…dust and sand which is tossed vp and downe the aire with easterne windes entring into their eies doth at last miserably weaken and spoile their eie-sight.
-Description of Africa, Leo Africanus, 1526, from the Hakluyt Society 1896 edition
At our departure from al-Nahud it was uncertain whether RahmatAllah could join KhairAllah as Hajj Bashir’s second Khabīr. RahmatAllah was nearly blind from trachoma, or so I imagined because it was a common affliction in those parts, but it may have been from sand blown into the eye. If that were the case, I’m now glad I wore glasses. It was Bilal who was ultimately chosen, perhaps because he could see well except when he got cross-eyed on Merissa.