Alkalbain

From All Skies Encyclopaedia


Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula


al Kalba(n),the Dogs (of al-Dabaran), in the Arabic Indigenous sky culture in Stellarium.

Al Kalbain is an Arabian constellation[1][2][3] that includes κ1, κ2, φ, χ, υ Tauri (Allen 1899)[4].

Concordance, Etymology, History

Name Variants

  • al-Kalbān
  • al-Kalbain
  • Al Kalbain

Adams (2018 PhD thesis):[5]

"Some Arabs called the two close stars of the Narrows the Two Dogs (al-kalbān; Ibn Qutayba 1956, 39; al-Ṣūfī 1981, 154)."

Apparently referring to the visible pair (kap1+kap2 Tau and ups Tau) in the space ("the narrows") between the Pleiades ("al-Thurayya) and Hyades/Aldebaran ("the folllower", "al-dabaran").

Khalid AlAjaji

Laffitte (2012[6], 2025[7]).

IAU Working Group Star Names

The name was proposed to WGSN in 2023. Rhoads - apparently reading from Allen's (1899) description - assigned roman numerals I through V to phi, chi, kap01, kap02, and ups Tau. This would be assigning "Alkalbain" to the brightest of these five, kap01 Tau, "Alkalbain III" in Rhoads (1971).

Reference

  1. ↑ Ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallah b. Muslim. 1956. Kitāb al-anwāʾ (fī mawāsim al-ʿArab). Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya.
  2. ↑ Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
  3. ↑ al-Ṣūfī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar. 1981. Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thamāniya wa al-arbaʿīn. Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda.
  4. ↑ Allen, Richard Hinckley (1899). Star Names - Their Lore and Meaning. Dover Publications, Inc., New York
  5. ↑ Danielle Adams, Rain Stars Set, Lunar Stations Rise, 2018
  6. ↑ Roland Laffitte, Le ciel des Arabes, 2012
  7. ↑ Roland Laffitte, Nommer les étoile: 500 noms hérités des Arabes - Apport de l'uranographie arabe, Orient des Mots, 2025 (online)