Al-Anīsān

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Al-Anisan


Al-Anīsān is an Indigenous Arabian asterism. Name variants are Al-Ayibsan and Al-Baysan.

Etymology and History

A page from the manuscript related to the constellation Triangulum from Ṣuwar al-Kawākib by al-Ṣūfī, belonging to the Marsh 144 manuscript at the Bodleian Library, where the names of Alpha and Beta Trianguli are mentioned as "al-Ayibsān.

Spelling Variants

Based on classical Arabic sources,[1] the name "Al-Aybisan," meaning "the two joints (bones) of Aries," has also been recorded for the Alpha and Beta stars of Triangulum, while "Al-Anisan" may be a variant or alternate spelling of this name:

  • al-Ayibsān.
    • Bodleian Library, Marsh 144 – A manuscript of Ṣuwar al-Kawākib by al-Ṣūfī, dated ca. 400 AH, contains the name
    • Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul – Lala Mustafa Pasha Collection 2698 – A copy of Ibn al-Ṣūfī’s Urjūza, dated 718 AH (copied from an earlier version dated 519 AH).
  • al-Baysān, which could be a textual or phonetic variant of the same root:
    • Ibn Sīda, al-Mukhaṣṣaṣ, vol. 9 – Printed in Bulaq, Egypt (1319 AH);

A more detailed discussion of these names appears in Dr. Khalid al-ʿAjjājī’s commentary on Urjūzat al-Kawākib.

Identifications & Maps

Al-Anīsān in Adams (2018),[2]

Al-Anīsān per Khalid AlAjaji

Al-Anīsān, The Two Friends, in Laffitte (2012); map and drawing.

Al-Anīsān in Laffitte (2012[3], 2025[4]).

αβ Tri al-Anīsān the Two Friends Qutayba
al-Ḫiṣaṣ the Notables Ḏ. man.

Discussion

IAU Working Group Star Names

Weblinks

Reference

Ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallah b. Muslim. 1956. Kitāb al-anwāʾ (fī mawāsim al-ʿArab). Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya.

Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

al-Ṣūfī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar. 1981. Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thamāniya wa al-arbaʿīn. Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda.

  1. Bodleian Library, Marsh 144 – A manuscript of Ṣuwar al-Kawākib by al-Ṣūfī, dated ca. 400 AH
  2. Danielle Adams, Rain Stars Set, Lunar Stations Rise, 2018
  3. Roland Laffitte, Le ciel des Arabes, 2012
  4. Roland Laffitte, Nommer les étoile: 500 noms hérités des Arabes - Apport de l'uranographie arabe, Orient des Mots, 2025 (online)