Display dates in Arabic

Here you can print the Arabic PHP Date :

Create a file called arabicdate.php and place this function inside it :

function ArabicDate() {
    $months = array("Jan" => "يناير", "Feb" => "فبراير", "Mar" => "مارس", "Apr" => "أبريل", "May" => "مايو", "Jun" => "يونيو", "Jul" => "يوليو", "Aug" => "أغسطس", "Sep" => "سبتمبر", "Oct" => "أكتوبر", "Nov" => "نوفمبر", "Dec" => "ديسمبر");
    $your_date = date('y-m-d'); // The Current Date
    $en_month = date("M", strtotime($your_date));
    foreach ($months as $en => $ar) {
        if ($en == $en_month) { $ar_month = $ar; }
    }

    $find = array ("Sat", "Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed" , "Thu", "Fri");
    $replace = array ("السبت", "الأحد", "الإثنين", "الثلاثاء", "الأربعاء", "الخميس", "الجمعة");
    $ar_day_format = date('D'); // The Current Day
    $ar_day = str_replace($find, $replace, $ar_day_format);

    header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
    $standard = array("0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9");
    $eastern_arabic_symbols = array("٠","١","٢","٣","٤","٥","٦","٧","٨","٩");
    $current_date = $ar_day.' '.date('d').' / '.$ar_month.' / '.date('Y');
    $arabic_date = str_replace($standard , $eastern_arabic_symbols , $current_date);

    return $arabic_date;
}

Now include this file in your page :

include 'arabicdate.php';

Then you can print the Arabic PHP Date :

echo ArabicDate();

Live Formatted Example :

http://ideone.com/MC0hou

Hope that helps.

How about this:

function arabicDate($time)
{
    $months = ["Jan" => "يناير", "Feb" => "فبراير", "Mar" => "مارس", "Apr" => "أبريل", "May" => "مايو", "Jun" => "يونيو", "Jul" => "يوليو", "Aug" => "أغسطس", "Sep" => "سبتمبر", "Oct" => "أكتوبر", "Nov" => "نوفمبر", "Dec" => "ديسمبر"];
    $days = ["Sat" => "السبت", "Sun" => "الأحد", "Mon" => "الإثنين", "Tue" => "الثلاثاء", "Wed" => "الأربعاء", "Thu" => "الخميس", "Fri" => "الجمعة"];
    $am_pm = ['AM' => 'صباحاً', 'PM' => 'مساءً'];

    $day = $days[date('D', $time)];
    $month = $months[date('M', $time)];
    $am_pm = $am_pm[date('A', $time)];
    $date = $day . ' ' . date('d', $time) . ' - ' . $month . ' - ' . date('Y', $time) . '   ' . date('h:i', $time) . ' ' . $am_pm;
    $numbers_ar = ["٠", "١", "٢", "٣", "٤", "٥", "٦", "٧", "٨", "٩"];
    $numbers_en = ['0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'];

    return str_replace($numbers_en, $numbers_ar, $date);
}

Note: the parameter ($time) should be Unix timestamp.

AFAIK setlocale won't actually do any language translation for you but rather affects things like the formatting and comparator functionality. If you want localisation then you could try using IntlDateFormatter which may give you what you need.

Updated: You could also try Zend_Date as suggested in this question if PHP 5.3 isn't an option for you.