Alawaidh (العَوائِذ)

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann, Roland Laffitte, DanielleAdams

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Arabian camels: four mothers protecting one baby in the middle (CC BY Khalid AlAjaji in Stellarium for WGSN).

Alawaidh (العَوائِذ), The Camel Mothers, derives from an Arabic asterism: four camel mothers are protecting one newborn camel calf (Alruba, HIP 86782).

Concordance, Etymology, History

Name Variants

• Alwaid
• Alawaid
• Alawaidh

The Classical Arabic word العَوائِذ al-ʿawāʾidh was the plural form for العائِذ al-ʿāʾidh, which meant a female camel, horse or gazelle that had given birth recently (within the past week or two). The Arabic root means "to seek protection", and so the new mothers were called al-ʿawāʾidh because their newborn calves or foals sought protection from them.

As a star name, al-ʿawāʾidh (the Camel Mothers) was applied to an indigenous Arabian asterism of four stars in the IAU constellation of Draco: β (Rastaban), γ (Eltanin), ν and ξ (Grumium). A very faint star in the middle of this asterism (HIP 86782) was the newborn camel, called الرُبْع ar-rubʿ in Arabic.

For nu Draconis (ν Dra) the name Kuma is sometimes used but its etymology and meaning are obscure, as it originates from Bečvář's 1948 atlas.

Occurrences

This name "Alwaid" has sometimes been applied to β (beta) Draconis, but it is not in the IAU Catalog of Star Names because another name, Rastaban, was already approved for this star.

Allen's assertion that al-ʿawāʾidh included a fifth star—μ Draconis (Alrakis) known as ar-rāqiṣ (the Ambling Camel) is one of his many errors, as all early Arabic sources identified the asterism as a group of four stars, not five.

al-TERM in Adams (2018), pp. xx-xx.

al-TERM per Khalid AlAjaji

al-TERM in Laffitte (2012, 2025).

IAU Working Group Star Names

The name "Alawaidh" was suggested to the WGSN in 2026 for ν Dra, as this one is the only star in the quadrilateral that is yet unnamed. The best rendering of the Arabic name in English seems to be "Alawaidh" which has not yet been used and might, thus, not cause confusion with potential historical adoptions of the name.

References

• Adams, Danielle K. 2018. Rain Stars Set, Lunar Stations Rise: Multivalent Textures of Pre-Islamic Arabian Astronomy and the Hegemonic Discourse of Order. PhD Dissertation. The University of Arizona, 92–94.
• Ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallah b. Muslim. 1956. Kitāb al-anwāʾ (fī mawāsim al-ʿArab). Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUthmāniyya, 148.
• al-Marzūqī, Abū ˓Alī Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan. 1914. Kitāb al-azmina wa al-amkina. 2 vols. Hyderabad: Maṭbaʿat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-Kāʾina, 2:374-375.
• al-Ṣūfī, Abū al-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿUmar. 1981. Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thamāniya wa al-arbaʿīn. Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīda, 41.

Modern Star Name Discussion

The name "Alwaid" that is found in the literature of popular astronomy was proposed for the IAU-Catalog of Star Names in 2023. However, it was not applied to any star, since all four of the stars representing the Arabian asterism al-ʿawāʾidh (the Camel Mothers) already had IAU-approved modern star names in use.

New suggestions (2024): As "Alwaid" was alias for Beta Draconis in several references, perhaps we should use it for β (beta) Draconis B (Gaia EDR3 1415230383034347264)?