نوء

نَوْءٌ ذ , pl. أَنْوَاآءٌ and نُواآنٌ, (S, K,) A star, or an asterism, verging to setting: or the setting of the star, or asterism, in the west, aurorally, i. e., at dawn of morning, and the rising of another, opposite to it, at the same time, in the east: (K:) or the setting of one of the stars, or asterisms, which compose the Mansions [ of the Moon (see مَنَازِلُ القَمَرِ)], in the west, aurorally, i. e., at dawn of morining, and the rising of its رَقِيب, which is another star, or asterism, opposite to it, at the same time, in the east, each night for a period of thirteen days: thus does each star, or asterism, of those Mansions, [one after another,] to the end of the year, except الجَبْهَة, the period of which is fourteen days: (S:) [or it signifies the auroral rising, and sometimes the auroral setting, of one of those stars, or asterisms; as will be shown below: I do not say “ heliacal ” rising because the rising here meant continues for a period of thirteen days]. Accord. to the T, نوء signifies the setting of one of the stars, or asterisms, above mentioned: and AHn says, that it signifies its first setting in the morning, when the stars are about to disappear; which is when the whiteness of dawn diffuses itself. (TA.) A'Obeyd says, I have not heard نوء used in the sense of “ setting, ” “ falling, ” except in this instance. (S.) It is added, [whether on his or another's authority is doubtful,] that the [pagan] Arabs used to attribute the rains and winds and heat and cold to such of the stars, or asterisms, above mentioned as was setting at the time [ aurorally ]; or, accord. to As, to that which was rising in its ascendency [ aurorally ]; and used to say, مُطِرْنَا بِنَوْءِ كَذَا [ We have been given rain by such a نوء]; (S;) or they attributed heat [and cold] to the rising or the star or asterism, and rain [and wind], to its نَوْء [meaning its setting ]. (AHn, Har, p. 216.) This the Muslim is forbidden to say, unless he mean thereby, “ We have been given rain at the period of such a نوء; ” God having made it usual for rain to come at [certain of] the periods called انواء. Again, A'Obeyd says, The انواء are twenty-eight stars, or asterisms; sing. نوء: the rising of any one of them in the east [ aurorally ] is called نوء; and the star, or asterism, itself is hence thus called: but sometimes نوء signifies the setting. Also, in the L it is said, that each of the abovementioned stars, or asterisms, is called thus because, when that in the west sets, the opposite one rises; and this rising is called النّوء; but some make نوء to signify the setting; as if it bore contr. senses. (TA.) [El-Kazweenee mentions certain physical occurrences on the occasions of the انواء of the Mansions of the Moon; and in each of these cases, except three, the نوء is the rising, not the setting. Two of the excepted cases are doubtful: the passage relating to the third plainly expresses an event which happens at the period of the auroral setting of الصَّرْفَة; namely the commencement of the days called أَيَّامُ العَجُوزِ; corresponding, accord. to ElMakreezee, with the rising of الفَرْغُ المُقَدَّمُ, the رقيب of الصرفة: and it is said in the S, art. عجز, on the authority of Ibn-Kunáseh, that the ايّام العجوز fall at the period of the نوء of الصرفة. (The auroral setting of الصرفة, at the commencement of the era of the Flight, in central Arabia, happened about the 9th of March O. S.; and this is the day of the N. S., the 26th of February O. S., on which commence the ايّام العجوز accord. to the modern Egyptian almanacs.) Hence it appears, that sometimes the setting, but generally the rising, was called the نوء. Moreover, the ancient Arabs had twenty-eight proverbial sayings (which are quoted in the Mir-át ez-Zemán, and in the work of El-Kazweenee) relating to the risings of the twenty-eight Mansions of the Moon: such as this: اـِذَا طَلَعَ الشَّرَطَانْ اـِسْتَوَى الزَّمَانْ “ When Esh-Sharatán rises, the season becomes temperate: ” or, perhaps, “ ― -b2- the night and day, become equal. ” (If this latter meaning could be proved to be the right one, we might infer that the Calendar of the Mansions of the Moon was in use more than twelve centuries B. c.; and that for this reason الشرطان was called the first of the mansions; though it may have been first so called at a later period as being the first Mansion in the first Sign of the Zodiac. But I return to the more immediate object which I had in view in mentioning the foregoing sayings.) I do not find any of these sayings (though others, I believe, do) relating to the settings. Hence, again, it appears most probable, that the rising, not the setting, was generally called نوء.] ― -b3- [In many instances,] الأَنْوَاآءُ signifies The Mansions of the Moon [themselves]; and نَوْءٌ, any one of those Mansions: and they are also called نُجُومُ المَطَرِ [ the stars, or asterisms, of rain ]. (Mgh, in art. خطأ.) IAar says that the term نوء was not applied except in the case of a star, or asterism, accompanied by rain: (TA:) [see exs. under خَطَّ and خَطَّأَ: but most authors, it seems, apply this term without such restriction: it is sometimes given to certain stars or asterisms, which do not belong to the Mansions of the Moon; as will be seen below: and it is applied, with the article, especially to الثُّرَيَّا]. ― -b4- Accord. to AZ, as cited by AM, the first rain is that called الوَسْمِىُّ: the انواء of which are those called العَرْقُوَتَانِ المُؤَخَّرَتَان, the same, says AM, as الفَرْغُ المُؤَخَّرُ, [the 27th Mansion of the Moon, which, about the period of the commencement of the era of the Flight, (to which period, or thereabout, the calculation of AZ, here given, most probably relates,) set aurorally, (for by the term نوء AZ means a star or asterism, at the setting of which rain usually falls,) in central Arabia, on the 21st of Sept. O. S, as shewn in the observations on the منازل القمر in this lexicon]: then, الشَّرَطُ, [one of the شَرَطَانِ, the 1st Mansion, which, [...]