The origin of Perseus constellation iconography in Sovar al-kavakeb of Abd al-Rahman Sufi

The Sovar al-kavakeb of Abd al-Rahman Sufi is one of the most significant Arabic treatises on astronomy of the Islamic era. Written in the middle of the fourth century AH, this work contains an extensive list of stars in a stellar table for 48 constellations12 constellations belong to the zodiac, 21 constellations belong to the northern forms and 15 constellations belong to the southern forms., which are inspired by Almagest of Ptolemy. Sovar al-kavakeb has had considerable influence on the history of astronomy and has been copied and illustrated by many scientists and enthusiasts in different eras. The aim of this article is to investigate the criteria for illustrating the Perseus constellation in Sovar-al-kavakeb. To achieve this goal, the form and the content of the Perseus constellation in previous resources have been studied and analyzed based on the comparative method. This study is an attempt to find the similarities and differences in the image of the Perseus constellation in accordance with the original text and to obtain the criteria of its form and content. The findings reveal that the scientific illustration of Perseus was according to the descriptions of Perseus constellation in Almagest as the main source and in terms of form and content, it was influenced by the images and descriptions of star Mars in the works earlier than Sovar al-kavakeb. The methodology of this research is descriptive-comparative, and the information about the mythological background and the effective patterns on the formation of images of Perseus constellation at different times and places has been gathered based on a case study. The correspondence between Perseus constellation and some myths in the East and West has been accomplished by analyzing the configuration and investigating the visual resemblance as well as differences of this constellation in various resources. Keywords: Abd al-Rahman Sufi, Sovar-al-kavakeb, the Perseus constellation, star Mars.