What Hijri Year Is It Now — and How Do You Check It Yourself?
The short answer
The Hijri year is the year count of the Islamic lunar calendar, measured from the Hijrah — the migration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE — and written with the suffix AH (Anno Hegirae) or simply H. Because twelve lunar months run about 354 days, roughly 11 days shorter than a Gregorian year, the Hijri year number turns over a little earlier each Gregorian year. For the exact current date as Saudi Arabia reckons it, the reference is the Umm al-Qura official calendar, the calendar the Saudi state uses for civil dating.
Any Gregorian year overlaps two Hijri years
This is why a question like "what year is it" has no single answer unless you also say which month you mean.
- A Hijri year contains 12 months of 29 or 30 days, giving a year of about 354 or 355 days, as the U.S. Naval Observatory's Islamic calendar reference sets out.
- The year rolls over on 1 Muharram, which lands on a different Gregorian date every year and moves earlier by roughly 11 days.
- So a typical Gregorian year holds the tail end of one Hijri year and the start of the next.
Summary: the Hijri year number depends on the day you are asking about, not just the Gregorian year.
The arithmetic shortcut
You can get within a year using nothing but subtraction and division:
AH ≈ (CE − 622) + (CE − 622) ÷ 32
Worked example for the Gregorian year 2026:
- 2026 − 622 = 1404
- 1404 ÷ 32 ≈ 43.9, round to 44
- 1404 + 44 = 1448 AH
The division term exists because about 33 Hijri years fit into roughly 32 Gregorian years. The shortcut tells you which AH year covers most of that Gregorian year; near either end of the Gregorian year the true answer may be the neighboring AH number instead. For a date-exact result rather than a year-level estimate, see how to convert a Hijri date to a Gregorian date.
Summary: the formula is reliable for the year number, not for the day.
Where to check for an authoritative answer
- Umm al-Qura calendar — the official Saudi civil Hijri calendar, which is what appears on government paperwork and institutional schedules inside the Kingdom.
- U.S. Naval Observatory — explains the difference between a calculated (tabular) Islamic calendar and one fixed by local crescent sighting, which is why two sources can differ by a day.
- Printed or app calendars — useful day to day, but check whether they follow Umm al-Qura or a sighting-based or tabular scheme before trusting a single date.
The day can be disputed; the year number almost never is.
Telling where you are inside the Hijri year
The twelve months, in order, are Muharram, Safar, Rabi al-Awwal, Rabi al-Thani, Jumada al-Ula, Jumada al-Akhirah, Rajab, Shaban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qadah, and Dhu al-Hijjah. Knowing the order is enough to place yourself: Ramadan is the ninth month, and Dhu al-Hijjah, the Hajj month, is the twelfth and last. Because these are lunar months, a month name tells you nothing about the season — the mechanics behind that are covered in how the Hijri calendar works.
Notation you will see in writing
- 1448 AH or 1448 H in English text.
- هـ after the numerals in Arabic text.
- Dual dating on Saudi official documents, with the Hijri date first and the Gregorian date beside it.
When a document shows only one date and no suffix, the four-digit range is the giveaway: a number in the 1400s is a Hijri year, a number in the 2000s is Gregorian.
Summary: count from 622 CE, expect two Hijri years inside every Gregorian one, estimate with the ÷32 formula, and confirm the exact day against the official calendar.