Dairat-ul-Burooj

In Islamic astronomy, the Lunar Mansions, known as “Manazil al-Qamar” or Dairat-ul-Burooj in Arabic, are a system of lunar divisions used to track the Moon’s position along its monthly journey across the sky. The concept of Lunar Mansions originated from ancient Arab and Islamic traditions and was developed to aid in timekeeping, navigation, and astronomical observations.

The Lunar Mansions divide the path of the Moon into 28 segments, each corresponding to a specific area of the sky. These segments are based on the Moon’s approximate daily motion relative to the stars, resulting in each Mansion spanning approximately 12 to 13 degrees of celestial longitude along the ecliptic.

It is interesting to know that, though observational data shows the movement of the moon in the belt of constellations, however, precise calculations suggest that the sun traverses the same path over the year (365.25 days app.) apparently—the sun lodges in each mansion for approximately 13 days.

In the following simulation the Lunar Mansions are denoted by numbers, while these mansions are as following: