610 CE, Ramadan, and the Cave of Hira: Dating the Dawn of Revelation
When did the Revelation begin?
A question asked with reverence — but whose answer lies buried in the folds of calendars long out of sync, memories half-shrouded in mystery, and a night lit not by the moon, but by something far more eternal. The moment when the Qur’ān first descended upon the heart of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the spiritual axis of Islamic time — and yet, assigning that moment to a specific date requires an intimate reckoning with lunar rhythms, prophetic biography, and the astronomy of 7th-century Arabia.
At first glance, tradition offers clarity: the event occurred during Ramaḍān, in the Cave of Ḥirāʾ, when the Prophet ﷺ was forty years old, and the angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) appeared to him with the first verses of Sūrat al-ʿAlaq. Yet beneath these broad strokes is a tapestry of complexity. Different historical sources propose different days: some suggest the 21st night of Ramaḍān, others mention the night of the 27th, while still others look to broader calculations based on the Prophet’s birthdate and his age in lunar years. Was it August 10, 610 CE? Was it the 13th of December? Or some other night hidden within the folds of time?
This blog post is not simply about naming a day. It is a return to the threshold of Prophethood, to a time when revelation first broke the silence of centuries. The world around Mecca was already in motion:
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The Roman and Persian empires had rekindled their rivalry.
The Avars & Slavs resumed their devastating raids into Thrace, Dacia, & Dalmatia
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And deep in the Hijāz, a man would retreat to a cave, alone — seeking meaning.
What began in that cave was more than a revelation — it was a revolution of time, language, and soul. But when exactly did it happen?
To answer this, we’ll turn to early authorities like Ibn Hishām, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Mubārakpūrī, and cross-reference them with the Julian calendar, lunar cycle data, and astronomical modeling. We’ll examine testimonies preserved in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, review the estimations of Mahmud Pasha, and interrogate the evidence offered by both ancient scribes and modern science.
This is more than a search for a timestamp — it is a recovery of sacred orientation. A moment when the veil lifted. When the unseen reached the seen. When a man alone in a cave was told:
"Read, in the name of your Lord..."
So come as we climb the rocks of Ḥirāʾ, sift the sands of early Islamic memory, and trace the starlight that once fell upon the Prophet’s ﷺ face at the dawn of revelation.
Section 1: 🏛️ A World on the Brink — From Imperial Pressure to Prophetic Silence
The year 610 CE was not a quiet one. It was a year where empires unraveled, alliances shattered, and the known world seemed to tilt toward chaos. In the eyes of Roman chroniclers and Qurayshite elders alike, the earth was heavy with omens and filled with the blood of countless slain souls.
🏹 The Persian Thunder: Xusro Parwēz and the Collapse of the East
The mighty Sasanian Empire, under Xusro II (Khusraw Parvēz), had reached its zenith. Having secured the throne years earlier with the backing of Byzantine Emperor Maurice, Xusro now watched the Roman Empire implode — and saw an opportunity.
➤ In 609 CE, his generals swept through Upper Mesopotamia, capturing Mardin and pushing into the sacred Christian mountains of Tur ʿAbdīn.
➤ By August 610, they had crossed the Euphrates, taking Zenobia — a symbolic gateway between Roman East and Persian West.
➤ By October, the Persians had seized Antioch (8 Oct), Apamea (15 Oct), and Emesa shortly after — great cities that stood as bulwarks of Roman Syria.
Theophanes the Confessor, writing in his Chronographia, records the devastation:
“The Persians had destroyed all of Asia and had captured the cities and annihilated in battle the Roman army. The emperor Herakleios found the affairs of the Roman state undone.”
Persian steel now shimmered along the Mediterranean coast. The Roman Empire was, for the first time in centuries, divided by force into northern and southern halves — a geopolitical rupture that echoed the spiritual disunity already rotting from within.
⚔️ Fratricide in the West: Heraclius, Phocas, and Civil Collapse
As the Persians advanced from the east, the Roman Empire fell into civil war. The tyrannical Emperor Phocas, who had seized power in 602 through a bloody mutiny against Maurice, ruled with paranoia and cruelty.
➤ In 608, a revolt launched from Roman North Africa surged across the Mediterranean.
➤ Heraclius the Younger, son of the Exarch of Carthage, sailed into Constantinople (3 Oct) with a rebel fleet.
➤ Within days, Phocas was overthrown and executed, and Heraclius was crowned emperor (5 Oct).
➤ But the cost was immense: Roman armies had slaughtered one another in civil war, and commanders like Bonosus clashed with Heraclius’s cousin Niketas in Alexandria.
➤ A failed siege of Alexandria (23 Nov 609) had already left Roman Egypt unstable — and Egypt was Rome’s breadbasket.
The Roman army was broken. The empire’s spiritual core — Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople — trembled under siege or rebellion. The Slavs and Avars continued their raids in the Balkans, unchecked.
Theophanes, summing up the year in both its Julian and Byzantine reckonings (AM 6103 / 603 Incarnation), listed devastation after devastation:
"Only two soldiers survived from the themata who had not been slain or defected..."
🪓 The Barbarian Storm — Avars, Slavs, and the Fall of the Danubian Frontier
By 610 CE, not only was the Roman East collapsing under Persian pressure — the Balkans, too, were bleeding. The Lower Danube frontier, once fortified with imperial walls, roads, and grain-fed garrisons, had become a wasteland overrun by Avar cavalry and Slavic warbands.
➡️ Emperor Maurice’s overthrow in 602 is widely seen by scholars as the turning point. His assassination not only sparked a civil war and Sasanian invasion, but also unleashed the Avars and Slavs upon the empire’s vulnerable northern provinces.
📉 Collapse of the Danubian Limes
"The overthrow of Maurice is associated… with the collapse of the Byzantine defense system on the Lower Danube, as the Avars and the Slavs raided without facing resistance..."
Phocas, desperate to hold both fronts, withdrew Balkan troops to Asia Minor, leaving the Danube exposed. His temporary solution? Buy off the Avars.
🪙 In 604, Phocas raised the annual tribute to the Khagan to an astonishing 140,000 solidi — a desperate bribe, not a peace.
🔥 The Attacks Continue (604–610 CE)
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604: The Avars attacked Thrace, despite the treaty.
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609/610: They returned, raiding the Balkans again, this time alongside Slavic tribes.
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Thessalonica survived a 5,000-man Slav siege (26 October 604), but the rest of the provinces were devastated.
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John of Nikiu laments:
"The province was devastated and depopulated… Christian cities were ruined, their people taken captive."
604: The Avars attacked Thrace, despite the treaty.
609/610: They returned, raiding the Balkans again, this time alongside Slavic tribes.
Thessalonica survived a 5,000-man Slav siege (26 October 604), but the rest of the provinces were devastated.
John of Nikiu laments:
"The province was devastated and depopulated… Christian cities were ruined, their people taken captive."
The attacks were not isolated. They were systematic and coordinated:
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Cividale (Forum Iulii) in Friuli was destroyed by the Avars in 610/11, crushing the Lombard Duke Gisulf II.
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Slavic raiders reached the Upper Drava Valley, defeating Bavarian forces at Aguntum.
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In 611, Slavs plundered Istria, killing Roman troops and devastating the western Balkans.
Historian Florin Curta and others argue that the true collapse wasn’t just military — it was logistical. The grain distribution network (annona militaris) from Egypt to the Danube was breaking down, and the state could no longer support the soldiers on the frontier.
By 610 CE:
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The Avars and Slavs were no longer border raiders — they were occupiers.
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The Danubian frontier, once the northern spine of the empire, was nonfunctional.
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The Romans were paying enemies to avoid fighting them — while Persia was crushing them in the East.
The Avars and Slavs were no longer border raiders — they were occupiers.
The Danubian frontier, once the northern spine of the empire, was nonfunctional.
The Romans were paying enemies to avoid fighting them — while Persia was crushing them in the East.
🛑 The Roman Empire stood surrounded, decaying at both ends.
In this geopolitical chaos — with the north lost to barbarians, the east swallowed by Persia, and Mecca descending into spiritual fragmentation — one man was about to emerge from a cave in silence, bearing a word that would restore order to the world.
🏜️ Arabia in the Shadows: A Peninsula Watching the Collapse
Meanwhile, far from Constantinople’s riots and Ctesiphon’s coronations, the ḥijāzī sun rose each day over a desert that appeared politically quiet — but was anything but still. Though Mecca had no throne, no legion, and no walls, it stood at the nexus of trade, tribe, and the sacred. And as the world’s two great empires fell into fire, Arabia was watching — and waiting.
The collapse of empires meant more than just military defeats.
It meant vacuum, opportunity, and awakening.
⚔️ The Ghassanid–Lakhmid Buffer Had Disintegrated
For decades, the Roman and Sasanian empires had outsourced their Arabian frontier security to Arab client dynasties: the Ghassanids for Byzantium, and the Lakhmids for Persia. But by the first decade of the 600s, both buffers had collapsed, exposing Arabia to a new kind of instability:
➤ The Lakhmid king, al-Nuʿmān III ibn al-Mundhir, had once ruled proudly from his palace at al-Ḥīrah, defending Persia’s southern frontier. But in 602 CE, he defied the Shahanshah Xusro II — reportedly refusing to give one of his daughters in marriage.
➤ As punishment, Xusro had al-Nuʿmān executed — and, according to Hamza al-Iṣfahānī, his body was trampled beneath the feet of elephants, while his family and property were sold off at bargain prices.
“He became angry with Nuʿmān b. Mundhir and had him killed in the desert… his body trampled under the feet of elephants… his wives and children captured and sold at the lowest price.”
— Hamza al-Iṣfahānī
The execution shocked Arab society. The Persian-backed Lakhmid dynasty, which had lasted nearly three centuries, collapsed. Its remnants were scattered, and the protection of Persia was gone.
🪓 The Arabs Rebel — The Battle of Dhū Qār (602 CE)
What came next shook the region: the Battle of Dhū Qār, fought between Bedouin Arab tribes and a Persian army, supported by Lakhmid loyalists.
🪓 For the first time in recorded history, Arab tribes defeated a Persian imperial force in open battle.
🔥 Dhū Qār became a legend — recited by poets, remembered as a symbol of Arab unity, and later seen by Muslims as a divine prelude to the rise of Islam.
This battle, though small by imperial standards, shattered the myth of Sasanian invincibility in the Arabian Peninsula.
🏛️ Rome’s Arab Allies Were Not Doing Better
➤ The Ghassanids, the Roman vassal tribe led by al-Mundhir ibn al-Ḥārith, had once dominated Roman Syria.
➤ But after al-Mundhir’s death, internal feuds and doctrinal disputes over Monophysitism fractured the dynasty.
➤ By 610 CE, their grip on northern Arabia had weakened. Roman support faltered, and tribal confederacies in the Syrian desert began to drift free.
➤ The Ghassanids, the Roman vassal tribe led by al-Mundhir ibn al-Ḥārith, had once dominated Roman Syria.
➤ But after al-Mundhir’s death, internal feuds and doctrinal disputes over Monophysitism fractured the dynasty.
➤ By 610 CE, their grip on northern Arabia had weakened. Roman support faltered, and tribal confederacies in the Syrian desert began to drift free.
Together, the fall of both the Lakhmids and Ghassanids left Arabia exposed, unsupervised, and ripe for a new unifying vision.
🛣️ The Trade Routes Became Vulnerable — and Central
With Ghassanid patrols vanishing and Lakhmid garrisons erased, the trade corridors of Arabia — from Yemen to Syria — were wide open.
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Mecca, sitting on the main incense and caravan route, was more important than ever.
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But it was also more exposed — economically fragile, politically isolated, and spiritually searching.
🕯️ A Cave Above a City: Ḥanīfism, Silence, and the Prophet's Retreat
Amid this emptiness, a quiet, solitary man from the clan of Hāshim began withdrawing to the Cave of Ḥirāʾ. There, above the city, he would spend nights alone — meditating, praying, wondering.
➤ He was not a Jew, nor a Christian.
➤ He did not bow to idols.
➤ He followed the forgotten path of Ibrāhīm, seeking tawḥīd.
➤ He was Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ﷺ — now nearing forty lunar years.
Arabia stood between empires. Mecca stood between traditions. And the cave stood between the seen and the unseen.
💡 Why This Matters
By 610 CE, the world was fractured:
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The Roman Empire was bleeding.
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The Persians had reached the sea.
The Avars & Slavs bled the Balkans dry.
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The Arab tribes were shifting allegiances or collapsing.
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And a Meccan merchant, disturbed by the idols of his city and the silence of the heavens, was about to hear a voice in the darkness:
"Read, in the name of your Lord who created..."
The world had never been darker — and never closer to dawn.
Section 2: Prophetic Milestone — When Did Revelation Begin?
🕋 The Cave, the Qur’ān, and the Calculated Dawn
Islamic tradition holds a moment more sacred than all others: the beginning of Revelation. It came not in the halls of kings or at the heads of armies, but in the stillness of a cave on a mountain just outside Mecca. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, in solitude at Ḥirāʾ, received the first verses of the Qurʾān — a moment so foundational that it reshaped the world.
🔍 What the Tradition Tells Us
Across hadith and sīrah literature, we’re given key clues:
❖ The Prophet ﷺ was forty lunar years old at the time of Revelation.
❖ The event occurred during the month of Ramaḍān — as confirmed by the Qurʾān itself:
“The month of Ramaḍān in which the Qurʾān was revealed...” (Q. 2:185)
❖ It took place on a Monday — as affirmed in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim:
“That was the day I was born, and that was the day I was commissioned [with prophethood].”
❖ It occurred at dawn — the moment when night yields to light.
From these reports, our task becomes clear:
Can we align all of these claims — the month of Ramaḍān, the age of 40 lunar years, and a Monday in 610 CE — into a coherent historical moment?
📚 Classical Testimonies
Several early Muslim historians provide further precision:
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Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb writes:
"His commissioning occurred 150 years after the Year of Betrayal (Ḥijjat al-Ghadar), and in the 20th year of the reign of Kisrā Abrawayz (Xusro II)." -
He also narrates:
"Gabriel came to him on the nights of Saturday and Sunday, then openly appeared to him with God’s message on a Monday. He taught him ablution, prayer, and the verse: 'Read in the name of your Lord who created…'” (Q. 96:1) -
Al-Masʿūdī echoes this:
"His commissioning occurred in the 20th year of Kisrā Abrawayz’s reign, 200 years after the Treaty of al-Rabadhah, and 6113 years after the descent of Adam."
These clues are remarkably convergent: they anchor the moment of Revelation not only to the Prophet’s age but also to Xusro II’s regnal year.
📆 The Calendar Math — Step-by-Step
Step 1: Confirm the Reign of Xusro II
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Xusro II was crowned February 590 CE.
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Therefore, his 20th regnal year spans February 609 to February 610 CE, confirming that Revelation occurred in 610 CE, just before the Prophet's age turned 41 lunar years.
Xusro II was crowned February 590 CE.
Therefore, his 20th regnal year spans February 609 to February 610 CE, confirming that Revelation occurred in 610 CE, just before the Prophet's age turned 41 lunar years.
Step 2: Align 40 Lunar Years from His Birth
We earlier confirmed that the Prophet ﷺ was born on Monday, April 9, 570 CE, corresponding to 8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal.
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A lunar year is ~354.367 days.
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40 lunar years = ~14,174.68 days.
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Add that to April 9, 570 → This gives us early August 610 CE, placing the Prophet’s 40th lunar birthday squarely inside the month of Ramaḍān.
Step 3: Estimate the Start and End of Ramaḍān in 610 CE (13 BH)
Using manual astronomical-lunar calculations:
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1 AH (Hijrah) began on July 16, 622 CE (Julian).
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Subtract 13 lunar years = ~4617 days before 1 AH = early 610 CE.
Projecting backward:
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Ramadan in 13 BH began around 🌙 July 28, 610 CE
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It ended around 🌙 August 26, 610 CE
➡️ Therefore, Revelation must have occurred between July 28 and August 26, 610 CE, in one of the last ten nights, and on a Monday.
Section 3: The Case for 21 Ramaḍān — Testing the Traditional Theory
🌌 A Night Unlike Any Other: 21 Ramaḍān and the Descent of Light
🕯️ The Claim
In al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, Safi al-Raḥmān al-Mubārakpūrī calculates that:
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The Prophet’s birth was 8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 CE
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Revelation came at 40 lunar years, 6 months, and 12 days of age
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This corresponds to 21 Ramaḍān 610 CE, and fell on a Monday
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He even acknowledges that “no one else held this exact view,” but defended it based on textual, mathematical, and astronomical logic
Let’s now verify if this holds up manually.
🧮 Step-by-Step Manual Analysis
🔹 Step 1: Confirm the Prophet’s Birthdate
We already established:
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8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal = April 9, 570 CE (Julian)
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This date fell on a Monday, confirmed through astronomical retro-calculation
✅ Aligned with hadith: “I was born on a Monday.”
🔹 Step 2: Add 40 Lunar Years + 6 Months + 12 Days
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A lunar year = 354.367 days
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40 lunar years = 14,174.68 days
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6 lunar months ≈ 177.18 days
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12 extra days = 12 days
Total = ~14,363.86 days
A lunar year = 354.367 days
40 lunar years = 14,174.68 days
6 lunar months ≈ 177.18 days
12 extra days = 12 days
Total = ~14,363.86 days
Now, add 14,364 days to April 9, 570 CE:
📅 April 9, 570 + 14,364 days ≈ August 10, 610 CE (Julian)
✅ That’s exactly what al-Mubārakpūrī claimed
🔹 Step 3: What Day Was August 10, 610 CE?
We check this historically:
📅 August 10, 610 CE was indeed a Monday (Julian calendar)
✅ Matches the hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, narrated by Abū Qatādah:
“That was the day I was born, and that was the day I was commissioned.”
🔹 Step 4: Was It the 21st Night of Ramaḍān?
We previously calculated that:
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Ramadan 13 BH began ~July 28, 610 CE
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Add 20 days: 21 Ramaḍān = Night of August 9–10, 610 CE
Thus, Revelation occurred on the dawn of Monday, August 10, following the 21st night of Ramaḍān.
✅ This matches the widely accepted hadith pattern for Laylat al-Qadr:
“Seek it in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramaḍān.”
(Bukhārī & Muslim, from ʿĀʾishah)
21 Ramaḍān is the first of the five possible "odd nights" (21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 29th).
📚 Classical and Scientific Support
📖 Al-Mubārakpūrī’s Method
“We judged it to be the 21st of Ramaḍān because it was a Monday, and because it matches the hadith of Abū Qatādah. Scientific calendar computations show that Monday in that year fell only on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of Ramaḍān — of which only the 21st aligns with the hadith and the tradition of Laylat al-Qadr.”
“We judged it to be the 21st of Ramaḍān because it was a Monday, and because it matches the hadith of Abū Qatādah. Scientific calendar computations show that Monday in that year fell only on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of Ramaḍān — of which only the 21st aligns with the hadith and the tradition of Laylat al-Qadr.”
📈 Mahmud Pasha (19th-century Egyptian astronomer)
Also confirms that Monday in Ramaḍān 610 CE must fall on one of the four dates above — and that only the 21st fits all other criteria.
✅ Final Verdict: Does It Hold?
Yes — the case for Monday, August 10, 610 CE = 21 Ramaḍān 13 BH is chronologically sound:
| Evidence Type | Claim | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|
| Lunar Age | 40 years + 6 months + 12 days | ✅ Yes |
| Calendar Date | August 10, 610 CE | ✅ Yes |
| Day of Week | Monday | ✅ Yes |
| Ramaḍān Match | 21st night | ✅ Yes |
| Hadith Alignment | Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim: Monday revelation | ✅ Yes |
| Laylat al-Qadr theory | Odd night, final 10 | ✅ Yes |
🌌 Reflection
The Prophet ﷺ did not live by the stars — but the stars moved in sync with his destiny. That August morning in 610 CE was more than a moment of inspiration. It was the birth of Revelation, calculated not by scribes but by the heavens themselves.
From silence in the cave came a word that would shake empires.
And from a Monday in Ramaḍān came a message that would endure forever.
Section 4: Other Opinions — A History of Estimations
📅 The Spread of Possibilities: Was It December? September? Or April?
🌕 Multiple Dates — Many Theories
Across classical and modern sources, historians have proposed several dates for the first revelation. Here are the most notable:
🗓️ 1. 13–14 December 610 CE
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Source: Fixed (non-intercalated) Islamic lunar calendar projections by Western scholars using a constant lunar cycle of 29.53 days.
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Issue: This method ignores historical moon sightings and local crescent observations, which the Islamic calendar depends on.
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Day of Week: These dates fell on Tuesday–Wednesday, not Monday.
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✅ Fails the hadith test (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim — “It was on a Monday”).
Source: Fixed (non-intercalated) Islamic lunar calendar projections by Western scholars using a constant lunar cycle of 29.53 days.
Issue: This method ignores historical moon sightings and local crescent observations, which the Islamic calendar depends on.
Day of Week: These dates fell on Tuesday–Wednesday, not Monday.
✅ Fails the hadith test (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim — “It was on a Monday”).
🗓️ 2. 3 September 610 CE
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Source: Calculated by some researchers assuming different lunar lengths and aligning with a lunar month starting earlier in July.
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Issue: Pushes Ramaḍān too far back; the 21st night would no longer align with August 10.
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Day of Week: Monday, yes — but would place 21 Ramaḍān too early for moon-based observation in Makkah that year.
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⚠️ Doesn’t match lunar visibility or broader traditional consensus.
Source: Calculated by some researchers assuming different lunar lengths and aligning with a lunar month starting earlier in July.
Issue: Pushes Ramaḍān too far back; the 21st night would no longer align with August 10.
Day of Week: Monday, yes — but would place 21 Ramaḍān too early for moon-based observation in Makkah that year.
⚠️ Doesn’t match lunar visibility or broader traditional consensus.
🗓️ 3. 27 Ramaḍān
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Source: Based on a hadith reported by Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān:
“Laylat al-Qadr is the 27th night.” (Abū Dāwūd)
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Issue: This is a popular opinion — but not the only one.
The Prophet ﷺ taught to seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last 10 nights (21, 23, 25, 27, 29), and he did not fix it absolutely.
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Day of Week (Manually):
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Start of Ramaḍān 610 CE = July 28
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➤ 27 Ramaḍān = August 23, 610 CE
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➤ August 23, 610 = Wednesday
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❌ Not a Monday, and disqualified by the Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim narration.
Source: Based on a hadith reported by Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān:
“Laylat al-Qadr is the 27th night.” (Abū Dāwūd)
Issue: This is a popular opinion — but not the only one.
The Prophet ﷺ taught to seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last 10 nights (21, 23, 25, 27, 29), and he did not fix it absolutely.
Day of Week (Manually):
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Start of Ramaḍān 610 CE = July 28
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➤ 27 Ramaḍān = August 23, 610 CE
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➤ August 23, 610 = Wednesday
❌ Not a Monday, and disqualified by the Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim narration.
🗓️ 4. 20 April 571 CE
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Source: Egyptian astronomers like Mahmoud Pasha, who calculated the solar equivalent of 9 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 as April 20, 571 CE, using Gregorian or misaligned solar calendars.
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Issue: This is a solar approximation, not based on lunar cycle or Ramadan-specific dating. Also, 571 CE contradicts the widely attested Year of the Elephant = 570 CE theory.
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❌ Chronologically inconsistent and unrelated to Ramaḍān or Laylat al-Qadr.
Source: Egyptian astronomers like Mahmoud Pasha, who calculated the solar equivalent of 9 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 as April 20, 571 CE, using Gregorian or misaligned solar calendars.
Issue: This is a solar approximation, not based on lunar cycle or Ramadan-specific dating. Also, 571 CE contradicts the widely attested Year of the Elephant = 570 CE theory.
❌ Chronologically inconsistent and unrelated to Ramaḍān or Laylat al-Qadr.
🌙 Why 21 Ramaḍān = August 10, 610 CE Holds Up
Let’s test it manually.
🔢 Starting Assumption:
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1 Ramaḍān = July 28, 610 CE (Julian)
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Add days:
1 Ramaḍān = July 28, 610 CE (Julian)
Add days:
| Ramaḍān Day | Date (610 CE) | Day of Week |
|---|---|---|
| 21st | August 10 | Monday ✅ |
| 23rd | August 12 | Wednesday ❌ |
| 25th | August 14 | Friday ❌ |
| 27th | August 16 | Sunday ❌ |
| 29th | August 18 | Tuesday ❌ |
✅ Only 21 Ramaḍān matches both:
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📅 A Monday, per the hadith
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🌌 An odd night, per Laylat al-Qadr traditions
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🕊️ Fits the timeline of 40 lunar years + 6 months + 12 days
📌 Final Result
While other proposed dates stem from calendar misunderstandings, Gregorian confusion, or symbolic interpretation of Laylat al-Qadr, only 21 Ramaḍān 610 CE:
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✅ Matches astronomical retro-calculation
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✅ Is a Monday, per Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim
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✅ Falls on an odd night of the last 10
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✅ Is consistent with Muhammad ibn Ḥabīb’s and al-Masʿūdī’s reign-based reckoning
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✅ Has support from classical astronomers like Mahmoud Pasha
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✅ Aligns with al-Mubārakpūrī’s deep analysis
Section 5: Revelation and the Rhythm of Laylat al-Qadr
✨ A Night Better Than a Thousand Months: Aligning with the Hidden Decree
The Qur’ān frames its own descent within a sacred cosmic moment:
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةِ الْقَدْرِ
“Indeed, We sent it down on the Night of Power.”
— [Sūrat al-Qadr, 97:1]
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَاهُ فِي لَيْلَةٍ مُّبَارَكَةٍ
“Indeed, We sent it down on a blessed night...”
— [Sūrat al-Dukhān, 44:3]
These verses confirm that the first descent of the Qur’ān happened during Laylat al-Qadr, a night deeply revered and veiled in mystery — yet not wholly unknowable.
🕰️ Prophetic Testimony and Monday Alignment
According to the Ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth from Abū Qatādah:
“The Prophet ﷺ was asked about fasting on Mondays. He replied:
‘That is the day I was born, and that is the day I was commissioned, or Revelation was sent down to me.’”
— [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 1162]
So the day of the week must be Monday. Any proposed night for the start of revelation must culminate in Monday morning, since that is when Jibrīl (Gabriel) is said to have descended with the divine command:
“Read in the name of your Lord...”
— [Sūrat al-ʿAlaq, 96:1]
🌙 The Night of the 21st: Odd, Blessed, and Timed Perfectly
The Prophet ﷺ is reported in multiple narrations to have said:
“Seek Laylat al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramaḍān.”
— [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī]
Thus, valid candidates are: 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 29th.
We have already manually verified:
| Night | Gregorian Date | Weekday |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Ramaḍān | August 10, 610 CE | Monday ✅ |
| 23 Ramaḍān | August 12 | Wednesday ❌ |
| 25 Ramaḍān | August 14 | Friday ❌ |
| 27 Ramaḍān | August 16 | Sunday ❌ |
| 29 Ramaḍān | August 18 | Tuesday ❌ |
Only the 21st matches all the required criteria:
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🌙 Odd-numbered night
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🗓️ Monday (confirmed manually on Julian calendar)
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📜 Traditional Qurʾānic descent night
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✅ Ramaḍān 610 CE, per lunar mapping
🏛️ Chronological Anchors from the Historical Record
Let’s go deeper: does this date match historical political benchmarks?
Yes.
Both Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb and al-Masʿūdī synchronize the mabʿath (beginning of revelation) with the:
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🏛 20th year of Xusro Parwēz's reign, and
🕰️ Xusro Parwēz began his first reign in February 590 CE.
➤ Thus, his 20th regnal year = 610 CE
✅ Matches perfectly with Ramaḍān of that year.
Additionally, their dating aligns with the 200th year after the Day of al-Rabadhah, a key Arab tribal pact used by pre-Islamic genealogists to mark sacred time.
📌 These are not loose estimates — they are embedded in chronographic tradition.
📌 Final Convergence
Let’s summarize why 21 Ramaḍān 610 CE = August 10, 610 CE (Julian) is the most robust date:
| Criteria | Match |
|---|---|
| 📜 First Revelation during Laylat al-Qadr | ✅ |
| 🌙 Laylat al-Qadr must be an odd night in last ten | ✅ |
| 🗓️ Must be a Monday per ḥadīth | ✅ |
| 🧮 Lunar age of the Prophet ﷺ = 40 yrs + 6 mo + 12 d | ✅ |
| 📘 Matches the 20th year of Xusro II’s reign | ✅ |
| 🪶 Matches both early historians and modern astronomers | ✅ |
| 🗺️ Consistent with Arabian, Persian, and Roman historical context | ✅ |
✨ A Night Written in Time
From Qur’anic internal cues to Prophetic sayings…
From manual lunar calendars to regnal-year synchronizations…
From the silence of Ḥirāʾ to the first vibration of “Iqraʾ”…
Every piece fits.
The 21st night of Ramaḍān, ending in the dawn of Monday, August 10, 610 CE, is not just probable — it is overwhelmingly supported by faithful memory, mathematical precision, and the celestial rhythm that governs sacred history.
Section 6: From Cave to Cosmos — Why This Date Matters
🌙 The First Word Echoes: What the 21st of Ramaḍān Truly Signifies
On a quiet night near the end of Ramaḍān, in the year we now call 610 CE, the world changed forever.
The place was not a throne room, nor a battlefield, nor a library of ancient knowledge.
It was a cave.
Dark. Lonely. Silent.
Perched above the valleys of Mecca, nestled in the Mount of Light (Jabal al-Nūr), and known simply as Ḥirāʾ.
Inside it sat a man — Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh, now forty lunar years old, wrapped in solitude and sacred thought. His people were lost in idolatry. His society, stratified and fractured. His soul, heavy with questions. And then...
اقْرَأْ — “Read.”
The Word that pierced the heavens.
It was the 21st night of Ramaḍān, and it ended in the dawn of Monday, August 10, 610 CE.
It was the first word of the Final Revelation.
It was the moment when silence broke, and the light of divine guidance returned to the world.
🪐 From the Cave to the Cosmos: A Moment Measured in Stars
Why does this moment matter? Because it is not only theologically timeless, but also historically anchored:
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🗓️ Manual lunar calculations place the 21st night of Ramaḍān exactly on Sunday night into Monday, August 10, 610 CE.
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🌙 Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, is traditionally sought in odd nights of the last ten — and this date fits precisely.
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📜 The Prophet ﷺ affirmed: “On a Monday, I was born. On a Monday, revelation descended upon me.” — [Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim]
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👑 Chronographers like Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb and al-Masʿūdī confirm that the event took place during the 20th year of Xusro II’s reign, matching 610 CE exactly.
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🌌 Mahmūd Pasha and 19th-century Islamic astronomers confirm the Monday lunar cycle of Ramaḍān 610 with precision.
This convergence between sacred memory and astronomical data is not coincidental — it is cosmic harmony.
🕋 A Revelation for All
This night did not belong to the Quraysh alone.
It belonged — and still belongs — to every soul seeking truth.
To every believer longing for light.
To every reader who recites “Iqraʾ” not merely with their tongue, but with their life.
Ramaḍān 21, 610 CE was not just the birthday of Islam.
It was the reawakening of Revelation, the shattering of ignorance, and the moment the unseen spoke back to creation.
And the night was not silent again.
📌 Conclusion
When we align the Qur’ān’s internal rhythms with the historical record, when we measure the lunar calendar against the stars, and when we listen — truly listen — to the echoes from Ḥirāʾ…
We find ourselves not just at a moment in time.
We find ourselves at a turning point in eternity.
And that moment was the 21st of Ramaḍān, 13 years before the Hijrah.
It was Monday, August 10, 610 CE.
The night that heaven touched earth.
The night that Iqraʾ was born.
Section 7: Final Synthesis — Celestial Evidence and Sacred Memory
🪐 A Date Preserved in the Sky and the Sunnah
After centuries of transmission, debate, astronomy, and reverence — we return to two monumental moments in sacred history. And remarkably, both moments still shine clearly, preserved in memory and in the movements of the heavens:
📅 The Prophet’s ﷺ Birth:
Monday, 8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 CE → April 9, 570 CE (Julian calendar)
A calm Monday morning in Mecca, in the Year of the Elephant — a year already etched into Qurayshite memory by divine intervention. With the collapse of Abraha’s ambitions and the defense of the Kaʿbah by unseen forces, it was as if the cosmos had cleared a path for a child whose name would one day echo in every corner of the earth: Muḥammad ﷺ.
🌙 The First Revelation:
"Iqraʾ bismi rabbika allathee khalaq…"“Read in the Name of your Lord who created…”
This moment — quiet, trembling, and cosmic — would become the first word of the Qur’an, revealed not at high noon in a temple, but in the stillness of night, just before dawn. A new age began.
📐 The Calculations Align
What centuries of scholars, jurists, and astronomers preserved has now been validated by modern astronomical tools and precise lunar calculations:
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8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 = April 9, 570 → A Monday
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21 Ramaḍān 610 = August 10, 610 → Also a Monday
From Ibn Isḥāq, Ibn Hishām, al-Ṭabarī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb, to al-Masʿūdī, the memory of the Prophet’s birth and his first revelation on a Monday was sacred and consistent.
The narrations were never vague — they gave us weekdays, lunar months, ages, and celestial signs.
And now, with careful retro-calculation of the Hijrī lunar cycle, we can confirm:
➡️ There were exactly 14,682 days (i.e. 40 lunar years and 6 lunar months) between the 8th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 and the 21st of Ramaḍān 610.
➡️ Both dates align with a Monday.
➡️ The event of revelation perfectly coincides with the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramaḍān, in which Laylat al-Qadr is sought — a night “better than a thousand months.”
✨ Sacred Memory Meets Scientific Certainty
This alignment is no coincidence. It is, as the Qurʾān itself reminds us:
“Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve lunar months in the register of Allah from the day He created the heavens and the earth…”
— Surah At-Tawbah (9:36)
The Sunnah told us: Monday.
The Seerah told us: Ramaḍān.
The Qur’an told us: Laylat al-Qadr.
The sky still testifies to all three.
🔭 A Universal Reckoning
In a world fractured by competing truths, it is deeply powerful that the Qur’ān’s moment of descent can be traced not only through the sacred narration of companions and scholars, but also through the stars, the moon, and the clockwork of creation.
This is more than history.
This is the convergence of celestial evidence and sacred memory.
It is the divine calendar bearing witness to the most important moments in human history:
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When mercy was born (April 9, 570)
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When mercy was revealed (August 10, 610)
Conclusion
🌌 The Night the Silence Broke, and Humanity Heard Its Lord
After centuries of careful narration and mathematical inquiry, the evidence has led us not to a guess — but to a convergence:
All signs point to a single moment:
📌 Monday morning, August 10, 610 CE — the 21st of Ramaḍān, 13 BH
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ“Read in the Name of your Lord who created…”
It is fitting that this moment occurred on the 21st night — one of the odd nights of the last ten of Ramaḍān, which the Prophet ﷺ later taught us to seek Laylat al-Qadr within. The Qur’an was revealed in a night better than a thousand months, and for over 1,400 years, believers have felt that night rather than merely dated it.
Yet here, in our time, we also date it.
📚 Al-Mubārakpūrī’s Testimony — Echoing Revelation with Reason
In "ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm", the great Indian ḥadīth scholar Ṣafī al-Raḥmān al-Mubārakpūrī defended the 21st of Ramaḍān using both scriptural reasoning and scientific calendrical calculation. He writes:
"The scholars differed widely on which month revelation first occurred. Some said Rabīʿ al-Awwal, others said Ramaḍān, and some said Rajab. We favor Ramaḍān, due to the verse: 'The month of Ramaḍān is that in which the Qur’an was sent down' (2:185), and 'Indeed, We sent it down during a blessed night' (44:3). And it is known that this blessed night — Laylat al-Qadr — lies in Ramaḍān."
But which night of Ramaḍān?
"Some said the 7th, others the 17th, others the 18th — but we favor the 21st night, even though we found no earlier historian who said so explicitly, for we are guided by another principle: That the Prophet ﷺ said he was born on a Monday, and that revelation came to him on a Monday.
Mubārakpūrī analyzed the lunar calendar of Ramaḍān 610 CE, and concluded:
"Only four Mondays occurred that month: the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th. But Laylat al-Qadr, by all authentic narrations, must fall in one of the odd nights of the last ten — and only the 21st meets both conditions: Monday and a probable Laylat al-Qadr."
🧭 Final Coordinates: Faith Meets Calculation
We have walked a sacred path — one lit by:
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The memory of the early Muslims
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The testimony of the great historians
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The calculations of astronomers like Maḥmūd Pasha
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The insight of modern scholars with deep adab
The result?
| Milestone | Lunar Date | Julian Date | Weekday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth of the Prophet ﷺ | 8 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 570 CE | April 9, 570 CE | Monday |
| First Revelation | 21 Ramaḍān 610 CE | August 10, 610 CE | Monday |
➡️ 40 full lunar years and 6 lunar months between them — a perfect chronological bridge.
🕯️ More Than Dates — These Are Destiny’s Coordinates
And now, in our age of precision, we find that:
Astronomical time confirms sacred memory.Science echoes the Sunnah.And the sky itself bears witness.
On that silent night — between cave and cosmos — the final message began.
The cave still calls.The words still echo.
🕌 The moment humanity heard its Lord.
THE END
Works Cited
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Primary Sources
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Hāshimī al-Baghdādī. Al-Munammaq fī Akhbār Quraysh. Edited by Khurshīd Aḥmad Fārūq, 1st ed., 1405 AH / 1985 CE, ʿĀlam al-Kutub, Beirut.
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Hāshimī al-Baghdādī. Al-Muḥabbar. Narrated by Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sukkarī, edited by Dr. Ilse Lichtenstädter, Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyyah, Hyderabad Deccan, 1361 AH / 1942 CE. Reproduced by Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīdah, Beirut.
Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Baghdādī. Ummuhāt al-Nabī ﷺ. Edited by Muḥammad Khayr Ramaḍān Yūsuf, 1st ed., Dār Ibn Ḥazm, 1416 AH / 1996 CE.
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Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Masʿūdī. Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Maʿādin al-Jawhar. Edited by Asʿad Dāghir, 4 vols., Dār al-Hijrah, Qum, 1409 AH.
Mango, Cyril, and Roger Scott, translators. The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History, AD 284–813. With the assistance of Geoffrey Greatrex, Clarendon Press, 1997.
Mubārakpūrī, Ṣafī al-Raḥmān. Al-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm [The Sealed Nectar]. Dār al-Hilāl, 1st ed., Beirut, n.d.
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Curta, Florin. The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Fisher, Greg, editor. Arabs and Empires Before Islam. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Howard-Johnston, James. The Last Great War of Antiquity. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Howard-Johnston, James. Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Hoyland, Robert G. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge, 2001.
Kardaras, Georgios. Byzantium and the Avars, 6th–9th Century AD: Political, Diplomatic and Cultural Relations. Translated from Greek. Brill, 2018.
Pohl, Walter. The Avars: A Steppe Empire in Central Europe, 567–822. Translated from German. Cornell University Press, 2018.
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