Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ

Authors: Khalid Al-Ajaji

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The Arabic asterism Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ (قَوْسُ الجَوْزَاءِ), ‘the Bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ’. CC BY, Khalid Al-Ajaji, 2026.

Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ (قَوْسُ الجَوْزَاءِ), ‘the Bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ’, is an Arabic asterism of eight stars set on a curve behind the figure of al-Ǧawzāʾ (Orion), in the modern constellations Gemini and Monoceros. Its grip is al-Hanʿa, the sixth lunar station (γ and ξ Gem); one end of the curve is al-Taḥāyī (η, μ, ν Gem) and the other end is three faint stars (15, 13 and ε Mon). The Arabs said that al-Ǧawzāʾ shoots from it at the arm of the Lion.

Concordance, Etymology, History

Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ is recorded in the anwāʾ works of Ibn Qutayba, who quotes it from Adham ibn ʿImrān al-ʿAbdī, and of ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī, and in al-Ṣūfī’s Kitāb al-kawākib, where it is reported of the Arabs and where al-Ṣūfī finds its eight stars in the sky. Al-Marzūqī gives al-Hanʿa and al-Taḥāyī but not the bow.

Variants Arabic

• Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ (قوس الجوزاء) “the Bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ”

Variants Latin / European

• kaus al-djauzâ, Schjellerup (1874) (p. 145).
• qaws al-ǧawzāʾ, Kunitzsch (1961) ((no. 225), pp. 93–94).

Etymology

Name	English	Arabic
Qaws	In Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. q-w-s (قوس), we read: “Ibn Sīda: al-qaws is that from which one shoots.”	جاء في «لسان العرب»، مادة «قوس»: «ابْنُ سِيدَهْ: القَوْس الَّتِي يُرْمى عَنْهَا.»
al-Ǧawzāʾ	The Arabic name of the figure of Orion; see al-Ǧawzāʾ.	اسم صورة الجبّار عند العرب؛ انظر al-Ǧawzāʾ.

Sources and Identification

Ibn Qutayba

Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 AH / 889 CE), Hyderabad edition (1956) (p. 42):

English	Arabic
And Adham b. ʿImrān al-ʿAbdī said: “Al-Hanʿa is the Bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ, with which [she] shoots at the arm of the Lion. It is eight stars in the form of a bow, and in the grip of the bow are the two stars called al-Hanʿa.”	«وقال أدهم بن عمران العبدي: الهنعة قوس الجوزاء ترمي بها ذراع الأسد. وهي ثمانية أنجم في صورة قوس، ففي مقبض القوس النجمان اللذان يقال لهما الهنعة. »

Al-Ṣūfī

Al-Ṣūfī (d. 376 AH / 986 CE), ed. Khalid Al-Ajaji (2021), Gemini:

English

Arabic

They call the seventeenth and eighteenth, on the feet of the following Twin, al-Hanʿa, which is the sixth lunar station; the two are called al-Maysān and al-Zirr, and it is reported that one of them is al-Maysān and the other al-Zirr. They call the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth, on the feet of the foremost Twin and in front of his foot, al-Taḥāyī, and say that the Moon descends at these stars; this may be so, because they are nearer the ecliptic and the Moon passes over them and does not turn aside to the seventeenth and eighteenth. […] South of the eighteenth, which is on the foot of the following Twin, are three aligned stars of the fifth magnitude: between the northern of them and the eighteenth, towards the west and south, about a cubit and a half; the middle one is also a cubit and a half from the northern one; and the southern one is about two cubits from the middle one, towards the south and west. Ptolemy did not mention them. Together with the stars on the legs of the Twins they have come to lie on a curved line behind the constellation of al-Ǧabbār, with al-Hanʿa in the middle of the curve, at the place of the grip. It is reported of the Arabs that they call it Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ, from which [she] shoots at the arm of the Lion.

«وتُسَمِّي السابع عشر والثامن عشر اللذين على قدمي التوأم التالي: الهَنْعَةَ، وهو المنزل السادس من منازل القمر، ويسميان: المَيْسَانَ والزِّرَّ، وقد روي أن أحدهما هو المَيْسَانُ والآخر الزِّرُّ. وتُسَمِّي الرابع عشر والخامس عشر والسادس عشر التي على قدمي التوأم المقدم وقدام قدمه: التَّحَايِيَ، وأن القمر ينزل بهذه الكواكب، ويجوز أن يكون كذلك لأنها أقرب إلى دائرة البروج، والقمر يمر عليها ولا يعدل إلى السابع عشر والثامن عشر. […] وعلى جنوب الثامن عشر الذي على قدم التوأم التالي ثلاثة كواكب مصطفة من القدر الخامس بين الشمالي منها وبين الثامن عشر إلى المغرب والجنوب نحو ذراع ونصف، والأوسط من الشمالي على ذراع ونصف أيضًا، والجنوبي على نحو ذراعين من الأوسط إلى الجنوب والمغرب، لم يذكرها بطلميوس، وقد صارت مع الكواكب التي على رجل التوأمين على خط مقوس خلف كوكبة الجبار، والهَنْعَةُ في وسط التقويس على موضع المقبض، وروي عن العرب أنها تسميها قوس الجوزاء ترمي عنها ذراع الأسد.»

Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī

Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī (d. 403 AH / 1013 CE), ed. al-Qaysī and al-Dulaymī (1996) (p. 91; fol. 36a):

English

Arabic

When twenty-two nights of the month have passed, al-Hanʿa rises, the first of the risings of the season of al-qayẓ (midsummer). It is two white stars with a whip’s length between them, following al-Haqʿa, in the Milky Way, and between [them and] al-Ḏirāʿ al-Mabsūṭa (“the Outstretched Forearm”). One star is called al-Zirr and the other al-Maysān. It is said: al-Hanʿa is the Bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ, with which [he] shoots at the arm of the Lion; and the bow is eight stars in the form of a bow, and in the grip of the bow are the two stars called al-Hanʿa.

«وفي اثنتين وعشرين ليلة تخلو منه تطلع الهنعة، وهي أول طوالع فصل القيظ، وهي كوكبان أبيضان بينهما قيد سوط على أثر الهقعة في المجرة، وبين الذراع المبسوطة، يسمى الكوكب الواحد الزر، والآخر: الميسان، وقيل: الهنعة قوس الجوزاء يرمي بها ذراع الأسد، والقوس ثمانية أنجم في صورة قوس، وفي مقبض القوس النجمان اللذان يقال لهما: الهنعة،.»

Star identifications

The identifications from al-Ṣūfī’s account follow the commentary in Khalid Al-Ajaji’s 2021 edition of Kitāb al-kawākib, in the section on Gemini. Kunitzsch (1961, no. 225) reads al-Ṣūfī’s account the same way: the eight stars are the fourteenth to eighteenth of Ptolemy’s Gemini (η, μ, ν, γ, ξ Gem) and the three unlisted stars south of the eighteenth (15, 13 and ε Mon).

Name	Description in anwāʾ sources	Identification from anwāʾ descriptions	Identification from al-Ṣūfī’s description
Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ	Eight stars “in the form of a bow”; the two stars of al-Hanʿa are in its grip.	Eight stars: al-Taḥāyī (3) and al-Hanʿa (2), with three further stars, which the anwāʾ texts do not describe.	η, μ, ν, γ, ξ Gem + 15, 13, ε Mon
al-Hanʿa (the grip)	Two white stars, a whip’s length apart, following al-Haqʿa, in the Milky Way. Named al-Zirr and al-Maysān.	γ, ξ Gem	γ, ξ Gem (Ptolemy’s Gemini nos. 17, 18). Variant reported by al-Ṣūfī: nos. 16, 17.
al-Taḥāyī (one end)	Three stars close to al-Hanʿa, between the Milky Way and Tawābiʿ al-ʿAyyūq.	η, μ, ν Gem	η, μ, ν Gem (nos. 14, 15, 16)
The three faint stars (the other end)	Not described in the anwāʾ texts.	—	15 Mon, 13 Mon, ε Mon (three aligned stars of the 5th magnitude south of no. 18; not in the Almagest)

Discussion

The name and its witnesses. Every Arabic occurrence of Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ goes back to one sentence: Adham b. ʿImrān al-ʿAbdī’s, which Ibn Qutayba quotes. Ibn ʿĀṣim repeats it, softening it to “it is said”. Al-Ṣūfī, who has the name as “reported of the Arabs”, wrote about a century after Ibn Qutayba, so his phrase may well be a report of the same sentence.

Part and whole. Adham’s «الهنعة قوس الجوزاء» names the whole bow by its grip. The two stars of al-Hanʿa, the lunar station, are the grip; the bow is the asterism. This is how al-Ṣūfī understands it: the station sits “in the middle of the curve, at the place of the grip”.

IAU Working Group Star Names

Four of the eight stars carry IAU names:

• Propus — η Gem (HR 2216, HIP 29655), one of al-Taḥāyī
• Tejat — μ Gem (HR 2286, HIP 30343), one of al-Taḥāyī
• Alhena — γ Gem (HR 2421, HIP 31681), one of the two stars of al-Hanʿa
• Alzirr — ξ Gem (HR 2484, HIP 32362), the other star of al-Hanʿa

Alhena and Alzirr come from the Arabic names of the grip: al-Hanʿa and al-Zirr. Propus and Tejat are not names of the Arabic asterism. The sources give al-Hanʿa as the name of the pair, with al-Zirr and al-Maysān as the names of its two members, and none says which is which (al-Ṣūfī: «روي أن أحدهما هو الميسان والآخر الزر»). Alhena on γ and Alzirr on ξ are therefore a convention and not a reading of the sources; the other member’s name, al-Maysān, has no IAU star. No IAU name is attached to the bow itself.

Weblinks

• IAU Catalog of Star Names