Wednesday, July 1, 2009

al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars

 

0001 

The front page from Al-Sufi’s Kitab suwar al-kawakib, this one is a copy from year 1417

al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer who worked in Isfahan and Baghdad during the golden age of Islam. His most famous work is the Kitab suwar al-kawakib, “Book of the Constellations of the Fixed Stars” (986) which described the 48 constellations from Ptolemy’s Almagest.

The book was illustrated with observations and descriptions of the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their color. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside. For each of the constellations, he provides the indigenous Arab names for their stars, drawings of the constellations, and a table of stars showing their locations and magnitude. The Kitab suwar al-kawakib initiated further work on astronomy in the Islamic worlds, and exercised a huge influence on the development of science in Europe. The work was frequently copied and translated. This copy, from the collections of the Library of Congress, was produced somewhere in south or central Asia, circa 1730, and is an exact copy of a manuscript, now lost, prepared for Ulug Beg of Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) in 1417.

Here are the 48 constellations from the copy of his book, sorted by page, which is basically from the north to south.

0039
0045 0053
Ursa Minor
The small bear with long tail.
Ursa Major
The large bear with long tail.
Draco
The dragon.

 

0061 0067 0077
Auriga
The charioteer.
Boötes
The herdsman.
Hercules
The club is replaced with a sickle.

 

0070

 0083

Corona Borealis
The tiara.

Lyra
The lyre.

 
 
 
0089 0095 0103 
Cygnus
The hen. 
Cassiopeia 
The seated woman, seating on a cushioned chair
Perseus 
The hero, holding the severed head of a demon instead of Medusa

 

0111 0121  0126
Cepheus
The king.
Ophiuchus and Serpens
The snake holder holding the large snake.
Sagitta
The arrow. It looks similar with Coma Berenices.

 

 

 

0131 0135 0138 
Aquila
The Falcon.
Delphinus
The dolphin. Looks more like a cat or a fox.
Equuleus
The little horse.

 

0143 0151  0159 
Pegasus
The winged horse.
Andromeda
Andromeda
Triangulum
The Triangle

 

0165 0177  0189 
Aries
The ram.
Taurus
The bull.
Gemini
The twins.

 

 0195 0203  0215 
Cancer
The crab.
Leo
The lion. Here it is a female lion.
Virgo
The virgin. Here the ear of corns has been replaced with wings.

 

 0225  0231 0239 
Libra
The scales.
Scorpio
The scorpion. I thought since the Arabs live close to the desert, they supposed to have a good knowledge about scorpion anatomy, but no …
Sagittarius
The archer. He wears a turban!

 

0245  0257  0265 
Capricorn
The sea-goat. Weirdly, the fish tail is missing.
Aquarius
The water pourer. depicted holding the water as if it is a robe
Pisces
The fishes.

 

 0273 0281 0291 
Cetus
The sea monster.
Orion
Instead of a shield, his west hand is shown with a long sleeve, characteristic of Muslim dresses at that time
Eridanus
The river Eridanus.

 

 0296 0303  0307 
Lepus
The hare.
Canis Major
The great dog. Those stars below are probably Columba.
Canis Minor
The lesser dog.

 

0317

0327

Argo Navis 
The ship.

Hydra
The sea serpent.

 

0330 0333 0343
Crater
The cup.
Corvus
The raven.
Centaurus and Lupus 
The Centaurs and the Wolf. Instead of being impaled, Lupus is shown held by Centaurus

 

0349 0353 0357
Ara
The altar
Corona Australis
The shell of a tortoise?
Piscis Austrinus
The southern fish, with the prominent star Fam al-Hut (Fomalhaut) on its mouth.

 

Source:

http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?TaxonomyTypeID=18&TaxonomySubTypeID=107&TaxonomyThirdLevelID=-1&ArticleID=833

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/heavens.html

http://www.wdl.org/

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