Constellation Tour

To recap last lesson, share with students an image of the group of stars known as the well bucket or الدلو (included in the slides). Although the cluster of stars is known today as the square of pegasus, some of the individual stars are still known by their Arab names like AlMankab (المنكب), Algenib (الجنب), and Alpheratz (السرة). Explain that this group of stars marks the beginning of the rainy season.

Discuss this line of poetry from 'Adi ibn Zayd al-'Ibadi writing in the 6th century CE:

في خريف سقاه نوء من الدلو تدلى ولم توار العراقي

Daniella Adams explains: “For many tribes of Arabia, the year consisted of six seasons of varying length. The last of these was called kharif because it was the time when people harvested (kharafa) dates and other kinds of fruit. The first rains to follow the drought of summer fell during kharif, but the new year began with the onset of the autumnal rainy season called wasmi. This season was so named because its rains literally marked (wasama) the earth with the intensity of their falling, and because the vegetation that quickly followed would rapidly mark the desert in vibrant shades of green… It is fitting that, in the transition from the lighter rains of kharif to the marking wasmi rains of the new year, many of the Arabs saw a magnificent stellar Well Bucket pouring out water onto the earth.” Desert Rains from the Celestial Well Bucket

Ask your students why we only see certain stars at certain times of the year? How did our ancestors use the stars to mark their calendars?