Several sources give the words in which the _qalammas_ made known the re-distribution: they are affected by later views but must contain a kernel of truth, since they shew difficulties which are not even noticed by the authorities. According to Kalby the expression runs simply:--“The _safar_ of this year is declared holy”, or “free”; according to Ibn Ishaq:--“O God, I declare one of the two months called _safar_, namely the first, to be free, and I postpone the other till next year.” What is meant by postponing _safar II_ until the next year is unexplained and unexplainable. Since the year begins with _safar I_, and the proclamation takes place in _dhu-l-hijja_, _safar II_ already belongs to the next year. _Safar II_ is in itself not holy, so that here there can be no question of a changing of the holy character of the month. But if by the expression _safar safar I_ is understood, matters become clear. _Safar I_ is doubled: _I a_ is an intercalary month, and therefore not holy, and belongs as a thirteenth month to the current year; _I b_ begins the new year and is holy. “I remove _safar_ (viz. _I b_) to next year” is an incorrect but intelligible way of saying that the new year begins with this month. In the _Qâmûs_ the expressions runs:--“O God, I am authorised to move the months or to leave them in their places and confirm them, and none can blame me or put me to my defence. O God, I declare the first _safar_ to be free, and the second holy. The same do I determine in respect of the two _rajab_, namely _rajab_ and _sha’ban_.” The first sentence, if authentic, doubtless refers to an intercalation, since the words are ‘move the months’, and not ‘the holy character of the months’; but we can hardly insist so far upon the expression. The last sentence is more conclusive. It shews, namely, that not only was _safar I_ shifted to _safar II_, but at the same time _rajab_ was moved to _sha’ban_. This is a system, not an incidental expedient to render possible a military expedition in a holy month. Later authorities add that the holy character of _safar_ was moved to _rabi I_, and that the process went on from month to month until every month in the year had at one time or another been declared holy. How this is to be understood is shewn by the oldest report which has been handed down to us. It comes from Modjahid, who was born in the year 21 of the Hegira. “The heathen were accustomed in every month of the lunar year to go on pilgrimages for only two years.” It must be realised that in the course of a cycle of 33 years a month of the lunar year will coincide two to three times, according to the series, with one and the same month of the lunisolar year, and that the months of the Mohammedan lunar year and of the old Arabian lunisolar year, which must once have existed, have the same names. Modjahid’s statement can only be understood thus: that the heathen pilgrimage was re-arranged every third year in relation