Kaffalmusalsala

E. B. Knobel (1895, MNRAS, 55, 429) "On a Catalogue of Stars in the Calendarium of Mohammad Al Achsasi Al Mouakket" (17th century, Arabic, from Cairo) has "Keff al Salsalat" (Latin transliteration "Manus Catenatae") for iota Andromedae (ι And).

Etymology and History

Andromeda's right arm has always been drawn in this area of the sky. The star ι And is described as Τῶν ἐπἰ τοῦ δεξιοῦ άκρόχειρον (Halma, II, 48-49), i.e. "at the end of the right hand" together with κ and λ And. In Arabic, al-Ḥağğāğ translates as ^clā ṭaraf al-kaff, “at the tip of the right palm” and Isḥāq as ^clā ’l-kaff, “on the palm”. Al-Battānī does not mention these stars. As for al-Ṣūfī, he uses also the word al-Kaff in their description, and al-Bīrūnī does the same after him.

Then the following identifications appear chronologically:

κ And	al-Awsaṭ min Kaff al-Musalsala	the Median of the Palm of the Chained One	Marrākušī (13th c)
	Wasaṭ Kaff al-Musalsala	the Median of the Palm of the Chained One	Miṣrī (14th c.)
	idem	Idem	Tīzīnī (16th c.)
λ And	Šamālī Kaff al-Musalsala	The Northern of the Palm of the Chained One	Miṣrī(14th c.)

Only this one can be taken as a true proper name:

ι And

Kaff al-(Mu)salsala

the Palm of the Chain One

Aḫsāsī (17th)

3 remarks.

1. al-Aḫsāsī reads al-salasa in the manuscript, which is, as he quotes it (p. 436, n. 31), a scribal error for al-musalsala, "the Chained One." It seems reasonable to reintroduce the exact word.
2. In the transcription currently used, we write kaff and no longer Keff, and the final /t/ of Salsalat is not justified. The name would therefore be Kaff al-Musalsala, which is roughly the spelling used by Mustafa Pular in his catalog for κ And.
3. The stars ι, κ and λ And all three deserve the name Kaff al-musalsala, but their magnitudes are respectively: 4.29, 4.15, and 3.81. As we can see, λ And is the largest.

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 2023 due to its appearance in modern literature (Knobel 1895). The name is not in Simbad or anyhow known in the public. From the group of three lambda would be the brightest, but has an older name (Asīdu); so we would suggest kappa And to be named with the Arabic term. However, we suggest to correct Knobel's spelling from the 19th century and name the star Kaffalmusalala (adapted to the IAU-Style Guide, simplified to pre-Unicode ASCII).

The WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)
• Ian Ridpath's website (Star Tales )