Safina
Safina is a new IAU star name that represents the Arabian asterism al-safīna (السَّفينة), meaning "the Ship". It was decided to use the term without the Arabic article "al" to make it easier to distinguish between this and another star name, Alsephina, that has been applied to a star in the Greek constellation of Argo, The Ship. Safina, however, was chosen to honour an Indigenous Arabic constellation. (Note: The Arabic term denotes a large boat, possibly with multiple masts.) The precise identification of the stars that were incorporated into this asterism is challenging because of obscure and conflicting descriptions in the primary sources, thus leading to multiple interpretations of this figure in the present day.
Etymology and History
al-safīna in Danielle Adams, Rain Stars Set, Lunar Stations Rise, 2018, pp. 162–163.
The Arabian asterism of the Ship/Boat (al-safīna) as interpreted by Danielle Adams (2018). In this view, a transverse oval of stars between the Two Frogs would have represented the hull of the Ship, and two loops to the north would have represented two sails. (Image: Danielle Adams, annotations on screen capture from Stellarium)"Ibn Qutayba identifies an asterism called the Boat (al-safīna), which was comprised of dim stars that follow in succession from the vicinity of the Well Bucket (al-dalw) to the Auspice of Auspices (saʿd al-suʿūd; 1956, 81).[1] He also reported that the Front Frog (al-ḍifdiʿ al- muqaddam) was at its beginning and the Rear Frog (al-ḍifdiʿ al-muʾakhkhar) was at its end (1956, 81; al-Ṣūfī 1981, 240).[2] Al-Ṣūfī further describes a jagged line of stars that connects one end of the boat to the other in the south, and another line extending up towards the Well Bucket that would have represented its mast and sails extending toward the Auspice of Newborn Lambs (saʿd al-bihām) in the north (1981, 240, 303).[3] He then criticizes those who conflated the description of this Arabian Boat with the Greek constellation Argo Navis, which was located much further to the east and used the star Suhayl as one of its oars (1981, 240, 303).71"
"Footnote 71: Paul Kunitzsch also berates Ibn Qutayba’s inclusion of Suhayl as the Edge of the Oar (ṭarf al-mijdāf) of the Boat, as well as the rest of his description of the Boat, saying it “consists of nothing but absurdities” (1961, 103-104).[4] To his credit, Ibn Qutayba distinguishes that element from the rest of his description by saying it was the speech of the mathematical astronomers (aṣḥāb al-nujūm), which is his typical method of distinguishing Greek from Arabian astronomy in his Kitāb al-anwāʾ (1956, 81)."[5]
From the above source materials, Adams interprets the figure of the Ship/Boat as seen in the diagram above. This locates the Ship among the stars of modern-day Aquarius and Pisces, with the bright stars Fomalhaut (in Piscis Austrinus) and Diphda (in Cetus) as the beginning and end of the Ship's hull.
al-safīna per Khalid AlAjaji
Khalid AlAjaji interprets the Ship as a jagged line of stars that lies slightly north of the Two Frogs. This is somewhat similar to Danielle's placement of the hull of the Ship, but without the bottom half of Danielle's oval. Khalid also does not include the sails from Danielle's interpretation. Khalid's interpretation locates the Ship among the stars of Piscis Austrinus, Aquarius and Cetus.
al-safīna in Roland Laffitte, Le ciel des Arabes, 2012.
Figure 34: al-Safīna, « the Ship », under Station XV
d/π Aqr + ν/ 34/35/ρσ/55/57/58//59/66/70 Peg + β Psc (?) — Ibn Qutayba
34/35/ ρσ + 55/57/58/59/66/70, Peg + β Psc (?) — Ağdābī
Roland Laffitte interprets the Ship using stars further north than Adams and AlAjaji, locating the asterism among the stars of Pegasus, Pisces and Aquarius.
Discussion
Three scholars of Arabian astronomy have provided three different interpretations of the asterism of the Ship (al-safīna). During an engaging discussion of the original sources (Ibn Qutayba and al-Ṣūfī), the group (Adams, AlAjaji, Laffitte and Matthias Determann) agreed that whereas some elements of the Ship were loosely defined, the sources did locate the Ship in the vicinity of the Well Bucket (modern-day Square of Pegasus) and some of the Auspices (namely, certain stars in northern Aquarius) in the north, and between the Two Frogs (Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus and Diphda in Cetus) in the south. Furthermore, the original sources agree that the Front Frog (Fomalhaut) is the start of the Ship and the Rear Frog (Diphda) is the end of the Ship.
Given that this was a description of reasonable certainty, the Arabic subgroup proposed that one of the stars lying between Fomalhaut and Diphda be recognized as "Alsafina" in honor of the Arabian asterism, al-safīna (السَّفينة). Specifically the group proposed for this honor 88 Aqr, an as-yet unnamed mag 3.65 star. (See diagram for location.)
IAU Working Group Star Names
The name was discussed by the IAU WGSN in 2024.
It was noted that the originally proposed name "Alsafina" was somewhat duplicative with "Alsephina", a star name with similar etymology - Arabic for "the ship" - in this case referring to the constellation Argo Navis by Al-Ṣūfī (~964) in his Book of the Fixed Stars, and following the spelling and star identification by Andreas Cellarius (1660) in Harmonia Macrocosmica. "Alsephina" was already adopted for the star Delta Velorum Aa by WGSN in 2017, and some members of WGSN thought that Alsafina should not be eligible for use again, since it might cause confusion instead of reducing it (what is considered the main task of the WGSN).
To clarify - the other name "Alsephina" was applied to a star in the former Argo Navis, following the Arabic description of a Greek constellation Argo, al-safīna, the Ship. The proposed new name, Alsafina, was proposed to be applied to a star that formed part of an indigenous Arabian asterism called the Ship (al-safīna) in a different region of the sky.
In 2024, WGSN decided to adopt the name "Safina" (without the Arabic article) for the naked eye star 88 Aquarii (c02 Aqr, HR 8812, HD 218594, HIP 114341), a bright V=3.64 magnitude K giant star in the constellation Aquarius, in the region between the bright stars Fomalhaut and Diphda.
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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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. 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
- ↑ 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.
