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

Jamme 1962 a: pl. 16
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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

TEXT

Apparatus

14	Stein 2003 a: 143, fn. 87 notes that the demonstrative pronoun hmy at the nominative (cf. l. 20) here is probably an error for hmt, the correct form of the oblique case.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  ʿ(bd)ʿ[m ... ... of the family Mḏrḥm ... ...]
   2  and Ṯfyn and M[... ...]—
   3  d, lord of the house S²b[... ...]—
   4  m, ʾqwl of the two tribes of Mhʾnfm and Ẓhr,
   5  mqtwy of S²mr Yhrʿs², king of Sabaʾ and ḏū-
   6  Raydān, son of Ys¹rm Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and
   7  ḏū-Raydān, dedicated to his lord ʾlmqh
   8  Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, the statue in bronze,
   9  in praise because he helped and saved the life of
  10  His servant ʿbdʿm, of the family Mḏrḥm, and the lives of
  11  his tribe and of its adherents and of some soldiers he had brought
  12  with him from the fall and the collapse of
  13  the two houses, the house of (the tribe of) Hmdn, and of Btʿ, when
  14  they sojourned in those two houses, when
  15  his lord S²mr Yhrʿs², king of Sabaʾ and ḏū-Raydān, ordered him
  16  to watch over and perform service in
  17  the town of Mrb to perform the feast of ʾbhy and the rain
  18  fell on the ninth day, as usual, and
  19  at the beginning of the month and on the second day rain (fell)
  20  as a deluge and those two houses
  21  of (the tribe of) Hmdn and of Btʿ fell for that rain;
  22  ʿbdʿm, of the family Mḏrḥm, praised the might and
  23  the power of ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm,
  24  because He saved and delivered His servant ʿbdʿm,
  25  of the family Mḏrḥm and all his men, and
  26  they lost nothing of their equipment, (even) so much as
  27  a camel saddle, and they continued to be present (stay there) since the moment when they raze
  28  the ruins of the two houses until
  29  their lord, the king, ordered them to conduct an expedition at the head
  30  of the army of Sabaʾ to protect the construction
  31  of the walls and the towers of the town of Mrb and
  32  to set up for it the dam facing
  33  the upstream wādī, that should protect it from the flood.
  34  ʿbdʿm, of the family Mḏrḥm rendered
  35  expressions of gratitude to the might and the power of their lord
  36  ʾlmqh, Lord of ʾwm, because they achieved
  37  success in everything their lord
  38  S²mr Yhrʿs², king of Sabaʾ and ḏū-Raydān, ordered them,
  39  and may ʾlmqh grant them the health and
  40  the safety of the person of their lord S²mr Yhrʿs², king
  41  of Sabaʾ and ḏū-Raydān, and may ʾlmqh
  42  continue to help and protect His servant
  43  ʿbdʿm, of the family Mḏrḥm from all that is evil;
  44  and may ʾlmqh grant him the goodwill and the satisfaction
  45  of their lord S²mr Yhrʿs², king of Sabaʾ
  46  and ḏū-Raydān and may ʾlmqh grant him
  47  soundness of faculties and material resources and
  48  abundance of summer crops and harvest season in all
  49  their lands,and may ʾlmqh help and protect and
  50  deliver His servant ʿbdʿm, of the family
  51  Mḏrḥm, from any evil and mischief and trouble
  52  and the harm and the maleficence and the slander and the malice
  53  and the conspiracy (?) and the enemy’s advantage and the subjection to any enemy,
  54  the one far or near, the one they are aware of and
  55  the one they are not aware of. By ʾlmqh Ṯhwn,
  56  Lord of ʾwm.

11	Beeston proposes that the sense "to find, to be found" instead of "send" suggested by Drewes 1979 for the ground stem of the verb ʾs¹y can be assumed here too for hʾs¹y. He translates "and (other) men whom he brought with him" (Beeston 1981 c: 55).
14	ḫtnw b-hmy bytnhn: Ryckmans already noted the difficulty of linking Jamme’s translation of this phrase “when they allied the two houses by marriage” to the event of the rainfall. He translated “ils festoyaient (?) dans ces deux palais » (Ryckmans 1966: 489). Beeston 1972 e: 352 proposed to link the verb ḫtn to Akk. ḫatānu “shelter, protect”, instead that to Ar. ḫitān as suggested by Ryckmans (“the making of a feast”, from “circumcise”) and translated “sojourn, dwell”.
18	ʿhdtn: "le 9ème jour de la réunion (?)" (Ryckmans 1966: 490). For Beeston 1978: 204, ʿhdtn could perhaps be taken as an adverbial accusative "normally", meaning that "the rain began as a moderate fall but then developed into a deluge". “As usual” also for Stein 2003 a:118, 238.
25-27	For the translation of "w-ʾl ḏ-fqdw bn ʾs²rʿ-hmw kbr rḥlm", see Beeston 1978: 206.
28-33	See the translation of the lines in Stein 2003 a: 213. For ṭmḥnyn, see Beeston 1978: 199 and Stein 2003 a: 65, fn. 149.

Jamme 1962 a	Jamme, Albert W.F. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Maḥram Bilqîs (Mârib). (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1966: 487-491	Ryckmans, Jacques 1966. Himyaritica 2. Le Muséon, 79: 475-500.
Beeston 1972 e: 352	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1972. Review of Jamme, Albert W.F. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Maḥram Bilqîs (Mârib). (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 35/2: 349-353.
Beeston 1981 c: 55	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1981. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography XII. Le Muséon, 94: 55-73.
Stein 2003 a: 118, 238	Stein, Peter 2003. Untersuchungen zur Phonologie und Morphologie des Sabäischen. (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 3). Rahden: Marie Leidorf GmbH / Westf.: Marie Leidorf GmbH.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 28.3, h. 124.5, th. 20.2
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	Maḥram Bilqīs
Ancient site	ʾwm
Geographical area	Maʾrib
Country	Yemen
Archaeological context	Religious context: Temple of ʾlmqh Ṯhwn bʿl ʾwm
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jamme 1962 a: 155-157, pl. 16	Jamme, Albert W.F. 1962. Sabaean Inscriptions from Maḥram Bilqîs (Mârib). (Publications of the American Foundation for the Study of Man, 3). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1966: 487-491	Ryckmans, Jacques 1966. Himyaritica 2. Le Muséon, 79: 475-500.
ʿInān 1976: 319-320	ʿInān, Zaid b. ʿA 1976. Taʾriḫ ḥaḍāra al-Yaman al-qadīm. Cairo.
Beeston 1978 b: 204-206	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1978. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography XI. Le Muséon, 91: 195-209.