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==IAU Working Group Star Names==
==IAU Working Group Star Names==
In 2026, the name al-Miġzal (or any spelling variant) was suggested as a star name in the area that is covered by the historical asterism. It is suggested to be used for ...
In 2026, the name al-Miġzal (or any spelling variant) was suggested as a star name in the area that is covered by the historical asterism. It is suggested to be used for η Cyg.
<ref name="lisan"><span dir="rtl">لسان العرب، ابن منظور (توفي 711 هـ)</span><br>
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711 H/~1312 AD), ''Lisān al-ʿarab''</ref>
<ref name="khalid2021sufi">[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s6JXzftwjMQ5rgZoGE3718EtBLBZtjzr <span dir="rtl">كتاب الكواكب لأبي الحسين عبد الرحمن بن عمر الرازي المعروف بالصوفي (291-376)، تحقيق خالد بن عبد الله العجاجي.</span><br>]
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s6JXzftwjMQ5rgZoGE3718EtBLBZtjzr ''Book of the stars'' by al-Ṣūfī (died 986): Critical edition with commentary by Khalid al-Ajaji, digital edition, 2021.]</ref>
<ref name="qutayba"><span dir="rtl">أبو محمد عبد الله بن مسلم ابن قتيبة الدينوري المتوفى سنة 276هـ - 879م، كتاب الأنواء في مواسم العرب، دائرة المعارف العثمانية، حيدر أباد، الهند، 1375 هـ - 1956م.</span><br />
Ibn Qutayba ad-Dīnawarī, abū Muḥammad ʿabd Allah b. Muslim. d. 276 A.H / 879 A.D., ''Kitābu'l-Anwāʾ (on Meteorology of the Arabs)'', Dairatu'l-Maʿarifi'l-Osmania, Hyderabad - India 1956 A.D./1375 A.H.</ref>
<ref name="marzuqi"><span dir="rtl">الإمام أبو علي أحمد بن محمد بن الحسن المرزوقي (توفي سنة 421 هـ)، الأزمنة والأمكنة، تحقيق د. محمد نايف الدليمي، عالم الكتب، بيروت، لبنان، 1422 هـ.</span><br>
Al-Marzūqī, Abū ʿAli Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥassan (d. 1030), ''Al-Azminah wa al-Amkinah'' (Times and Places), Edition by Dr. Mohammad Nayef al-Dulaymi, (Arabic print of the original book in 2002, World of Books, Beirut, Lebanon).</ref>
<ref name="Kunitzsch1961">Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. ''Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber.'' Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.</ref>
<ref name="Laffitte2012">Roland Laffitte, ''Le ciel des Arabes'', 2012</ref>
<ref name="Laffitte2025">Roland Laffitte, ''Nommer les étoile: 500 noms hérités des Arabes - Apport de l'uranographie arabe'', Orient des Mots, 2025 ([https://uranos.fr/500-noms-herites-des-arabes/ online])</ref>
<ref name="khalid2021urjuza">[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s6JXzftwjMQ5rgZoGE3718EtBLBZtjzr?usp=sharing <span dir="rtl">أرجوزة الكواكب لأبي علي الحسين بن عبد الرحمن بن عمر الرازي المعروف بابن الصوفي (ت بعد 400 ه، 1010م)، تحقيق خالد بن عبد الله العجاجي.</span><br>]
[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1s6JXzftwjMQ5rgZoGE3718EtBLBZtjzr?usp=sharing ''Poem of the stars'' by Ibn al-Ṣūfī (died after ~ 400H, 1010AD): Critical edition with commentary by Khalid al-Ajaji, digital edition, 2021.]</ref>
<ref name="thaqafi"><span dir="rtl">عبد الله بن حسين بن عاصم الثقفي (توفي 403 هـ)، الأنواء والأزمنة، تحقيق: د. نوري حمودي القيسي، د. محمد نايف الدليمي، دار الجيل، بيروت، لبنان، 1416 هـ.</span><br>
Al-Ṯaqafī, ʿabd Allah ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿāṣim (d. 403 H/ ~1013 AD), ''Al-Anwaʾ wa al-Azmina'', critical edition by Dr. Nūrī al-Qaysī and Dr. Moḥammad Nayef al-Dulaymī, Dar al-Jīl, Beirut, Lebanon, 1416 H/1996 AD.</ref>
<ref name="farahidi"><span dir="rtl">أبو عبد الرحمن الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي (توفي 170 ه)، كتاب العين، 1400 – 1405 هـ.</span><br>
Al-Farāhīdī, abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḫalīl b. Aḥmad (died ~ 786 AD), ''Kitab al-ʿayn'', a lexicon titled: The book of ʿayn (Arabic letter العين), (Arabic print of the original book, 1980 – 1985).</ref>
<ref name="sufi1954"><span dir="rtl">أبو الحسين عبدالرحمن بن عمر الرازي المعروف بالصوفي (المتوفى سنة 376 هـ/986م)، كتاب صور الكواكب الثمانية والأربعين، الطبعة الأولى بمطبعة مجلس دائرة المعارف العثمانية، حيدر أباد الدكن، الهند، 1375 هـ - 1954 م.</span><br />
Abūl-ḥusayn ʿabdur-Raḥmān aṣ-Ṣūfī. d. 376 A.H / 986 A.D., ''Ṣuwaru'l-Kawākib'', The Dairatu'l-Maʿarifi'l-Osmania, Hyderabad - Deccan - India, 1373 A.H./1954 A.D.</ref>
<ref name="ideler">Ideler, Ludwig, ''Untersuchungen über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen'',Berlin 1809</ref>
<ref name="Schjellerup">Ṣūfī, ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn 'Umar, 903-986. ''Description Des étoiles Fixes''. traduction littérale avec des notes par H. C. F. C Schjellerup. St. Pétersbourg: Commissionnaires de lÁcadémie Impériale des sciences, 1874.</ref>
The name al-Miġzal is used regionally in central Saudi Arabia.
Al-Miġzal asterism in Cygnus. Photo by Khalid al-Ajaji taken on October 2016, the time of the identification of the name and its stars. (CC BY Khalid AlAjaji 2026).
al-Miġzal (Arabic: المِغْزَل)is derived from the Arabic root (غزل), referring to a wool spindle, and ultimately from the verb “أُغْزِلَ,” meaning “to be twisted and rotated”.
Sources and Identification
The name comes from local oral tradition, recorded by Khalid al-Ajaji in October 2016 during a star-gazing session in the dunes of Ṯuwayrāt in the al-Zulfī region, northwest of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The identification was made directly at the time, when the informant pointed to the cross-shaped stars of Cygnus, visible from shortly after sunset until after midnight.
The research is documented and published in Stellarium software,[1] available as a public dataset in the Stellarium GitHub Repository[2] and the description by Khalid AlAjaji is also published in paper form in the conference proceedings Hoffmann and Wolfschmidt (eds. 2022)[3]. In Stellarium it is written (by Khalid AlAjaji):
The Wool Spindle: The cross-shaped arrangement of α Cyg (Deneb), ε Cyg (Gienah), γ Cyg (Sadr), δ Cyg, and β1+β2 Cyg (Albireo). This comes from oral tradition in Zulfi, central Saudi Arabia [#1][4].
Stars Identification
The asterism of al-Miġzal is formed by the stars α, γ, β Cyg and ε, γ, δ Cyg.
The identification is considered secure, as the narrator of the name personally indicated these stars when describing al-Miġzal.
IAU Working Group Star Names
In 2026, the name al-Miġzal (or any spelling variant) was suggested as a star name in the area that is covered by the historical asterism. It is suggested to be used for η Cyg.
WGSN decided in ... 202x to name ... ...
This star is <a red giant or whatelse> ... here astrophysical data will be added (by Eric, most likely) after the decision.
↑Zotti, G., Hoffmann, S. M., Wolf, A., Chéreau, F., & Chéreau, G. (2021). The Simulated Sky: Stellarium for Cultural Astronomy Research. Journal of Skyscape Archaeology, 6(2), 221–258. DOI: 10.1558/jsa.17822
↑Khalid AlAjaji (2022). Stellarium Sky Culture "Arabian Peninsula", in Hoffmann, S. and Wolfschmidt, G. (eds.). Astronomy in Culture - Cultures of Astronomy, Featuring the Proceedings of a splinter meeting in the German Astronomical Society. tredition, Ahrensburg.
↑Reference [#1] in this case is "Oral Tradition" documented by the author of this sky culture, Khalid AlAjaji.
Bedouin shepherdess spinning. Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Digital ID: matpc 03790 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/matpc.03790 Original image on loc.gov
