To convert a date from Hijri to Gregorian exactly, you need a table of real Hijri month lengths, because months are 29 or 30 days with no fixed pattern. The most reliable way is a converter built on the Umm al-Qura calendar. This guide also gives a manual formula for the year, the Excel steps, and why Excel can be a day or two off.
Fastest: use a Hijri to Gregorian converter
- Open the Hijri to Gregorian converter.
- Select Hijri, enter the day, choose the month and type the four-digit year.
- The Gregorian date appears instantly with its weekday; copy it or press Reverse to go the other way.
It covers 1300 to 1500 AH and accepts Arabic-Indic digits. For today in both calendars, see today’s Hijri date.
Manual year estimate
No hand formula gives the exact day, but you can estimate the year:
Gregorian year ≈ Hijri year × 0.970229 + 621.5643
Hijri year ≈ (Gregorian year − 621.5643) ÷ 0.970229
Example: 1448 × 0.970229 + 621.5643 = 2026.46. The whole number is the Gregorian year in which 1448 AH begins, and .46 means it starts near mid-year; indeed it began on 16 June 2026.
The popular shortcut Hijri × 0.97 + 622 is only good for a rough era, since it can be a year off.
How to convert Hijri to Gregorian in Excel
Excel stores a date as one number and displays it in whichever calendar you choose, so converting is a matter of formatting.
Method 1: Format Cells
- Select the date cells.
- Press Ctrl + 1 to open Format Cells.
- On the Number tab choose Date.
- Set the locale to Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and the calendar type to Hijri (or Gregorian to go back).
Method 2: TEXT with the B2 code
If A1 holds a Gregorian date, show it in Hijri in another cell with (see Microsoft's TEXT function reference):
=TEXT(A1,"B2dd/mm/yyyy")
B2 means Hijri and B1 means Gregorian. In some regional settings the argument separator is a semicolon instead of a comma.
Days between two dates
For Gregorian dates use =DATEDIF(A1,B1,"d"). For a Hijri duration in Hijri years and months, use the days between dates calculator, which uses the real month lengths.
Why Excel can differ from Umm al-Qura
Microsoft’s Hijri calendar has historically used a fixed arithmetic scheme, often called the Kuwaiti algorithm, which assumes a regular pattern of month lengths. Months in the Umm al-Qura calendar are set by astronomical calculation each month. As a result, Excel may show a Hijri date one or two days different from the official one, so double-check important dates with an Umm al-Qura tool.
Ready-made conversion examples
| Hijri date | Gregorian date |
|---|---|
| 1 Muharram 1400 AH | Wednesday 21 November 1979 |
| 12 Dhu al-Qa'dah 1415 AH | Wednesday 12 April 1995 |
| 24 Ramadan 1420 AH | Saturday 1 January 2000 |
| 1 Muharram 1445 AH | Wednesday 19 July 2023 |
| 1 Shawwal 1446 AH | Sunday 30 March 2025 |
| 1 Muharram 1448 AH | Tuesday 16 June 2026 |
| 1 Ramadan 1448 AH | Monday 8 February 2027 |
Common mistakes
- Just adding 622: Hijri years are shorter, so the error grows over time.
- Trusting Excel for official dates: it can be a day or two off Umm al-Qura.
- Forgetting a Hijri year spans two Gregorian years: 1448 AH runs from 2026 into 2027.
- Mixing up month numbers: Rabi' al-Thani is month 4 and Jumada al-Akhirah is month 6. See the Islamic months in order.
Once converted, you can calculate an age from the date in the age calculator.
Sources
Dates and rules on this page are checked against:
- Official Umm al-Qura Calendar · Kingdom of Saudi ArabiaThe official table of Hijri month starts
- Excel TEXT function · Microsoft SupportFormatting dates inside cells
- Tabular Islamic calendar · WikipediaThe arithmetic calendar and the "Kuwaiti algorithm" in Windows
- UmAlQuraCalendar Class · Microsoft LearnUmm al-Qura support in Microsoft software
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a Hijri date to Gregorian?
Choose “Hijri” in a date converter, enter the day, month and year, and the Gregorian date appears with its weekday. Use an Umm al-Qura based tool for official Saudi dates.
How do I convert Hijri to Gregorian in Excel?
Format the cell as a date (Ctrl + 1), pick Arabic (Saudi Arabia) and set the calendar type to Hijri or Gregorian, or use =TEXT(A1,"B2dd/mm/yyyy") to show a stored date in Hijri.
What is 1448 Hijri in Gregorian?
1448 AH started on 16 June 2026 and ends on 5 June 2027, so it spans two Gregorian years.
Why do converters sometimes give different dates?
Some use an approximate tabular Islamic calendar or another country’s moon sighting instead of the Umm al-Qura table, which can create a one-day difference.
How do I change my phone calendar to Hijri?
Most phones let you add a secondary Islamic calendar in the calendar or date settings. Check which variant it uses, since Umm al-Qura is the Saudi standard.