Hamrat al-Shaikh (Redness of the Religious Leader), Hamrat al-Wuz (Redness of the Goose), Bir Abu Za’ima (Well of the Father of the Female Leader), Jebel Kirim (Generous Mountain), Um Badr (Mother of the Full Moon), Um Khair al-Din (Mother of the Goodness of Religion), Um Dubban (Mother of Flies), Dubeibat (Little Fly), Abyad (White), El-Obeid (The Little White One), Humeir Kabir (Big Little Donkey), Um Dam (Mother of Blood), Dam Gamad (Congealed Blood), Abu Shanab (Father of the Mustache), Suq al-Gamal (Camel Market), Mahbub (The Loved One)
-Villages and Towns North, East, and West of Al-Nahud (The Female Breasts), our Point of Departure on Darb al-Arba’een (The Way of the Forty), headed to Wadi al-Milk (The Water Course of Fortune), as shown on Michelin Map 745
We passed many villages whose names I never learned. Some you could not even tell were villages, they were so small and empty. But always we knew we were going away from, not towards the places people lived. Fewer trees, more sand. If I’d carried this map at the time, it would not have helped me know anything that the drovers couldn’t tell me. The map’s dotted lines marking recognized tracks gave out after three days. The drovers only knew, Good water here, Good people there, Good grazing ahead. Keep moving. Yallah binaa, God be with us.
