Honolulu-based Kamakura Corporation has incorporated new version of the Saudi civil Umm al-Qura calendar in Kamakura Risk Manager version 7.1.2, which will be shipped to clients in February. The Kamakura Corporation implementation goes far beyond a simple but inaccurate tabular mapping between the Islamic calendar and the Gregorian calendar. Kamakura has used advanced tools from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration to project the exact timing of the new moon, sunset and moonset in Mecca to ensure the accuracy of Umm al-Qura dates from 1937 to 2200. This is 123 years farther into the future than the best previously available projections of the Umm al-Qura calendar. Alternatively, a user-specified Hijri calendar can be used.
To an increasing degree, financial contracts in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region have payment dates specified according to the local variation of the Hijri calendar, says Ardi Tavakol, managing director for client services at Kamakura, explaining the Kamakura implementation of the Islamic calendar. Beginning in February, Kamakura Risk Manager will automatically produce scheduled cash flows based on the Umm al-Qura calendar without any need for the client to make a conversion from the Umm al-Qura calendar to the Gregorian calendar first. Most importantly, the Kamakura implementation of the Umm al-Qura calendar through the year 2200 is based on state-of-the-art astronomical calculations. The current astronomical rules are determined at the Institute of Astronomical & Geophysical Research of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Riyadh. Kamakuras extension to the year 2200 is based on NASAs most accurate projections for the relative motion of the moon, the sun and the earth.
Background on the Umm al-Qura Calendar in Kamakura Risk Manager The Islamic Calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar, is a lunar calendar where Year 1 (1 AH = 1 anno Hegirae) corresponds to the year in which Prophet Muhammad and his followers moved (Arabic Hijra = migration) from Mecca to Medina to escape an assassination attempt on the Prophet. Most sources quote July 16, 622 AD as the first day of the Islamic era (the first day of the first month of the year 1 AH).
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