One of the primary resources for understanding traditional knowledge about the seasons is the early anwÄ’ literature, which I have studied before. Most contemporary almanacs and much indigenous knowledge in the Gulf draws from this tradition, especially the seminar text of Ibn Qutayba. The summer of 2016 was devoted to surveying this early anwÄ’ literature.
Here are the basic resources on the anwÄ’:
• Ibn Qutayba, AbÅ« Muḥammad ‘Abd AllÄh (1956) KitÄb al-AnwÄ’. Hyderabad: Maá¹ba‘at Majlis DÄ’irat al-Ma‘Ärif al-‘UthmÄnÄ«ya.
• Al-MarzÅ«qÄ«, AbÅ« ‘AlÄ« (1388/1968) KitÄb al-Azmina wa-al-Amkina. Doha. 2 volumes.
• al-MarzÅ«qÄ«, AbÅ« ‘AlÄ« (1914) KitÄb al-Azmina wa-al-amkina. Two volumes. Hyderabad: Maá¹ba‘at Majlis DÄ’irat al-Ma‘Ärif al-‘UthmÄnıya.
• Quá¹rub, AbÅ« ‘AlÄ« Muḥammad (1985) KitÄb al-Azmina wa-talbÄ«yat al-jÄhilÄ«ya. Al-ZarqÄ’: Maktabat al-ManÄr.
Here is my earlier analysis:
• Varisco, Daniel Martin (2000) Islamic Folk Astronomy. In Helaine Selin, editor, The History of Non-Western Astronomy. Astronomy Across Cultures, 615-650. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Varisco, Daniel Martin (1992a) The Origin of the AnwĒ in Arab Tradition. Studia Islamica 74:5-28.
• Varisco, Daniel Martin (1989a) The AnwÄ’ Stars According to AbÅ« IshÄq al-ZajjÄj. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 5:145-166.
This website documents the results of a Qatar Foundation National Priority Research Program Grant (NPRP8-992-5-133) entitled “Intangible Heritage of Seasonal Navigation and Time Telling in the Arab Gulf ,†conducted in 2016-2017. The Lead Principal Investigator (LPI) is Dr. Daniel Martin Varisco (Qatar University), assisted by Dr. Roxani Margariti (Emory University), Dr. Andre Gingrich (University of Vienna), Dr. Ali al-Shawi (Qatar University), with Dr. Saad Sowayan and Dr. Harriet Nash as consultants.
Main Website: http://tabsir.net/?page_id=2903