Al-Hanʿa

Authors: Khalid Al-Ajaji

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The Arabic lunar station al-Hanʿa (الهَنْعَةُ), ‘the Bend (in the neck)’. CC BY, Khalid Al-Ajaji, 2026.

Al-Hanʿa (الهَنْعَةُ), ‘the Bend (in the neck)’, is the sixth Arabic lunar station, identified with γ and ξ Geminorum. Ibn Qutayba and Ibn ʿĀṣim describe it as two white stars a whip’s length apart, following Al-Haqʿa in the Milky Way. The names al-Zirr and al-Maysān are associated with the pair, although the quoted sources do not specify which name belongs to which star.

Concordance, Etymology, History

Al-Hanʿa is recorded in the anwāʾ works of Ibn Qutayba, Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī and al-Marzūqī, and in al-Ṣūfī’s Kitāb al-kawākib, where al-Ṣūfī identifies it with the seventeenth and eighteenth stars of Ptolemy’s Gemini, at the feet of the following Twin.

Arabic name

• al-Hanʿa (الهنعة) “the Bend”

Associated names

• al-Zirr (الزر) “the Button” and al-Maysān (الميسان) “the Strutting One”, names associated with the pair; see al-Zirr and Al-Maysān

Historical European transcriptions

• Al Henʿa, Hyde (1665) (Commentarii, p. 35).
• El-henʿa, Ideler (1809) (p. 156, note 4).
• al-hanat, Schjellerup (1874) (pp. 144–145).
• Al Hanʿah, Allen (1963) (p. 234).
• al-hanʿa, Kunitzsch (1961) (no. 114, p. 64).

Etymology

Name	English	Arabic
Hanʿa	In Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. h-n-ʿ (هنع), we read: Al-hanaʿ: a drooping and twisting of the neck; alternatively, a drooping, twisting, and shortness of the camel’s neck and shoulder. It is also defined as a downward bending of the neck at its midpoint. […] Both al-hanʿa and al-hanaʿa denote a branding mark placed on the hollow of a camel’s neck.	جاء في «لسان العرب»، مادة «هنع»: «الهَنَع: تَطامن والتِواء فِي العُنُق، وَقِيلَ: فِي عُنق الْبَعِيرِ والمَنْكِبِ وقِصَرٌ، وَقِيلَ: الهَنَع تَطَامُنُ العُنُق مِنْ وسَطِها. […] والهَنْعة والهنَعة جَمِيعًا: سِمة مِنْ سِماتِ الإِبل فِي مُنْخَفِضِ الْعُنُقِ.»

Sources and Identification

Ibn Qutayba

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

English	Arabic
Then al-Hanʿa: two white stars a whip’s length apart, following al-Haqʿa, in the Milky Way, […] One of the two stars is called al-Zirr and the other al-Maysān.	«ثم الهنعة وهي كوكبان أبيضان بينهما قيد سوط، على إثر الهقعة، في المجرّة، … ويقال لأحد الكوكبين الزرّ وللآخر الميسان.»

Al-Ṣūfī

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

English	Arabic
They call the seventeenth and eighteenth stars, situated on the feet of the following Twin, al-Hanʿa, the sixth lunar station. The two are also called al-Maysān and al-Zirr; it is also reported that one is al-Maysān and the other al-Zirr.	«وتُسَمِّي السابع عشر والثامن عشر اللذين على قدمي التوأم التالي: الهَنْعَةَ، وهو المنزل السادس من منازل القمر، ويُسَمَّيَانِ: المَيْسَانَ والزِّرَّ، وقد روي أن أحدهما هو المَيْسَانُ والآخر الزِّرُّ.»

Ibn ʿĀṣim al-Ṯaqafī

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

English

Arabic

The month of Ḥazīrān, which the non-Arabs call June […] On the twenty-second night of the month, al-Hanʿa rises. It is the first of the asterisms whose rising marks the season of intense summer heat. It consists of two white stars, a whip’s length apart, following al-Haqʿa in the Milky Way and lying between it and the Outstretched Foreleg. One of the two stars is called al-Zirr, and the other al-Maysān.

«شهر حزيران وهو عند العجم يونيه […] 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»

Al-Marzūqī

Al-Marzūqī (d. 421 AH / 1030 CE), ed. al-Dulaymī (2002) (vol. 1, p. 168):

English	Arabic
As for al-Hanʿa, it is two stars a whip’s length apart, following al-Haqʿa, and because they fall short of it it was called al-Hanʿa. […] Ibn Kunāsa said: al-Hanʿa is called al-Zirr and al-Maysān.	«وأمَّا الهَنْعَةُ: فكوكبان بينهما قيد سوط، وهما على أثر الهَقْعَةِ، ولتقاصرها عنها سُمِّيَتْ: الهَنْعَةَ. […] وقال ابن كناسة: يقال للهَنْعَةِ: الزِّرُ والمَيْسَانُ»

Star identifications

The identifications from al-Ṣūfī’s account follow the table of Gemini in Khalid Al-Ajaji’s 2021 edition of Kitāb al-kawākib.

Name	Traditional description	Al-Ṣūfī’s catalogue identification	Modern identification
Al-Hanʿa	Two stars a whip’s length apart, following al-Haqʿa; Ibn Qutayba and Ibn ʿĀṣim describe them as white and place them in the Milky Way.	Ptolemy’s Gemini nos. 17 and 18, at the feet of the following Twin.	γ Gem (no. 17, HR 2421, HIP 31681) and ξ Gem (no. 18, HR 2484, HIP 32362).

Discussion

The name and its witnesses. The sources identify al-Hanʿa as a pair of stars. Ibn Qutayba and Ibn ʿĀṣim describe them as white, a whip’s length apart, and following al-Haqʿa in the Milky Way. Al-Marzūqī gives the same separation and position after al-Haqʿa, adding an explanation of the name. These three accounts use closely similar wording. Al-Ṣūfī identifies the pair as the seventeenth and eighteenth stars of Gemini, at the feet of the following Twin. He records the names al-Maysān and al-Zirr, then reports that one star bears each name. None of the quoted passages specifies which name belongs to which member of the pair.

The three stars close to it. The Moon is said to descend by al-taḥāyī, the three stars close to al-Hanʿa; see Al-Taḥāyī.

The bow. In the description of the bow of al-Ǧawzāʾ, the two stars of al-Hanʿa occupy the grip of the larger, eight-star asterism; see Qaws al-Ǧawzāʾ.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The two stars of al-Hanʿa have the following modern IAU-standardized names:

• Alhena — γ Gem (HR 2421, HIP 31681), Ptolemy’s Gemini no. 17
• Alzirr — ξ Gem (HR 2484, HIP 32362), Ptolemy’s Gemini no. 18

These modern name assignments should be distinguished from the historical accounts quoted above, which do not explicitly assign al-Zirr to either member of the pair.

Weblinks

• IAU Catalog of Star Names