Magellanic Cloud

The Magellanic Clouds (or Nubeculae Magellani) are two irregular dwarf galaxies visible in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere; they are members of the Local Group and are orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. Because they both show signs of a bar structure, they are often reclassified as Magellanic spiral galaxies. The two galaxies are:

Probably the oldest continuous extant references to the clouds come from the Khoisan culture of Southern Africa. The ancestors of these people appear to have been quite separate from all other living humans for 100–200 thousand years.

Another long history of cultural association may have re-emerged with the migration of humans south from the Middle East reaching Australia approximately 50–60 thousand years ago. Those people were the ancestors of the Aborigines, whose various cultures have a variety of stories about these galaxies.

The Magellanic Clouds were known to the Polynesians and served as important navigation markers. Collectively they were known to Māori of New Zealand as Nga Patari-Kaihau or as Te Reporepo and were thought to be predictors of winds.

The Magellanic Clouds have been known since the first millennium in Western Asia. The first preserved mention of the Large Magellanic Cloud is by the Muslim polymath Ibn Qutaybah (d. 889 CE), in his book on Al-Anwaa (stations of the Moon in pre-Islamic Arabian culture): "وأسفل من سهيل قدما سهيل . وفى مجرى قدمى سهيل، من خلفهما كواكب زهر كبار، لا ترى بالعراق، يسميها أهل تهامة الأعبار And below Canopus, there are the feet of Canopus, and on their extension, behind them bright big stars, not seen in Iraq, the people of Tihama call them al-a`baar." Later Al Sufi, also a Muslim, and a professional astronomer, in 964 CE, in his Book of Fixed Stars, mentioned the same quote, but with a different spelling. Under Argo Navis, he quoted that "unnamed others have claimed that beneath Canopus there are two stars known as the 'feet of Canopus', and beneath those there are bright white stars that are unseen in Iraq nor Najd, and that the inhabitants of Tihama call them al-Baqar [cows], and Ptolemy did not mention any of this so we [Al-Sufi] do not know if this is true or false.". Both Ibn Qutaybah and Al-Sufi were probably quoting from the former's contemporary (and compatriot) and famed scientist Abu Hanifa Dinawari's mostly lost work on Anwaa. Abu Hanifa was probably quoting earlier sources, which may be just travelers stories, and hence Al-Sufi's comments about their veracity.

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