If you are on Windows, you could use the .NET Framework from inside MATLAB.
Here is a function to convert Gregorian dates to Hijri (based on an article on CodeProject):
function out = GregToHijri(str, frmtIn, frmtOut)
% English (US) and Arabic (Saudi Arabia) cultures
enCult = System.Globalization.CultureInfo('en-US',false);
enCult.DateTimeFormat.Calendar = System.Globalization.GregorianCalendar();
arCult = System.Globalization.CultureInfo('ar-SA',false);
arCult.DateTimeFormat.Calendar = System.Globalization.HijriCalendar();
% parse using supplied input format
dt = System.DateTime.ParseExact(str, frmtIn, enCult.DateTimeFormat);
% convert datetime as formatted string
out = char( dt.ToString(frmtOut, arCult.DateTimeFormat) );
end
Tested on your input:
>> GregToHijri('Friday, 18/11/2011', 'dddd, dd/MM/yyyy', 'dd/MM/yyyy')
ans =
22/12/1432