The ''Book of Fixed Stars'' ( ar, كتاب صور الكواكب ', literally ''The Book of the Shapes of Stars'') is an

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...

text written by

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sufi ( fa, عبدالرحمن صوفی; December 7, 903 – May 25, 986) was an iranianRobert Harry van Gent. Biography of al-Sūfī'. "The Persian astronomer Abū al-Husayn ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Umar al-Sūfī was born in ...

(Azophi) around 964. Following the translation movement in the 9th century AD, the book was written in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, the common language for scholars across the vast Islamic territories, although the author himself was Persian. It was an attempt to create a synthesis of the comprehensive star catalogue in

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

’s ''

Almagest The ''Almagest'' is a 2nd-century Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy ( ). One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it can ...

'' (books VII and VIII) with the indigenous Arabic astronomical traditions on the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellation ...

s (notably the

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

constellation system of the ''Anwā’''). The original

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

no longer survives as an

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

, however, the importance of tradition and the practice of diligence central to Islamic manuscript tradition have ensured the survival of the ''Book of Stars'' in later-made copies.

Historical context

The

treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Tre ...

was written in the Persian city of

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...

, for the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

and

Buyid The Buyid dynasty ( fa, آل بویه, Āl-e Būya), also spelled Buwayhid ( ar, البويهية, Al-Buwayhiyyah), was a Shia Iranian dynasty of Daylamite origin, which mainly ruled over Iraq and central and southern Iran from 934 to 1062. Co ...

emir ‘Abud al-Dawla. Although al-Sufi made his

longitudinal Longitudinal is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Longitude ** Line of longitude, also called a meridian * Longitudinal engine, an internal combustion engine in which the crankshaft is oriented along the long axis of the vehicle, ...

calculations correct for the year 964 only, the work remained highly influential, functioning as the standard text on Arabic astronomy to be consulted in all Islamic territories and faithfully copied for many centuries after its production. Since it was only correct for the single year of 964, the ''Book of Fixed Stars'' was intended to serve a broader educational purpose, rather than being concerned with the mathematical technicalities of astronomy. The ''Book of Fixed Stars'' is representative of the concerns of Islamic scholars during the late-9th to 11th Centuries AD, where following the translation of

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

texts from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

to Arabic, "Islamic astronomers and astrologers concentrated on analyzing, criticizing, and perfecting the geometrical models of Ptolemy". Medieval Islamic astronomers also drew from

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

and

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle P ...

sources to learn "methods for calculating the position of heavenly bodies, and for creating tables recording the movement of the sun, the moon, and the five known planets." In the context of this shift to observational and theoretical astronomy set in motion by the translation movement, and with al-Sufi himself being an observational astronomer, the ''Book of Fixed Stars'' comprises an important organisation and revision of classical knowledge from

antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

(the first of its kind), and some of the earliest surviving examples of visual documentation of celestial bodies observable by the naked eye. The interest in cataloging the stars also stems from the nature of worship in Islam. The religion requires that its members are able to locate

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

so that they may pray in the right direction, and to also be able to determine the correct times for prayer. In addition to the daily requirements, during the festival of

Ramadan , type = islam , longtype = Religious , image = Ramadan montage.jpg , caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. ...

they must also know the moments of sunrise and sunset for fasting, and the location of the moon for the start of each month. The ''Book of Fixed Stars'' also follows a trend of increased production of illustrated manuscripts, as it is one of the oldest surviving treatises of its kind.Hoffman, Eva R. "The Beginnings of the Illustrated Arabic Book: An Intersection between Art and Scholarship". ''Muqarnas'', vol. 17, 2000, pp. 37–52. ''JSTOR'', https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523289. Accessed 17 Oct. 2020. This is not to say that this text was the first illustrated manuscript ever created, as there are many illustrated fragments that have been found and studied, most notably the

Fustat Fusṭāṭ ( ar, الفُسطاط ''al-Fusṭāṭ''), also Al-Fusṭāṭ and Fosṭāṭ, was the first capital of Egypt under Muslim rule, and the historical centre of modern Cairo. It was built adjacent to what is now known as Old Cairo by t ...

fragments. The Fustat fragments are illustrated scraps of parchment that were found during excavations in Fustat, or Old Cairo. These fragments can be attributed to the stylings of the Fatimid period (969-1171), therefore dating the existence of astronomical illustrations to many years before the creation of the ''Book of Fixed Stars''. The increase in illustrated manuscripts is also related to the advent of paper in the Islamic world in the tenth century.Bloom, Jonathan M. "The Introduction of Paper to the Islamic Lands and the Development of the Illustrated Manuscript." ''Muqarnas'' 17 (2000): 17-23. Accessed October 25, 2020. doi:10.2307/1523287. The increased availability of paper, which was much cheaper than parchment, drove the production of books in the Islamic world.

The book was thoroughly illustrated along with observations and descriptions of the

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s, their positions (copied from Ptolemy's ''

'' with the longitudes increased by 12° 42' to account for the

precession Precession is a change in the orientation of the rotational axis of a rotating body. In an appropriate reference frame it can be defined as a change in the first Euler angle, whereas the third Euler angle defines the rotation itself. In oth ...

), their magnitudes (brightness) and their color. Notably, al-Sufi improved upon Ptolemy's system for measuring star brightness. Instead of two brightness categories (‘more bright’ and ‘less bright’), al-Sufi employed three: AṢghareh (‘less’), Akbareh (‘greater’), and A’ẓameh (‘much-greater’). Ihsan Hafez has recorded 132 stars in al-Sufi's work not mentioned by Ptolemy. Al-Sufi's results, as in Ptolemy's ''Almagest'', were set out

by constellation. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a

celestial globe Celestial globes show the apparent positions of the stars in the sky. They omit the Sun, Moon, and planets because the positions of these bodies vary relative to those of the stars, but the ecliptic, along which the Sun moves, is indicated. ...

, and the other from the inside. Al-Sufi's reasoning for this was that ‘the beholder might be confused if he saw the figure on the globe differing from what he sees in the sky’, demonstrating the book's use as a teaching device. Persis Berkelamp argues that each paired constellation was drawn slightly differently to encourage students to study the manuscript closely.

Composition

Introduction

In his introduction, al-Sufi dedicates the work to his patron 'Abud al-Dawla and outlines the sources he has used to write the book. These sources, including a number of treatises and objects which are now lost, serve as important indicators and records of the knowledge ( ilm'') production at the time. For instance, the introduction lists the names of 3 authors (Ibn Kunasa, Ibn al-'Arabi, Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari) and their treatises concerning pre-Islamic Bedouin traditions, all of which are now lost.

Chapters

''The Book of Fixed Stars'' follows the 48 Ptolemaic constellations described in the ''Almagest'', with a chapter dedicated to each individual constellation. Each chapter is split into 4 subsections.

Ptolemaic constellations

Each chapter begins with a description of the specified constellation and the stars that make up each grouping, thus departing from the ''Almagest'' and its concern for describing the iconographical origins of each constellation outline in

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

. Here, al-Sufi is often critical of Ptolemy for seemingly prioritising the constellation outline over the actual stars in a constellation grouping, with some stars being overlooked. In making these revisions, al-Sufi was able to determine the boundaries for each constellation's star grouping.

Indigenous Arabic constellations

Al-Sufi continues his description of the specified constellation in terms of the Pre-Islamic Bedouin constellations and star groupings, noting their positions and distance to the Ptolemaic constellation stars.

Illustrations

In this section, al-Sufi presents 2 different views/illustrations of the specified Ptolemaic constellations: the constellation viewed in the sky from the ground and the constellation as viewed on top of a globe. The latter view can be explained by accounts of al-Sufi's drawing process, whereby the author carefully fitted a thin sheet of paper on top of a celestial globe and then directly copied the constellation outlines and star positions from the engravings. The inclusion of this globe view of each constellation also suggests that the ''Books of Fixed Stars'' was intended to be used by owners of celestial globes, and many surviving globes from the 13th and 14th Centuries include statements attesting to the treatise as an influential source. Although al-Sufi names several sources in his introduction which contributed to the book's illustrations, none of these treatises nor celestial globes survive. These illustrations represent another important departure from the ''Almagest'' which does not include any illustrations.

Star Catalogue

The book includes a comprehensive catalogue of the individual stars, modified and extended from that of the ''Almagest'', and including revised star magnitude values.

Influence

The work was highly influential and survives in numerous manuscripts and translations. The oldest manuscript, kept in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

, dates to 1009 and is allegedly the work of the author's son, though this is disputed. There is a thirteenth-century copy in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

(Or. 5323). He has the earliest known descriptions and illustrations of what he called "a little cloud", which is actually the

Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: ), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with the diameter of about approximately from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The gal ...

. He mentions it as lying before the mouth of a Big Fish, an Arabic

. This "cloud" was apparently commonly known to the

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is lo ...

astronomers, very probably before 905, and al-Sufi attributes their discoveries in the text. This was the first

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...

to be observed, as distinct from a

star cluster Star clusters are large groups of stars. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters are more loosely cl ...

. It has been claimed that the first recorded mention of the

Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or Nubecula Major, is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs (≈160,000 light-years), the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the ...

was given in the ''Book of Fixed Stars'' but this seems to be a misunderstanding of a reference to some stars south of Canopus which he admits he has not seen. He probably also cataloged the Omicron Velorum

as a "nebulous star", and an additional "nebulous object" in

Vulpecula Vulpecula is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox. It was identified in the seventeenth century, and is located in the middle of the Summer Triangle (an ...

, a cluster now variously known as Al-Sufi's Cluster, the "Coathanger asterism",

Brocchi's Cluster Brocchi's Cluster (also known as Collinder 399, Cr 399 or Al Sufi's Cluster) is a asterism of six stars in an apparent row, across 1.3° of the night sky and four others, in the south of the constellation Vulpecula, thus near Sagitta. Its nic ...

or Collinder 399. The book has been translated into French by Hans Schjellerup in 1874 and into English by Ihsan Hafez.Hafez, Ihsan (2010
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and his book of the fixed stars: a journey of re-discovery
PhD thesis, James Cook University.

Editions

* Text and French translation of Ṣūfī's introduction by J. J. A. Caussin de Perceval in ''Notices et extraits des manuscrits'' XII, Paris, 1831, pp. 236f. * H.C.F.C. Schjellerup
''Description des étoiles fixes par Abd-al-Rahman al-Sûfi''
St. Petersburg, 1874. Complete French translation from two late mss., with selected portions in Arabic. * ''Ketāb ṣowar al-kawākeb al-ṯābeta'', edited from five mss., and accompanied by the ''Orǰūza'' of Ebn al-Ṣūfī, Hyderabad, India, 1954 (introduction by H. J. J. Winter). * Facsimile edition of the Persian translation by Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī (Ayasofya 2595, autograph, from Uluḡ Beg's library), Tehran, 1348 Š./1969. * Critical edition of Ṭūsī's translation by Sayyed Moʿezz-al-dīn Mahdavī, Tehran, 1351 Š./1972. * The star nomenclature of the Castilian version, and of an Italian translation made from Castilian, was critically edited by O. J. Tallgren, "Los nombres árabes de las estrelas y la transcripción alfonsina", in ''Homenaje a R. Menéndez Pidal'' II, Madrid, 1925, with 'Correcciones y adiciones' in ''Revista de filología española'' 12, 1925, pp. 52f. * The Italian translation was edited by P. Knecht, ''I libri astronomici di Alfonso X in una versione fiorentina del trecento'', Saragossa, 1965. *English translation; Hafez, Ihsan (2010
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and his book of the fixed stars: a journey of re-discovery
PhD thesis, James Cook University.

References

*Paul Kunitzsch, ''The Arabs and the Stars: Texts and Traditions on the Fixed Stars, and Their Influence in Medieval Europe'' (Variorum Reprint, Cs307) *Paul Kunitzsch, ''Arabische Sternnamen in Europa'', Wiesbaden, 1959, pp. 230f. *Paul Kunitzsch, "Ṣūfī Latinus", ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländische Gesellschaft'', 115, 1965, pp. 65–74. *Paul Kunitzsch, "Al-Ṣūfī" in: ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', XIII, New York, 1976, pp. 149–50. * J. Upton, "A Manuscript of “The Book of the Fixed Stars” by ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān aṣ-Ṣūfī", ''Metropolitan Museum Studies'', 4, 1933, pp. 179–97. *E. Wellesz, ''An Islamic Book of Constellations'', Oxford, 1965. *H. J. J. Winter, "Notes on al-Kitab Suwar Al-Kawakib", ''Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences'', 8, 1955, pp. 126–33.

External links

Bodleian copy of ''Suwar al-Kawakib al-Thabitah'' (''Book of fixed Stars'')Copy (dated ''c''. 1730) of al-Sufi's ''Book of the Fixed Stars''
* ttp://www.atlascoelestis.com/alsufi%20pagina.htm Pergamenthandschrift M II 141 in www.atlascoelestis.combr>A page about Muslim Astronomers
- includes a detailed bibliography and a list of all known manuscripts of al-Ṣūfī's ''Book of the Fixed Stars''.

Slides and audio recording from a presentation on the book, with images and quotations from many different manuscripts.

*[http://www.atlascoelestis.com/Zagrebelsky/Tesi%20inglese%20al%20sufi%201367524_1.pdf Moya Carey, ''Painting the Stars in a Century of Change: A thirteenth-century copy of al-Sufi's "Treatise on the Fixed Stars" - British Library Or.5323''] {{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Fixed Stars 10th-century Arabic books Astronomical catalogues of stars Astronomical works of the medieval Islamic world Scientific works of the Abbasid Caliphate Classical star atlases 964