Just subtract 621 from the Gregorian year. This system counts the solar years since the Hegira, and is very easy to calculate if you're familiar with the Christian calendar.

In an effort to rectify this, a solar Muslim calendar was introduced in Iran around the 16th century AD. This is the one I'll use when I say 'AH'. Because no leap months are allowed, the months rotate through the seasons, and conversions between the Christian and Islamic calendars are not trivial. The first day of the first month (Muharram) was then assigned, based on the first appearance of a crescent moon, to September 16, AD 622. This calendar is lunar and leap months are added as necessary.Īnother is the lunar Hegira (or Hijra) calendar, which counts lunar years (354 or 355 days long) since Mohammed immigrated from Mecca to Medina in September of AD 622. Rather, they used 60-year cycles in which the twelve animals of the zodiac rotated with the ten celestial elements. While modern documents might give the year as 4702, etc., the Chinese in fact did not count all the years up this way. This system, which ended with the inception of the republic in 1911, had supposedly been in use for over 4500 years, dating back to the first emperor. One is the Chinese imperial calendar which numbers years by giving the name of the emperor and the year of his reign. There are at least three calendars being used in thes story. Page numbers from the US paperback edition. This is a Timeline for the events in the novel The Years Of Rice And Salt.īased on the Timeline compiled by Mark Rosa in 2004 ( Original timeline here, offline since 2009).

The years of rice and salt