al-ʿāna (العانة)
Al-ʿana
Authors: Khalid Al-Ajaji
al-ʿāna (Arabic: العانَة; “the herd of wild asses”) is an Arabic stellar region described in anwāʾ literature. Ibn Qutayba defines it as a group of white or conspicuous stars below the al-Suʿūd, toward the horizon.[1]
Concordance, Etymology, History
The name العانَة (al-ʿāna) is recorded by Ibn Qutayba (p. 81)[1] and Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī (p. 74)[2]. Kunitzsch lists the form al-ʿāna (entry 32, p. 42).[3]
Etymology
Lisān al-ʿarab defines العانَة, from the root عون, as follows:[4]
«والعَانة: الْقَطِيعُ مِنْ حُمُر الْوَحْشِ. وَالْعَانَةُ: الأَتان.»
“Al-ʿāna is a herd of wild asses; it may also mean a female wild ass.”
Sources
Ibn Qutayba
Ibn Qutayba (d. 276 AH / 889 CE) places al-ʿāna among the stellar features near the al-Suʿūd.(p. 81)[1]
- Original Arabic
باقى السعود المتصلة بهذه وليست من المنازل، وهى السعود الاربعة: ستة سعود. أولها سعد ناشرة، وهو يطلع مع الشرطين. ثم سعد الملك. ثم سعد البهائم، وتحته كواكب صغار مستديره تسمّى «الربق». ثم «سعد الهمام» . ثم «سعد البارع» . ثم «سعد مطر» . وكل سعد منها كوكبان. بين كل كوكبين منها فى رأى العين قدر ذراع. الكواكب المقاربة لهذه السعود: منها «العانة» وهى كواكب بيض أسفل من السعود إلى الافق و«السلم» أسفل من «العانة» عن يمينها، و «السفينة» كواكب خفية متتابعة من عند الدلو إلى سعد السعود، تشبه السفينة وعند أولها «الضفدع المقدّم» وآخرها «الضفدع المؤخر» . ويقول أصحاب النجوم: إن سهيلا طرف المجداف.
- English translation
In addition to the four Saʿds associated with the lunar stations, there are six connected Saʿds that are not themselves lunar stations. The first is Saʿd Nāshira, which rises with al-Sharaṭān; it is followed by Saʿd al-Malik, Saʿd al-Bahāʾim, Saʿd al-Humām, Saʿd al-Bāriʿ, and Saʿd Maṭar. Beneath Saʿd al-Bahāʾim are small, rounded stars called al-Ribq. Each Saʿd consists of two stars, separated in appearance by about one cubit.
Among the stellar features near these Saʿds are al-ʿāna, white stars below the Suʿūd toward the horizon; and al-Sullam, below al-ʿāna and to its right. There is also the Ship (al-Safīna), faint stars extending in sequence from al-Dalw to Saʿd al-Suʿūd and resembling a ship. At its beginning is the Foremost Frog (al-Ḍifdaʿ al-Muqaddam), and at its end the Hindmost Frog (al-Ḍifdaʿ al-Muʾaḫḫar). According to the astronomers, Suhayl marks the tip of its oar.
Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī
Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī (d. 403 AH / c. 1013 CE) gives a closely related account.(p. 74)[2]
- Original Arabic
وبعد هذه السعود الأربعة الـمذكورة في الـمنازل ستة سعود متصلة بها من ناحية الـجنوب، وليست من الـمنازل، أولها سعد ناشرة، وهو أسفل من سعد الأخبية، ثم سعد الـملك على أثره، ثم سعد البهام، ثم سعد الهمام، ثم سعد البارع على أثره، ثم سعد مطر، كل سعد من هذه السعود كوكبان بينهما في رأي العين كما بين كوكبي سعد بلع، وأسفل من سعد البهام كواكب مستديرة صغار تسمى: الربق، وأسفل من السعود الـمذكورة إلى الأفق كواكب بيض يقال لها: العانة، وأسفل من العانة وعن يمينها كوكب يقال له: السلم.
- English translation
After the four Saʿds mentioned among the lunar stations are six further Saʿds associated with them but not counted as lunar stations. The first is Saʿd Nāshira, below Saʿd al-Aḫbiya; it is followed by Saʿd al-Malik, Saʿd al-Bahām, Saʿd al-Humām, Saʿd al-Bāriʿ, and Saʿd Maṭar.
Each of these Saʿds consists of two stars, with an apparent separation comparable to that of the two stars of Saʿd Bulaʿ. Below Saʿd al-Bahām are small, rounded stars called al-Ribq. Below the aforementioned Saʿds, toward the horizon, are white stars called al-ʿāna; below al-ʿāna, and to its right, is a star called al-Sullam.
Ibn ʿĀṣim’s placement of the six additional Suʿūd south of the station-related Saʿds is problematic; al-Marzūqī’s independent wording resolves the difficulty by placing them in the direction of al-Dalw. (vol 1, p. 178)[5]
Al-Marzūqī (d. 421 AH / 1030 CE) states:
- Original Arabic
وبعد هذه الأربعة ستة سعود متناسقة في جهة الدلّو، وليست هي من المنازل.
- English translation
After these four are six Saʿds arranged successively in the direction of al-Dalw; they are not among the lunar stations.
Here al-Dalw denotes the four stars α Andromedae and α, β, and γ Pegasi, the prominent quadrilateral known as the Great Square of Pegasus. Al-Marzūqī’s wording therefore places the six additional Suʿūd in the region of this figure and resolves the difficulty in Ibn ʿĀṣim’s statement that they lie من ناحية الجنوب (“on the southern side”).
Al-Sullam
A separate textual question concerns al-Sullam. Unlike the disputed placement of the six additional Suʿūd, this issue concerns whether the name denotes a single star or a group of stars.
The wording concerning al-Sullam differs among the sources. Ibn ʿĀṣim calls it a single star (kawkab), whereas Ibn Qutayba’s received wording gives only its position: below al-ʿāna and to its right.
The lexicographical tradition, however, consistently defines al-Sullam as kawākib (“stars”) below al-ʿĀna and to its right. This formulation occurs in Ibn ʿAbbād’s al-Muḥīṭ fī al-lugha, al-Ṣaghānī’s al-Takmila wa-al-dhayl wa-al-ṣila, al-Fayrūzābādī’s al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ, and al-Zabīdī’s Tāj al-ʿArūs.[6][7][8][9]
The plural kawākib is absent from both surviving manuscripts of Ibn Qutayba’s Kitāb al-Anwāʾ, one of which is copied from the other. The two manuscripts therefore constitute a single textual line for the shorter wording. The consistent lexicographical reading suggests that this manuscript line has lost the fuller formulation, in which al-Sullam is explicitly described as a group of stars.
| Source | Arabic wording | English rendering |
|---|---|---|
| Ibn Qutayba | و«السلم» أسفل من «العانة» عن يمينها | “And al-Sullam, below al-ʿāna and to its right.” |
| Ibn ʿAbbād, al-Muḥīṭ | والسُّلَّمُ: كَواكِبُ أسْفَل من العَانَة عن يَمِيْنِها | “Al-Sullam: stars below al-ʿāna and to its right.” |
| Al-Ṣaghānī, al-Takmila | والسُّلّمُ: كَواكِبُ أسفَل من العانةِ عن يَمينِهَا | “Al-Sullam: stars below al-ʿāna and to its right.” |
| Al-Fayrūzābādī, al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ | وكواكِبُ أسْفَلَ من العانَةِ عن يَمِينِها | “And stars below al-ʿāna and to its right.” |
| Al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿArūs | كَواكِبُ أَسْفَل من العانَةِ عَن يَمِينِها، على التَّشْبِيه بالسّلم | “Stars below al-ʿāna and to its right, so called by resemblance to a ladder.” |
Identification
The modern identification of al-ʿāna is uncertain. Kunitzsch regarded Ibn Qutayba’s definition as too imprecise for a secure identification, but placed the likely area within the right-ascension range of the Saʿd stars and farther south in declination. He associated the probable region principally with the Ptolemaic Southern Fish and adjacent stars, now within Piscis Austrinus and Grus. (entry 32, p. 42)[3]
Danielle K. Adams likewise treated the identification as uncertain, suggesting the brighter stars of Piscis Austrinus and the southern parts of Aquarius and Capricornus. (p. 257)[10]
The identification proposed here is based on the wider spatial sequence in Ibn Qutayba’s descriptions. The expression أسفل من السعود إلى الأفق (“below the Suʿūd toward the horizon”) is interpreted as placing al-ʿāna south of the Suʿūd, in accordance with the directional usage adopted in this work.[11] It should not be read as a closed boundary or as a claim that every star within the broadly southerly area belongs to al-ʿāna.
Ibn Qutayba separately describes a southern complex of named stellar figures. The sequence includes al-Ṣuradān, al-Yamāmatān, al-Makākī, al-Qaṭā, al-Ẓalimān, al-Riʾāl, al-Naʿāmāt, and al-Udḥiyy. (p. 73)[1] Their explicit names and relative positions exclude them from al-ʿāna, even where their stars lie within the broad southerly zone below the Suʿūd.
- Normalized reading of the relevant passage
ووراء القبّة «الصردان»، وهما يطلعان كالزُّبانيين: يجري أحدهما قريبًا من الأفق، والآخر فوقه بحياله. وخلف الصرد الأعلى «اليمامتان»، وبينهما وبين الصردين في رأي العين نحو من عشرين ذراعًا. وعند الصرد الأعلى، مما يلي المشرق، «المكاكي»، وهي تشبه كواكب الشراسيف. و«القطا» فوق المكاكي، وهي كواكب متقاطرة كتقاطر القطا في طيرانها، غير نَيِّرة، أكثرها كوكبان كوكبان. ثم «الظليمان» فوق ذلك، وهما كوكبان نَيِّران، وبينهما في رأي العين إذا استويا في السماء قدر مائة ذراع، وبينهما «الرئال»، كواكب مُدَرَّجة. وبعد الرئال «النعامات»، وهي خمسة كواكب على تربيع النعش. وعلى إثرها «الأدحى»، وهي كواكب مستديرة على قدر دارة القمر.
- English translation
Behind al-Qubba are al-Ṣuradān. Their arrangement is like that of the two Zubānayān: one follows a course close to the horizon, while the other is directly above it. Behind the upper Ṣurad are al-Yamāmatān; their apparent separation from the Ṣuradān is about twenty cubits.
Near the upper Ṣurad, on its eastern side, are al-Makākī, which resemble the stars of al-Šarāsīf. Above al-Makākī is al-Qaṭā: stars strung out in succession, like sandgrouse in flight, not bright, and for the most part two by two.
Above these are al-Ẓalimān, two bright stars. When they are at the same altitude in the sky, their apparent separation is about one hundred cubits. Between them are al-Riʾāl, a graduated sequence of stars. Beyond al-Riʾāl are al-Naʿāmāt, five stars arranged in the configuration of the first five stars of Banāt Naʿsh.[12] Following them is al-Udḥiyy, a rounded group of stars whose apparent extent is approximately that of the lunar halo.[13]
On this reading, al-ʿāna is provisionally reconstructed as an intervening stellar region below the northern band of the Suʿūd and outside the separately named southern complex. The region is not starless; rather, it is unoccupied by the neighbouring stellar figures that Ibn Qutayba identifies individually. The shading on the accompanying chart is an interpretive reconstruction, not an attested historical outline.
Candidate stars
The following table lists the ten brightest stars within the provisional reconstruction shown in the accompanying chart. It is an illustrative modern selection, not a secure list of the individual historical members of al-ʿāna. Visual magnitudes are apparent Johnson V magnitudes.
| # | V magnitude | Bayer designation | IAU proper name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3.27 | δ Aquarii | Skat |
| 2 | 3.56 | ι Ceti | — |
| 3 | 3.73 | λ Aquarii | Shatabhisha |
| 4 | 3.74 | ζ Capricorni | — |
| 5 | 3.98 | τ² Aquarii | — |
| 6 | 4.21 | ψ¹ Aquarii | — |
| 7 | 4.22 | φ Aquarii | — |
| 8 | 4.27 | ι Aquarii | — |
| 9 | 4.37 | 30 Piscium | — |
| 10 | 4.51 | ε Capricorni | — |
Notes
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 أبو محمد عبد الله بن مسلم ابن قتيبة الدينوري (ت. 276 هـ / 879 م)، كتاب الأنواء في مواسم العرب، دائرة المعارف العثمانية، حيدر آباد، 1375 هـ / 1956 م.
Ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim (d. 276 AH / 889 CE), Kitāb al-Anwāʾ fī Mawāsim al-ʿArab. Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, Hyderabad, 1375 AH / 1956 CE. - ↑ 2.0 2.1 عبد الله بن حسين بن عاصم الثقفي (ت. 403 هـ)، الأنواء والأزمنة ومعرفة أعيان الكواكب في النجوم، تحقيق نوري حمودي القيسي ومحمد نايف الدليمي، دار الجيل، بيروت، 1416 هـ / 1996 م.
Al-Ṯaqafī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿĀṣim (d. 403 AH / c. 1013 CE), al-Anwāʾ wa-al-Azminah wa-Maʿrifat Aʿyān al-Kawākib fī al-Nujūm, ed. Nūrī Ḥammūdī al-Qaysī and Muḥammad Nāyif al-Dulaymī. Dār al-Jīl, Beirut, 1416 AH / 1996 CE. - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
- ↑ ابن منظور، محمد بن مكرم (ت. 711 هـ)، لسان العرب، مادة «عون».
Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad ibn Mukarram (d. 711 AH / c. 1312 CE), Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. عون. - ↑ أبو علي أحمد بن محمد بن الحسن المرزوقي (ت. 421 هـ)، الأزمنة والأمكنة، تحقيق محمد نايف الدليمي، عالم الكتب، بيروت، 1422 هـ.
Al-Marzūqī, Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan (d. 421 AH / 1030 CE), al-Azminah wa-al-Amkinah, ed. Muḥammad Nāyif al-Dulaymī. ʿĀlam al-Kutub, Beirut, 1422 AH / 2002 CE. - ↑ الصاحب إسماعيل بن عبّاد (ت. 385 هـ)، المحيط في اللغة، مادة «عون».
Ibn ʿAbbād, al-Ṣāḥib Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād (d. 385 AH / 995 CE), al-Muḥīṭ fī al-lugha, s.v. عون. - ↑ الحسن بن محمد الصاغاني (ت. 650 هـ)، التكملة والذيل والصلة لكتاب تاج اللغة وصحاح العربية، مادة «عون».
Al-Ṣaghānī, al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad (d. 650 AH / 1252 CE), al-Takmila wa-al-dhayl wa-al-ṣila li-Kitāb Tāj al-lugha wa-Ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿArabiyya, s.v. عون. - ↑ مجد الدين محمد بن يعقوب الفيروزآبادي (ت. 817 هـ)، القاموس المحيط، مادة «عون».
Al-Fayrūzābādī, Majd al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb (d. 817 AH / 1415 CE), al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ, s.v. عون. - ↑ مرتضى محمد بن محمد الزبيدي (ت. 1205 هـ)، تاج العروس من جواهر القاموس، مادة «عون».
Al-Zabīdī, Murtaḍā Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad (d. 1205 AH / 1791 CE), Tāj al-ʿArūs min Jawāhir al-Qāmūs, s.v. عون. - ↑ Danielle Adams, Rain Stars Set, Lunar Stations Rise, 2018]
- ↑ Terminology of the Anwāʾ Books: Direction, Brightness, and Measure, section 2.1, “Asfal min.” Work in progress.
- ↑ The expression على تربيع النعش identifies the pattern by comparison with the first five stars of Banāt Naʿsh: α, β, δ, γ, and ε Ursae Majoris. It should not be translated only as “in the pattern of a bier.”
- ↑ The expression على قدر دارة القمر means “approximately the extent of the lunar halo.” دارة القمر is the ring of light surrounding the Moon, not the apparent diameter of the lunar disk. The proposed identification of al-Udḥiyy includes η Eridani, π Ceti, π1, π2, π3, and π4 Ceti, together with adjacent stars; the proposed configuration spans approximately 13°.
- ↑ The Hyderabad edition prints وهما يطلعان [مع] الزبانيين and اليمانيان. The bracketed مع is absent from Bodleian Library, MS Hunt. 480. The context supports كالزبانيين, which compares the tilted arrangement of the two Ṣuradān with that of the two Zubānayān, not their time of rising. The two pairs rise at substantially different times, but their separations are both approximately 9°. Hunt. 480 gives an ambiguous form for the following name, read as الىمامتان or الىمامنان; the manuscript of Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī reads clearly اليمامتان. The normalized readings are adopted here provisionally.
