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== Weblinks ==
== Weblinks ==


*  
* Stellarium https://stellarium.org/
== Bibliography ==
Lisān al-ʿarab<ref name="lisan"/>, Kitāb al-Kawākib<ref name="khalid2021sufi"/>, Ibn Qutayba<ref name="qutayba"/>, Al-Marzūqī<ref name="marzuqi"/>, Kunitzsch<ref name="Kunitzsch1961"/>, Danielle Adams<ref name="Adams2018"/>, Laffitte (2012<ref name="Laffitte2012"/>, 2025<ref name="Laffitte2025"/>), Urjuzat al-Kawākib<ref name="khalid2021urjuza"/>, Al-Ṯaqafī<ref name="thaqafi"/>, Al-Farāhīdī<ref name="farahidi"/>, Al-Ṣūfī 1954<ref name="sufi1954"/> Ideler 1809<ref name="ideler"/>, Schjellerup<ref name="Schjellerup"/>


== Reference ==
== Reference ==

Revision as of 10:35, 16 July 2026


Authors: Khalid Al-Ajaji, Susanne M Hoffmann

Star chart of the Arabian asterism al-Miġzal (المِغْزَل). (CC BY Khalid AlAjaji 2026).

al-Miġzal (Arabic: المِغْزَل), “the wool spindle” is an Arabic name for the stars forming a cross shape in Cygnus.

Provenance, Etymology, History

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).

Etymology

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 ...

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.

Reference

  1. ↑ 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
  2. ↑ Stellarium Repo https://zenodo.org/records/20835040Stellarium's official Zenodo Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.5281/zenodo.20835040
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Reference [#1] in this case is "Oral Tradition" documented by the author of this sky culture, Khalid AlAjaji.

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