al-Sufi’s Book of Fixed Stars

 

 

The front page from Al-Sufi’s Kitab suwar al-kawakib, this one is a copy from year 1417

al-Sufi was a Persian astronomer who worked in Isfahan and Baghdad during the golden age of Islam. His most famous work is the Kitab suwar al-kawakib, “Book of the Constellations of the Fixed Stars” (986) which described the 48 constellations from Ptolemy’s Almagest.

The book was illustrated with observations and descriptions of the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their color. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside. For each of the constellations, he provides the indigenous Arab names for their stars, drawings of the constellations, and a table of stars showing their locations and magnitude. The Kitab suwar al-kawakib initiated further work on astronomy in the Islamic worlds, and exercised a huge influence on the development of science in Europe. The work was frequently copied and translated. This copy, from the collections of the Library of Congress, was produced somewhere in south or central Asia, circa 1730, and is an exact copy of a manuscript, now lost, prepared for Ulug Beg of Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) in 1417.

Here are the 48 constellations from the copy of his book, sorted by page, which is basically from the north to south.

Ursa Minor The small bear with long tail.

Ursa Major The large bear with long tail.

Draco The dragon.

 

Auriga The charioteer.

Boötes The herdsman.

Hercules The club is replaced with a sickle.

 

Corona Borealis The tiara.	Lyra The lyre.

 

 

 

Cygnus The hen.

Cassiopeia  The seated woman, seating on a cushioned chair

Perseus  The hero, holding the severed head of a demon instead of Medusa

 

Cepheus The king.

Ophiuchus and Serpens The snake holder holding the large snake.

Sagitta The arrow. It looks similar with Coma Berenices.

 

 

 

Aquila The Falcon.

Delphinus The dolphin. Looks more like a cat or a fox.

Equuleus The little horse.

 

Pegasus The winged horse.

Andromeda Andromeda

Triangulum The Triangle

 

Aries The ram.

Taurus The bull.

Gemini The twins.

 

Cancer The crab.

Leo The lion. Here it is a female lion.

Virgo The virgin. Here the ear of corns has been replaced with wings.

 

Libra The scales.

Scorpio The scorpion. I thought since the Arabs live close to the desert, they supposed to have a good knowledge about scorpion anatomy, but no …

Sagittarius The archer. He wears a turban!

 

Capricorn The sea-goat. Weirdly, the fish tail is missing.

Aquarius The water pourer. depicted holding the water as if it is a robe

Pisces The fishes.

 

Cetus The sea monster.

Orion Instead of a shield, his west hand is shown with a long sleeve, characteristic of Muslim dresses at that time

Eridanus The river Eridanus.

 

Lepus The hare.

Canis Major The great dog. Those stars below are probably Columba.

Canis Minor The lesser dog.

 

Argo Navis  The ship.	Hydra The sea serpent.

 

Crater The cup.

Corvus The raven.

Centaurus and Lupus  The Centaurs and the Wolf. Instead of being impaled, Lupus is shown held by Centaurus

 

Ara The altar

Corona Australis The shell of a tortoise?

Piscis Austrinus The southern fish, with the prominent star Fam al-Hut (Fomalhaut) on its mouth.

 

Source:

http://muslimheritage.com/topics/default.cfm?TaxonomyTypeID=18&TaxonomySubTypeID=107&TaxonomyThirdLevelID=-1&ArticleID=833

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/heavens.html

http://www.wdl.org/