Rasalnaqa

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Youla Azkarrula

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Rasalnaqa profile card (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour, OAE Iran).

The Arabic term "Ras al Naqa" originially designated the asterism of three or four stars in the area that shaped the hand of classical Andromeda. al-Nāqa (الناقة) is the She-Camel that covered the area of Cassiopeia but its head is in the region of Andromeda.

It is the modern star name of ι And (HR 8965, HIP 116631).

Etymology and History

Rasalnaqa in a stickfigure (CC BY Sadegh Faghanpour, OAE Iran).

The Indigenous Arabian constellations of The Horse and The Camel next to the adopted Syrian constellation of the Love Goddess with a Fish (Andromeda) in an al-Sufi manuscript dating AH 519/ 1125 CE, copied by 'Ali bin 'Abd al-Jalil bin 'Ali bin Muhammad. Islamic Arts Biennale 2025 exhibition: of al-Faras al-Kamil and al-Naqa. (Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. MS.2.1998), study by Emilie Savage-Smith (2013).

In the image, it looks as if the lady in the constellation of Andromeda "feeds" the dromedary: her hand really occupies the same space. In the Almagest, three stars (ι, κ, λ And) are listed in "the hand of Andromeda" but there is actually a fourth one: ψ Andromedae. These four seem to be depicted in the "Head of the She-Camel" in the earliest known manuscripts of al-Sufi (see image on the right).

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed and adopted by the IAU WGSN in 2025.

Weblinks

• Website of the IAU WGSN: https://exopla.net/

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)