Eikkir, with skinny legs and big ears, knew three languages, Meroitic, Arabic, and Greek. His teachers encouraged him to read Alhazen, Plato, and Aristotle and he was not a bad student. His father encouraged him to think about business—trading and selling, but he was not a good son. His own inclination was to watch the sky, studying birds and clouds, and always wondering why. Why was he stuck on the ground, whose surface was flat and hot, when the sky was cool and infinite?
Unusual characters