DASI: Digital Archive for the Study of pre-islamic arabian Inscriptions: Epigraph details

CIH: pl. XXIX

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text - fragmentary

Royal inscription

Yes

GENERAL NOTES

Glaser found in Riyām sixteen inscriptions or fragments of inscriptions with the same, or slightly different, text.
The original copies were probably thirty, as this is the number of dedicated statues the text commemorates. Two versions of the text are distinguishable and are published as CIH 308 and CIH 308 bis. The first one is the longest and is inscribed on Gl. 828+829 (CIH, pl. XXX), kept in Istanbul; Gl. 830 (CIH, pl. XXIX, Mordtmann 1893: pl. II), kept in Berlin; Gl. 1076 (the most complete one) and 1082 (CIH, pl. XXVIII), kept in Wien; Gl. 1222, 1223, 1224, 1322-1324, 1329, 1377, 1452. The latter, restored by Glaser on the base of Gl. 870+872 (CIH, pl. XXIX, Mordtmann 1893: pl. II, kept in Berlin), 1225, 1330 and 1331, is shorter. See Solá Solé 1964 for the edition of each of these variants, apart from Gl. 828+829, 830, 1076, 1082 and 1322-24. The inscription on the photo is Gl. 870+872.

TEXT

Apparatus

	Solá Solé's reading of Gl. 1330.
6	w-ʾrfd w-ʾʿrs³n] (Solá-Solé)
10	Solá Solé integrates b-ʿm-hmw, while Beeston in CIH 308, l. 11 b-ʿm-hw. Gl. 870 (see photo) records this last phrase.
12	the text Gl. 870 (see photo) records ḏ-yts²[ʿn]; ḏr-hmw instead of ḍr-hmw in Solá Solé's reading, probably an error.
22	only Gl. 1330 records b-ḏt, while the other copies of CIH 308 and CIH 308 bis have l-ḏt (see Gl. 1225: w-s¹]lhmw w-s¹mʿn qhtm w-l-ḏt yzʾn ṯbr). Solá Solé's edition of Gl. 1330 considers b-ḏt as correct, while we prefer to consider it as a writer's error for l-ḏt.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  ʿlhn Nhfn and his son S²ʿrm ʾwtr king of Sabaʾ, descendants
   2  of Yrm ʾymn king of Sabaʾ dedicated to their Patron Tʾlb
   3  Rymm Lord of Trʿt thirty statues of bronze in praise because
   4  Tʾlb favoured them by completing (the collection of) the incense (ṭyb and ṣrf) which they asked for (?) and planted
   5  for their place (sanctuary?) Yhgl, a hundred measures of ṣrf and all their plantations and all
   6  the channels (?) and vegetable gardens up to the canal of the watered ground (or, ʿmid trees) and the supports in the young plantations
   7  and all the irrigation of the orchard (or, vegetable garden) and the water distributor and all the ...(?)... of Qyhrn which they ..(?).. towards
   8  the north, towards the city Lqṭ; and for the cella (or, peristyle) eight s¹rwr (measures) and all their presses (?) (or, plantations?)
   9  and the irrigation of the orchard (or, vegetable garden) and his irrigational installation and all the mid part of this cella (or, peristyle) altogether. In gratitude
  10  because, when a mission had been sent to him by Gdrt king of the Habashites seeking an alliance with them,
  11  this alliance was duly concluded between the Sabeans and Gdrt; whereby they swore to maintain a united front,
  12  for war or peace, in relation to anyone committing aggression against them in war and that in truth
  13  and good faith there should be an alliance between Silḥīn and Zrrn, that is to say, between ʿlhn and Gdrt for the rest of their lives. In gratitude
  14  because their alliance with the Habashite king was thus concluded and in gratitude because he protected all the
  15  ʾqwl and mqtt whom the contracting parties sent to each other, on sea or land, and all the subventions
  16  and gifts which they exchanged with each other. Also in gratitude because a defeat was inflicted to ʿmʾns¹ of Sanḥān and
  17  the commune of Ḫwln in the war which the latter instigated and sought against their lords the kings of Sabaʾ
  18  and they despatched S²bt bin al-ʿAlī to the Raydanites in order to gain the latters' support for war against their
  19  lords the kings of Sabaʾ, and some (Sabaean) communes campaigned in order to take reprisals on them for this war which they
  20  had initiated, and overcame the folk of the town of al-Ḥaql and ravaged all their lands; and subsequently these pledged
  21  faith and surrendered to their lord ʿlhn king of Sabaʾ and despatched two hostages, named
  22  ʾs²ms¹ of Rym and Ḥārith of Ydm and sued for peace and witnessed qhtm? declared (their) obedience and may Tʾlb
  23  continue to put to rout and defeat their wars and their enemies; by their Patron Tʾlb Rymm.

22	Beeston 1937 a: 33-34 gives two possible translations "declared (their) obedience" or "submitted to the (royal) command".

Beeston 1937 a	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1937. Sabaean inscriptions. Oxford.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Deposit	Berlin, Altes Museum (formerly Königlisches Museum), 2669
Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin

Modern site	Jabal Riyām
Ancient site	Trʿt
Geographical area	Arḥab
Country	Yemen
Archaeological context	Religious context: Temple Tʾlb Rymm bʿl Trʿt
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beeston 1937 a: 32-33	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1937. Sabaean inscriptions. Oxford.
Solá Solé 1964: 51-59	Solá Solé, Josep M. 1964. Inschriften aus Riyām. Sammlung Eduard Glaser. 4. (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 243/4). Vienna: Böhlaus.
Mordtmann 1893	Mordtmann, Johannes H. 1893. Himjarische Inschriften und Alterthümer in den königlichen Museen zu Berlin. (Mitteilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlungen, 7). Berlin: W. Spemann.