Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

monthly tables showing the variations in its length. Since the earth
revolves about the Sun, too, the duration of time between two
conjunctions is 29 days and 13 hours. At the time of conjunction,
the Sun and the moon pass the meridian at the same time. The
moon can by no means be seen anywhere before the angle between
the Sun and the moon as seen from the earth, which is termed
Beynûnet (elongation), has become eight degrees [approximately
fourteen hours after the moment of conjunction]. When the angle
becomes eighteen (18) degrees maximum, the moon comes out of
the state of invisibility and the new moon appears on the western
horizon within the forty-five minutes during sunset. However, due
to the fifty-seven minute lunar parallax [1] , when it reaches a
position five degrees above the horizon, it can no longer be seen.
After the moon comes out of the state of invisibility, the new moon
can be observed in places situated on the same longitude as the
location where the sunset is taking place. As for later hours, or, at
night it can be observed after sunset in countries west of these
places. For instance, close to the beginning of the month of Rajab,
the time of conjunction was fifteen (15) hundred hours according
to Turkish meantime [Izmit’s local time], on 14 May, Wednesday,
1980. The new moon cannot be observed before 5 a.m. the
following day, i.e. Thursday. When this angle is, as was accepted by
the Ottoman scholars, eighteen (18) degrees, which means a
duration of one and a half days, the first appearing of the new
moon will be at 3 a.m. on 15 May, Friday. Since the time of sunset
as of (that) Friday in Istanbul is 19.20 hours, it will be possible to
observe the new moon during sunset on Friday [the night previous
to Saturday] in the city of Chicago, America, where the sunset is
16 hours earlier, that is, they are 240 degrees east of Istanbul and
270 degrees east of London. It cannot be observed on this same
night in places east of the two hundred and seventieth meridian.
Their nights begin at the time of sunset and the mornings following
these nights begin at midnight. The purpose for these calculations
is not to determine the time when the lunar month begins, but to
determine the (beginning of the) month when the new moon can
be seen. Those who say that it began before Friday night should
not be believed. Imâm-i-Subkî [2] also said so. We should not believe
[1] Angle subtended at the moon by the earth’s equatorial radius.
[2] Abû Hasan-i-Subkî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ (683 [1284 A.D.], Subk,
Egypt – 756 [1355], Cairo.)
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