SOME COMMENTS ON THE IDENTIFICATION OF MEDIEVAL METEOR-SHOWERS RECORDED BY THE ARABS

The suggested identifications of medieval arab meteor showers in the R ada and Stephenson Catalogue are examined critically. The suggestion t hat most are manifestations of the Lyrids, Perseids or Orionids is fou nd to be very improbable: the largest number of identifiable showers i s from the Leonids. There are no probable Orionid records, whilst just a single possible Lyrid and, at most, two Perseid records are include d. Several records may refer to a now unidentifiable shower early in t he year which is no longer active.