RAMADAN, rii'ma-diin' (Ar. Ramarlan, from -ramida, to be burning hot). The ninth month in the Mohammedan year. Mohammed is said to have had his first revelation in Ramadan, and every Moslem is therefore enjoined to keep a strict fast during this month from (lawn to sunset of every day, and to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, bathing, smelling perfumes, and other bodily enjoyments. During the night, however, the most necessary wants may be satis fied, and this permission leads to nightly in dulgences in all sorts of enjoyments. As the Molitunmedan year is a lunar one, the months rotate through the different seasons, and the fast of Ramadan becomes a severe affliction upon the faithful when the month happens to fall in the hot days of the summer. The sick, travelers, and soldiers in time of war are temporarily re leased from this duty, though it must subse quently be performed during an equal number of days. Nursing and pregnant women, and those
to whom it might prove really injurious, are exempted from fasting. During this month twenty additional prayers are said after the night prayer. Very pious believers seclude themselves and devote their time to the reading of the Koran. The fast is followed by the feast of Beiram (q.v.). In establishing this fast Moham med seems to have been guided by the Christian institution of Lent, which in the early Chureh varied in length from four to six weeks. The principal passages treating of the fast of Rama dan are found in the Koran, sera ii. 179-184. Consult: Wellhausen, Beate arabischen Heiden toms (Berlin, 1897) ; D'Ilerbelot, Biblioth6pic orientate (Paris, 1781) ; and the commentaries on the Koran.