Supernova SN 1006 in two historic Yemeni reports

Abstract

AbstractWe present two Arabic texts of historic observations of supernova SN 1006 from Yemen as reported by al‐Yamānī and Ibn al‐Daybac (14th to 16th century AD). An English translation of the report by the latter was given before (Stephenson & Green 2002), but the original Arabic text was not yet published. In addition, we present for the first time the earlier report, also from Yemen, namely by al‐Yamānī in its original Arabic and with our English translation. It is quite obvious that the report by Ibn al‐Daybac is based on the report by al‐Yamānī(or a common source), but the earlier report by al‐Yamānī is more detailed and in better (Arabic) language. We discuss in detail the dating of these observations. The most striking difference to other reports about SN 1006 is the apparent early discovery in Yemen in the evening of 15th of Rajab of the year 396h (i.e. AD 1006 April 17±2 on the Julian calendar), as reported by both al‐Yamānī and Ibn al‐Daybac, i.e. ∼1.5 weeks earlier than the otherwise earliest known reports. We also briefly discuss other information from the Yemeni reports on brightness, light curve, duration of visibility, location, stationarity, and color. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)