A Survey of Muslim Material on Comets and Meteors

Cook, David

doi:10.1177/002182869903000203

Cited by 34 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Duration : The duration of visibility given ( qarīban min thalāthat ashhur for close to 3 months ) can mean a little less or a little more than 3 months, and it is consistent with most other Arabic scholars: c Alī ibn Riḍwān (4 months); Ibn al‐Jawzī and Ibn al‐Athīr ( beginning of Sha c bān … until the middle of Dhū al‐Qa c dah , that is, 3.5 months); Moroccan report ( This star stayed for 6 months ); Yaḥyā ibn Sa c īd al‐Anṭākī ( it continued for 4 months , Cook, 1999); al‐Yamānī ( On the night of mid‐Rajab in the year 396h, a star appeared… In the night of mid‐Ramaḍān, its light started to decrease and gradually faded away , i.e., more than 2 months); and similarly Ibn al‐Dayba c ( on the night of mid‐Rajab a star like Venus appeared … It remained unchanged until the night of mid‐Ramaḍān , i.e., not less than 2 months). In particular, if Ibn Sīnā (or his source) observed SN 1006 since about late April or early May 1006, and then for close to 3 months , then he could have observed until heliacal setting for his location.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Such historical observations have been used very successfully for SNe 1006 (from Eastern Asia, Arabia, and Europe), 1054 (from Eastern Asia and Arabia), 1181 (only from Eastern Asia), and SNe 1572 and 1604 (from Eastern Asia and Europe), plus a few more SNe from the first millennium AD (see Stephenson & Green, 2002, henceforth SG02, and references therein). While the Arabic report about SN 1054 merely confirms a bright new star in Gemini/Taurus around AD 1054, Arabic reports on SN 1006 present a lot of detailed information (Cook, 1999; Goldstein, 1965; Rada & Neuhäuser, 2015; SG02).…”

Section: Introduction: Supernova 1006mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cook (1999) quoted some additional text from Yaḥyā ibn Sa c īd al‐Anṭākī after the report for SN 1006 on what is most certainly a different transient object, for example, a meteor or bolide: Another star appeared with a strong light in the west during the time of the falling of night during Saturday night, 9 Shawwal [10 July], and it stayed long and grew great. Then it broke up into three parts and disappeared.…”

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confidence: 99%

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An Arabic report about supernova SN 1006 by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

2017

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We present here an Arabic report about supernova 1006 (SN 1006) written by the famous Persian scholar Ibn Sīnā (Lat. Avicenna, AD 980-1037), which has not been discussed in astronomical literature before. The short observational report about a new star is part of Ibn Sīnā's book called al-Shifā', a work on philosophy including physics, astronomy, and meteorology. We present the Arabic text and our English translation. After a detailed discussion of the dating of the observation, we show that the text specifies that the transient celestial object was stationary and/or tail-less (a star among the stars), that it remained for close to 3 months getting fainter and fainter until it disappeared, that it threw out sparks, that is, it was scintillating and very bright, and that the colour changed with time. The information content is consistent with the other Arabic and non-Arabic reports about SN 1006. Hence, it is quite clear that Ibn Sīnā refers to SN 1006 in his report, given as an example for transient celestial objects in a discussion of Aristotle's Meteorology. Given the wording and the description, for example, for the colour evolution, this report is independent of other reports known so far.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Introduction: Supernova 1006mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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An Arabic report about supernova SN 1006 by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

2017

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“…Goldstein () also gives an English translation of a Syriac report on SN 1006 by Bar Hebraeus (born in AD 1226 in Malatya in Turkey, died in 1286 in Maragha, now Iran), where it was specified that the new star was observed in the zodiacal sign of Scorpius. Cook () presented another Arabic report on SN 1006 from Yaḥyā ibn Sa c īd al‐Anṭākī, Patriarch of Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey), who extended the chronicle of Eutychius of Alexandria (Egypt) for the time since circa AD 939 and died in AD 1066, according to which the new star was seen for 4 months since Saturday, second day in Sha c bān of the year 396h (AD 1006 May 3/4). Most recently, Neuhäuser, Ehrig‐Eggert, and Kunitzsch (2017) presented another original report about SN 1006, written by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna).…”

Section: Introduction: Sn 1006mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interpretation of the historic Yemeni reports of supernova SN 1006: Early discovery in mid‐April 1006?

Neuhäuser

Neuhäuser²,

Rada

et al. 2017

Astron Nachr

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The recently published Yemeni observation report about SN 1006 from al‐Yamānī clearly gives AD 1006 April 17 ± 2 (mid‐Rajab 396h) as the first observation date. Since this is ∼1.5 weeks earlier than the otherwise earliest reports (April 28 or 30) as discussed so far, we were motivated to investigate an early sighting in more depth. We searched for additional evidences from other areas like East Asia and Europe. We found that the date given by al‐Yamānī is fully consistent with other evidence, including the following: (a) SN 1006 rose several times half an hour after sunset (al‐Yamānī), which is correct for the location of Ṣancā' in Yemen for the time around April 17, but it would not be correct for late April or early May. (b) The date (third year, third lunar month, 28th day wuzi, Ichidai Yoki) for an observation of a guest star in Japan is inconsistent (there is no day wuzi in that lunar month), but may be dated to April 16 by reading a wuwu date rather than a wuzi date. (c) There is observational evidence that SN 1006 was observed in East Asia in early or mid‐April; for the second half of April, a bad weather (early monsoon) period is not unlikely— there is a lack of night reports. (d) The observer in St. Gallen reported to have seen SN 1006 for 3 months, which must have ended at the very latest on AD 1006 July 10, given his northern location, so that his observations probably started in April. We conclude that the correctly reported details give quite high confidence in the fully self‐consistent report of al‐Yamānī, so that the early discovery date should be considered seriously.

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“…However, there are some previous attempts to cover this issue for European sources, including the early works of Newton 2 and the most recent from Dall"Olmo 3 , whose list was mainly based in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (MGH) and the Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (RIS). For the Arab sources, see the works of Rada and Stephenson 4 (including the comments of Kidger 5 ) and Cook 6 . Spanish sources are scarcely represented in these surveys 7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Survey of Meteoric Activity over Spain during the Eighth–Fifteenth Centuries

Martínez

Marco

2016

Journal for the History of Astronomy

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-The lack of astronomical observations from Medieval and early Modern Spanish sourcesis a constant in the records of solar eclipses, meteors and other celestial phenomena. This may be partially explained by the absence of a documentary corpus similar to the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, for example, that the scholars may use for conducting a systematic search of such records; the problems increase by the presence of four different vernacular languages in the peninsula: Castilian, Catalan , Basque and Galician, together with some other minority languages; to which Latin and Arabic must be added for historical research purposes.Currently, scientific literature records few Medieval Spanish astronomical accounts and most of them are contained in wider Arab surveys or they come from the best known annals and chronicles. Our paper intends to fill this gap partially in the issue of meteoritic activity. We present a survey of meteors, bolides and meteor storms observed in Spain in the VIII-XIV centuries. Most of them have not been previously published and come from local or minor sources but, for the sake of completeness, we have included some records already mentioned by other authors.

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A Survey of Muslim Material on Comets and Meteors

Cited by 34 publications

References 5 publications

An Arabic report about supernova SN 1006 by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

An Arabic report about supernova SN 1006 by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

Interpretation of the historic Yemeni reports of supernova SN 1006: Early discovery in mid‐April 1006?

A Survey of Meteoric Activity over Spain during the Eighth–Fifteenth Centuries

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