Benchmarking¶

This document compares HijriDate against existing Hijri conversion implementations.

Accuracy¶

Most existing Python Hijri converters trace back to R.H. van Gent’s work, which combines astronomical calculations with partial calendar data. The ummalqura package, ported from hijri.js, inherits this approach with modifications from Khalid Al-hussayen.

HijriDate was developed from scratch using systematic primary source verification:

1343-1355 AH: Archived Umm al-Qura newspaper issues
1356-1411 AH: KFUPM Comparison Calendar
1412-1450 AH: Official Umm al-Qura Comparative Calendar books
1451-1500 AH: KACST official website data

The package is tested against all 55,991 days in the supported range (1343-1500 AH / 1924-2077 CE), using 1,896 month start references from original sources:

Package	Correct Conversions	Total Tested	Accuracy
HijriDate	55,991	55,991	100.0%
ummalqura	51,249	55,991	91.5%

Note: The ummalqura package accepts dates in 1343-1355 AH but produces incorrect conversions for this period, as it lacks verified data for these years.

Performance¶

Benchmark environment: Python 3.14, 1M iterations, best of 5 runs.

Package	Time per conversion*	Relative speed	1M conversions
HijriDate	1.6 μs	~7x faster	1.6s
ummalqura	10.8 μs	1x	10.8s

*Two-way conversion (Hijri→Gregorian→Hijri)

# HijriDate
uv run python -m timeit -s 'from hijridate import Hijri, Gregorian' \
  -n 1000000 -r 5 'Hijri(1402, 10, 15).to_gregorian(); Gregorian(1982, 8, 4).to_hijri()'
1000000 loops, best of 5: 1.63 usec per loop

# ummalqura
uv run python -m timeit -s 'from ummalqura.hijri import Umalqurra' \
  -n 1000000 -r 5 'Umalqurra().hijri_to_gregorian(1402, 10, 15); Umalqurra().gegorean_to_hijri(1982, 8, 4)'
1000000 loops, best of 5: 10.8 usec per loop

Features¶

Beyond performance and accuracy, HijriDate provides comprehensive functionality compared to existing implementations:

Feature	HijriDate	ummalqura
Date Range	1343-1500 AH	1356-1500 AH
Python 3 Support	Full	Limited
Rich Comparison	Yes	No
Input Validation	Yes	No
Hashable Objects	Yes	No
Type Annotations	Yes	No
Test Coverage	100%	0%
Internationalization	4 languages	None