As we mentioned last week, about half of the stars in the Western sky maps have Arabic names transliterated into Latin characters. A good example of this are the stars in three famous constellations: the Big Dipper (Ursa Major), the Lion (Leo) and Capricorn.
In the Big Dipper , there are stars carrying names such as Dubha (Bear in Arabic), Phacda (Thigh), Al-Qaid (Leader), Al-Ula (First), Al-Tania (Second) and Talitha (Third).
In Leo constellation there are Ras el Leith (Lion’s head), Al-Ganubi (Southern), Al-Terf (Tip), Al-Dafeera (Braid), Al-Gabha (Forehead), Duhr (Back), Deneb el-Leith (Tail of the lion).
In Capricorn we find stars such as Al-Gedi (the Goat), Dabih (the Butchered) and Deneb el Gedi (Tail of the Goat).
This fact reflects ‘the prevailing culture’. When a certain culture is prevails at a certain time, the other nations start learning and using words from it.
For example, we all know that Western culture is prevailing just now, especially in science, technology and innovation. Consequently the Arab world is learning from it and using their terminology transliterated into the Arabic terms like radio, television, radar, transistor….etc.
In the past, especially between the tenth and the fifteenth centuries AD, when the Arab civilization prevailed, the West took from it the principles of astronomy, medicine, algebra…etc on which they built their civilization of today.
In the field of astronomy, as an example, the Western nations imported the Arabic words for parts of the astrolabe, as well as the names of the stars. The astrolabe, used by the Arabs at that time, had many scientific functions, the most important being to view the sky and study it at certain hours of the night and on certain dates of the year.
Another function of the astrolabe was to determine the angle of elevation of a star in the sky or a building on the ground. A third application was to measure time. It also has as many as ten other functions.
Leaving aside their scientific use, astrolabes was normally manufactured very elegantly and artistically, so that they are now very rare artifacts, much sought after by museums. No wonder the Arabs were nicknamed the “Stargazers”.
