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).

Detail from "Kitāb Ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thābitah", Bodleian Library MS. Huntington 212, from Mosul 1170, digitalisation. Clearly visible that the lady (goddess/ Andromeda) rides on the fish.

Al Faras الفرس is Arabic for The Horse, sometimes even called Alfarasalkamil (الفرس الكامل), "The Complete Horse", as opposed to the Greek constellation of a half horse that is now called Pegasus. The Arabian tradition may root in or connect to the Babylonian one which had a horse in that area, but we don't know where exactly.

Etymology and History

List of stars that WGSN dares to identify

al-Faras in Adams (2018),^[1] pp. xx-xx.

Adams interprets the term الفرس, al-Faras, in al-Qutayba^[2] as a constellation that differs from the (later) Arabic translations of the Greek term and identifies a smaller figure northwest of the Ίππος (The Horse in Pegasus).

Horse drawn in Kitāb Ṣuwar al-kawākib al-thābitah (Mosul 1170)

Al Faras al Kamil (the complete horse) in the earliest copies of as-Sufi's manuscript (12th century), reconstruction by Khalid Al-Ajaji for Stellarium (CC BY).

al-Faras per Khalid AlAjaji

The only mention of al-Faras, that I am aware of, is by al-Ṣufī in his discussion of Andromeda. He described a complete horse figure detailing the member stars. Al-Ṣufī did not indicate any connection of this figure to the Arabs. His description followed the section on the stars of the Arabs in the Greek constellation and after the table of those stars. Before outlining al-Faras, he also detailed another figure of a fish at the foot of Andromeda. Both figures were imagined by al-Ṣufī. He sometimes takes the liberty to imagine figures that he believes deserve mention, such as the Bowl between Lyra and Cygnus and the Crater between Cygnus and Aquila.

This is a translation of al- Ṣufī description of the Complete Horse:

The 23rd star, which precedes the three stars located in the right hand (part of the She-Camel's head), is situated in the lip of another Horse that resembles a horse more than al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam. Near this 23rd star, there is a small star that makes it appear double. From this small star, a series of stars accumulate in the face and head, forming a head shape. This series continues along the crest in an arc, resembling a horse's neck, and connects with a star on the back, which is the 18th star of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam, located at the end of the right front leg. The series then passes through two stars in the rump, a star at the joint of the tail (the 20th star at the end of the left front leg of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam), and finally two stars, one in the middle of the tail and the other at the end of the tail, behind the Dolphin.

Another series emerges from the 23rd star on the lip, passing through the throat latch and upper neck, completing a head shape. It then turns and follows the neck towards the chest, reaching a star on the shoulder (the 7th star, the northern of the two stars of the right knee of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam). From this star, it passes a star in the belly, leaning towards the south, and finally reaches a star in the testicle (the 19th star on the left knee of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam). The northern star of al-Farġ al-Awwal, located on the shoulder of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam, is in one of its front legs, while the two stars in the chest of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam are in the other leg. The back legs are represented by two contiguous and obscure stars between the bright star on the lip of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam and the star at the joint of the tail, which is located at the extremity of the left front leg of al-Faras al-ʾʿẓam.

al-Faras in Laffitte (2012^[3], 2025^[4]).

Laffitte collated all Arabic translations from the Greek. The original constellation in Greek was named The Horse (Ίππος), and only some of the cases are interpreted with wings (Pegasus).

al-faras, The Horse, is an Indigenous Arabian constellation (drawing Laffitte 2012). Names in contemporary catalogs (Ίππος > al-Faras, ap. ms. de St-Pétersbourg)

Reading Variants B19.

• Ίππος / / al-Faras al-Ṯānī, « le Second Cheval » (Ḥağğāğ)
• al-Faras, « le Cheval » (Isḥāq, Battānī)
• al-Faras al-A^cẓam, « le Grand Cheval » (Isḥāq, Ṣūfī^[5])
• al-Faras al-Muğannaḥ, « le Cheval ailé » (Bīrūnī)
• Buruṭūs ( ?) (Battānī)

Individual Star Names

Names in contemporary catalogs

Discussion

I couldn't find any mention of al-Faras in ibn Qutayba book. If there is any, could it pointed out.

The caption in Mr. Laffitte section states that: "al-faras, The Horse, is an Indigenous Arabian constellation (drawing Laffitte 2012).", but the image is of the Greek constellation.

IAU Working Group Star Names

It came up in a discussion in 2025 to resemble this historical constellation by naming the brightest star in its head "Alfarasalkamil". This decision was announced on May 8 2025 by WGSN.

Weblinks

Reference

Kunitzsch, Paul. 1961. Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.

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.