Supernova SN 1006 in two historic Yemeni reports

TL;DR

This paper presents the first publication of original Arabic texts from Yemen describing the historic supernova SN 1006, highlighting an earlier observation date than previously known and analyzing details of the reports.

Contribution

It provides new primary Arabic sources on SN 1006, including the earliest Yemeni observation, with translations and detailed discussion of dating and observational details.

Findings

Yemeni reports date the supernova observation to April 17, 1006 AD.

The Yemeni reports are more detailed and earlier than other known accounts.

The supernova was observed about 1.5 weeks earlier in Yemen than in other reports.

Abstract

We present two Arabic texts of historic observations of supernova SN 1006 from Yemen as reported by al-Yamani and Ibn al-Dayba (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-Yamani in its original Arabic and with our English translation. It is quite obvious that the report by Ibn al-Dayba is based on the report by al-Yamani (or a common source), but the earlier report by al-Yamani 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 Apr 17 \pm 2 on the Julian calendar), as reported by both al-Yamani and Ibn al-Dayba. i.e. about 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.