Approximate Muslim populations and percentages of total populations in countries where Islam is dominant or is a significant minority. (Sources: [30; 53] and Europa World Year Book 1992, London; estimates for 2000 assume same percentages as in 1990.)
Region and country | 1990 | 2000 (est.) | |
millions | % | millions | |
A: South-West Asia | |||
Iran | 56.5 | 98 | 72.4 |
Turkey | 55.4 | 99 | 65.2 |
Afghanistan | 18.4 | 99 | 24.2 |
Iraq | 17.1 | 95 | 25.2 |
Saudi Arabia | 14.1 | 95 | 20.6 |
Syria | 10.5 | 87 | 15.0 |
Yemen Arab Republic | 6.4 | 99 | 9.9 |
Jordan | 3.7 | 93 | 5.3 |
Democratic Yemen | 2.0 | 90 | 3.2 |
Lebanon | 1.9 | 70 | 2.8 |
Kuwait | 1.9 | 93 | 2.5 |
United Arab Republics | 1.6 | 92 | 1.7 |
Oman | 1.5 | 99 | 2.0 |
West Bank and Gaza | 1.4 | 92 | 1.7 |
Israel | 0.7 | 14 | 0.8 |
Bahrain | 0.5 | 91 | 0.7 |
Qatar | 0.3 | 99 | 0.5 |
B: South Asia | |||
Pakistan | 108.6 | 97 | 140.9 |
India | 101.5 | 12 | 121.5 |
Bangladesh | 91.6 | 86 | 125.4 |
Sri Lanka | 1.2 | 7 | 1.4 |
C: Rest of Asia | |||
Indonesia | 155.3 | 87 | 185.9 |
Central Asian Republics* | 54.0 | 19 | 59.1 |
China | 19.0 | 2 | 20.3 |
Malaysia | 10.3 | 58 | 12.0 |
Philippines | 3.0 | 5 | 4.3 |
Thailand | 2.2 | 4 | 2.6 |
Burma | 1.5 | 4 | 2.0 |
Singapore | 0.4 | 15 | 0.5 |
Mongolia | 0.2 | 10 | 0.3 |
Brunei | 0.2 | 60 | 0.2 |
D: Northern and Saharan Africa | |||
Egypt | 47.8 | 90 | 64.1 |
Morocco (and Western Sahara) | 25.1 | 99 | 31.0 |
Algeria | 24.3 | 97 | 32.7 |
Sudan | 17.2 | 73 | 24.4 |
Tunisia | 7.9 | 99 | 9.8 |
Mali | 7.6 | 90 | 11.0 |
Niger | 5.9 | 85 | 9.0 |
Libya | 3.7 | 98 | 5.5 |
Chad | 2.3 | 50 | 3.1 |
Mauritania | 1.8 | 96 | 2.9 |
E: Rest of Africa | |||
Nigeria | 39.8 | 45 | 50.4 |
Ethiopia | 16.9 | 35 | 21.8 |
Tanzania | 7.7 | 30 | 9.7 |
Somalia | 7.5 | 99 | 9.7 |
Senegal | 6.6 | 90 | 8.6 |
Guinea | 5.1 | 70 | 8.0 |
Ivory Coast | 2.8 | 23 | 4.4 |
Cameroon | 2.6 | 22 | 3.4 |
Ghana | 2.1 | 14 | 2.7 |
Mozambique | 2.0 | 13 | 2.6 |
Kenya | 1.8 | 6 | 2.3 |
Sierra Leone | 1.5 | 35 | 1.9 |
Malawi | 1.3 | 14 | 1.7 |
Uganda | 1.0 | 6 | 1.3 |
Zimbabwe | 0.9 | 1 | 1.1 |
Madagascar | 0.8 | 7 | 1.0 |
Benin | 0.7 | 15 | 1.0 |
Gambia | 0.7 | 85 | 1.0 |
Rwanda | 0.6 | 8 | 0.8 |
Togo | 0.5 | 15 | 0.8 |
Liberia | 0.5 | 20 | 0.7 |
Djibouti | 0.5 | 99 | 0.7 |
Comoro Islands | 0.5 | 99 | 0.6 |
South Africa | 0.3 | 1 | 0.4 |
Guinea-Bissau | 0.3 | 30 | 0.4 |
Maldive Islands | 0.2 | 99 | 0.3 |
F: Europe and North America | |||
Republics of former Yugoslavia | 3.7 | 16 | 3.9 |
United States of America | 3.5 | 2 | 4.3 |
France | 2.5 | 4 | 2.6 |
Albania | 2.3 | 70 | 2.8 |
Germany | 2.3 | 3 | 2.7 |
Britain | 1.5 | 3 | 1.6 |
Bulgaria | 1.2 | 13 | 1.2 |
Canada | 0.3 | 1 | 0.4 |
Spain | 0.3 | 1 | 0.3 |
Cyprus | 0.2 | 25 | 0.2 |
Totals for these six geographical areas in millions for 1990: | |||
South-West Asia | 194 | ||
South Asia | 303 | ||
Rest of Asia | 246 | ||
Northern and Saharan Africa | 144 | ||
Rest of Africa | 105 | ||
Europe and North America | 18 | ||
These figures show that the world Muslim population in 1990 was over one billion. | |||
*Former parts of USSR. |
Months of Islamic, lunar calendar
1 | Muharram (formerly, Safar I) |
2 | Safar (formerly, Safar II) |
3 | Rabi‘ I |
4 | Rabi‘ II |
5 | Jumada I |
6 | Jumada II |
7 | Rajab |
8 | Sha‘ban |
9 | Ramadan |
10 | Shawwal |
11 | Dhu-l-Qa‘da |
12 | Dhu-l-Hijja |
Principal events of the Islamic year
Prevailing Christian calendar dates for the first day of Islamic (AH) centuries, assuming Gregorian dates from 1582 to present: *
1 | 16 July 622 |
101 | 23 July 719 |
201 | 30 July 816 |
301 | 6 August 913 |
401 | 14 August 1010 |
501 | 22 August 1107 |
601 | 28 August 1204 |
701 | 5 September 1301 |
801 | 12 September 1398 |
901 | 20 September 1495 |
1001 | 7 October 1592 |
1101 | 15 October 1689 |
1201 | 24 October 1786 |
1301 | 1 November 1883 |
1401 | 9 November 1980 |
1501 | 17 November 2077 |
The Gregorian calendar dates equivalent to the first day of the Islamic year and the first day of Ramadan, the month of fasting, are approximately as follows:
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21 GOODWIN, G., A History of Ottoman Architecture, London, Thames & Hudson, 1971
22 GUILLAUME, A. (tr.), The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishāq’s Sīrat Rasīl Allāh, Karachi/London, Oxford University Press, 1955
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30 KURIAN, G. T., Encyclopedia of the First World, 2 vols, Encyclopedia of the Second World, 2 vols, Encyclopedia of the Third World, 4th edn, 3 vols, New York/Oxford, Facts on File, 1990, 1991, 1992
31 LINGS, M., Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources, London, Allen & Unwin/New York, Inner Traditions International, 1983
32 MALIK IBN ANAS, Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik ibn Anas: The First Formulation of Islamic Law (tr. A. A. Bewley), London/New York, Kegan Paul International, 1989 (the translator, Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley, is also the author ‘Abdul Rahman I. Doi, whose useful booklet, Women in Shari‘ah (Islamic Law), 2nd edn, was publ. London, Ta-Ha Publishers, 1989)
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38 NASIR, J. J., The Status of Women under Islamic Law and under Modern Islamic Legislation, 2nd edn, London/Boston, Graham & Trotman, 1994; 1st edn publ. with slightly different title (‘in’ twice instead of ‘under’ twice) in 1990
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48 TRIMINGHAM, J. S., Islam in East Africa, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964
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51 WATT, W. M., Islamic Philosophy and Theology, rev. edn, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1985; first publ. 1962
52 WATT, W. M., Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, London, Oxford University Press, 1961, 1974
53 WEEKES, R. V. (ed.), Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey, 2nd edn, Westport, CT, Greenwood, 1984; 1st edn 1978
54 WELCH, A. T., ‘al-Kur’ān’, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, vol. 5, fasc. 85–6, Leiden, Brill, 1981, pp. 400–29; French edn, Paris, vol. 5, pp. 401–31, 1981
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56 WILLIAMS, J. A. (tr. and ed.), The Word of Islam, Austin, TX, University of Texas Press, 1994
57 ZEBIRI, K., Mahmūd Shaltūt and Islamic Modernism, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1993
58 ZIAD ABU-AMR, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1994
An excellent source for concise articles on virtually all aspects of the modern Islamic world (movements, countries, rituals, biographies, etc.) is J. L. Esposito (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, 4 vols, New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995. For longer and more technical articles, see C. E. Bosworth et al. (eds), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn, 8 vols. to 1995 (up to ‘Sam-’), Leiden, Brill, 1960–; for the remainder of the alphabet and other articles on Islamic religion and law reprinted from 1st edn, see H. A. R. Gibb and J. H. Kramers (eds), Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1953. For articles in journals and anthologies see J. D. Pearson et al. (eds), Index Islamicus 1906–1955, thereafter five-year Supplements, Cambridge, W. Heffer & Sons, 1958, 1962, 1967, 1972, then London, Mansell, 1977, 1983; The Quarterly Index Islamicus, 17 vols to 1993, 1977–.