harvesting season peaking from July to September. The abundance of the date harvest available in this period, along with assigning the concept of inviolability to the Arabian months spanning this season, allowed them to travel across Arabia to Mecca to trade in the pan-Arabian markets and to participate in the religious rituals of their pilgrimage (the Ḥajj). It is asserted in this book that Prophet Muḥammad followed the lunisolar Arabian Calendar all his life. At the end of the tenth year after he migrated from Mecca to Medīna, and during his Farewell Pilgrimage, the Qurʾān sternly abolished the process of intercalation, i.e., the Nasīʾ, the very process which allowed the Arabs to organize their various economic and religious activities. When Caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb initiated the Hijri Calendar seven years after Prophet Muḥammad death, i.e., in 17 AH, he founded it as “purely lunar,” which meant its months were allowed to float within the solar year. Caliph ʿUmar is famous for his zeal in protecting the fundamental Islamic principle of monotheism. This, I show, was the reason for introducing the Hijri Calendar as purely lunar, because “Nasīʾ,” i.e., Quraysh’s method of intercalation was hopelessly entangled with the polytheistic religion of Quraysh, the Prophet’s tribe, and the guardian of the holy places in Mecca and its environs. The harmful effects of following the purely lunar Hijri Calendar were realized from early on. But the prohibition of Nasīʾ inhibited the early Islamic caliphs from reforming the Hijri Calendar. This book explores the history of the Arabian Calendar and its intimate connection with the Hijri Calendar. The main findings of this book are as follows: 1- The main Ḥajj shrines in Macca are aligned in the direction of sunrises and sunsets of the Summer Solstice day. 2- Quraysh intercalated its Arabian Calendar by forcing the Summer Solstice (SS) Day to occur within the 11th month of the Arabian Calendar, Shawwāl. The Nasīʾ month was added when the onset of the SS was about to transfer to into the 11th month Dhū’l Qaʿda. 3- The onset of the SS day was determined through the sunset alignment along the line joining the posts of “al-Wosṭā and al-ʿAqaba Jamarāt, and also by observing the sun rising from behind the peak of mount Thabīr from the location of the sacrificial altar of pre-Islamic Mina. 4- The Prophet arrived in his migration from Mecca to Medīna on the Days of ʿĀshūrāʾ which corresponded to the dates of 8th of Rabīʿ-I, the 10th of the Hebrew month Tishri, and to the 23rd of September 632. 5- The epoch of the Hijri Calendar must be adjusted back by two days from the epoch used so far. 6- The Farewell Pilgrimage occurred in autumn on September 4, 632 CE, not in spring on March 11, 632 CE.

Simultaneously displays the date on thirteen different calendars over a three-hundred year period.

Fully annotated and completely updated—the most comprehensive guide to reference books in the field of history. Reference Sources in History catalogs atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, sourcebooks, bibliographies, and chronologies and makes sense of it all. Its broad scope and systematic organization make it an accessible, reliable resource for experienced and inexperienced researchers alike. Fully annotated and updated, the new edition summarizes hundreds of reference works on every conceivable subject in history—from ancient to modern, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. This edition also reflects the dramatic impact of the digital revolution on historical research by integrating a wide range of Internet and CD-ROM sources. Reference Sources in History is a time-saving alternative to searching the reference stacks or getting lost in an online thicket of dubious historical websites.

This newly expanded and updated second edition of the best-selling classic continues to take the "mystery" out of designing algorithms, and analyzing their efficacy and efficiency. Expanding on the first edition, the book now serves as the primary textbook of choice for algorithm design courses while maintaining its status as the premier practical reference guide to algorithms for programmers, researchers, and students. The reader-friendly Algorithm Design Manual provides straightforward access to combinatorial algorithms technology, stressing design over analysis. The first part, Techniques, provides accessible instruction on methods for designing and analyzing computer algorithms. The second part, Resources, is intended for browsing and reference, and comprises the catalog of algorithmic resources, implementations and an extensive bibliography. NEW to the second edition: • Doubles the tutorial material and exercises over the first edition • Provides full online support for lecturers, and a completely updated and improved website component with lecture slides, audio and video • Contains a unique catalog identifying the 75 algorithmic problems that arise most often in practice, leading the reader down the right path to solve them • Includes several NEW "war stories" relating experiences from real-world applications • Provides up-to-date links leading to the very best algorithm implementations available in C, C++, and Java

This two-volume work presents a comprehensive survey of all the ways people celebrate religious life around the globe. Religious Celebrations is an alphabetically organized encyclopedia that covers more than 800 celebratory occasions from all of the world's major religious communities as well as many of the minor faith traditions. The encyclopedia provides a complete reference tool for examining the myriad ways people worldwide celebrate their religious lives across religious boundaries, providing information on numerous celebratory activities never before covered in a reference work. Offering the most comprehensive coverage of religious holidays ever assembled, this two-volume book covers festivals, commemorations, holidays, and annual religious gatherings all over the world, with special attention paid to the celebrations in larger countries. Entries written by distinguished researchers and specialists on different religious communities capture the unique intensity of each event, be it fasting or feasting, frenzied activity or the universal cessation of work, a huge gathering of the faithful en masse or a small family-centered event. The work spotlights celebrations that currently exist without overlooking now-abandoned celebrations that still impact the modern world.

An investigation into the evolution of the seven-day week and how our attachment to its rhythms influences how we live We take the seven-day week for granted, rarely asking what anchors it or what it does to us. Yet weeks are not dictated by the natural order. They are, in fact, an artificial construction of the modern world. With meticulous archival research that draws on a wide array of sources--including newspapers, restaurant menus, theater schedules, marriage records, school curricula, folklore, housekeeping guides, courtroom testimony, and diaries--David Henkin reveals how our current devotion to weekly rhythms emerged in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. Reconstructing how weekly patterns insinuated themselves into the social practices and mental habits of Americans, Henkin argues that the week is more than just a regimen of rest days or breaks from work, but a dominant organizational principle of modern society. Ultimately, the seven-day week shapes our understanding and experience of time.

From the Egyptian feast of Thoth to the Celtic fire festivals, and from the Chinese lunisolar year to the lunar-based calendar of the Muslim world, "Dance of the Moon" offers a cross-cultural tour of traditions, pagan rituals, and practices throughout history that honor life's cycles.

Bahá’í Faith: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduction to a fascinating, independent world religion. Examining its historical development, current “community-building” efforts and the social contributions of the Bahá’í Faith in the world today, this introduction covers: • Beliefs: Bahá’í spiritual teachings. • Principles: Bahá’í social teachings. • History: Bahá’u’lláh and his covenant. • Scripture: Bahá’í sacred texts and inspired guidance. • Institutions: The Bahá’í Administrative Order. • Building community: What Bahá’ís do. • Social action: Bahá’í social and economic development projects. • Public discourse: The Bahá’í International Community. • Vision: Foundations for a future golden age. With features including a glossary of terms, and references to the Bahá’í writings throughout, this is the ideal text for students and interested readers wanting to familiarize themselves with the Bahá’í Faith.