…when I gaze upon the thousandfold circling gyre of the stars, no longer do I walk on earth, but rise…
-Claudius Ptolemaeus, 2nd C. Alexandrian astronomer whose star chart and 1,025 star catalog The Great Treatise descended to the West through its Arabic translation, The Almagest
On the trail we were probably too far south to have seen the four Alawaid, from al-’Awa’idh, the Nursing She-Camels, for they are in the northern polar constellation Draco. Same with Altais, the Wether Sheep, although we butchered and ate one once, and also with Alya, from al-Alya, the Tail of a Fat Tailed Sheep and with Alhena, from al-Han’ah, the Brand [on the Camel’s Neck]. And these are just the stars beginning with Al-. Also unrecognized went Arrakis, from al-Raaqis, the Dancer, said by the Arabs to look like a trotting camel.
KhairAllah was not a sailor so he wasn’t expected to know the entire Arabic star map. Algedi, from al-Jidi, the Yearling Goat, what he called the North Star- mistakenly, because the true Algedi is in the constellation Capricorn- was all he needed to find his way on the Way of the Forty. Keep it on your left cheek, he said, and it will take you to Cairo.