OCIANA

Corpus of Dadanitic Inscriptions (work in progress)


INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

LanguageAncient North Arabian » Oasis North Arabian » Dadanitic
AlphabetAncient North Arabian
Script typologyMonumental writing
Writing techniqueIncision
Textual typologyDedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

The text is rather carelessly incised. A word-divider has been omitted in line 4 and another is misshapen in line 2, while the shapes of some of the letters are badly formed, e.g. the m of rḍ-hm in line 2 and ʿqb -hm in line 3. It therefore seems possible that other mistakes were made such as the use of the 3rd person dual in the verb in line 1 following a plural subject, and the possible confusion of the forms of b and f in (f-)rḍ-hm in line 2 and b and m in (m)ʿn in line 4 and (m)fr in line 5. Indeed, all the examples of m in this text are more or less misshapen.
For the place name, see Hidalgo-Chacón Díez.

TEXT


   1  ʾbʿl Ḏl ʾfyh h-ẓll
   2  l-ḏ-Ġbt f-rḍ-hm w-s¹—
   3  ʿd-hm w-ʿqb-hm ʾny
   4  ys¹rg ʾb-hm w-(m)ʿn-h[m]
   5  w-(m)fr-h(m) b-Ms²hl[..]

Apparatus
1The interpretation of this line is complicated. Stiehl, followed by al-Qudra, considers the first three words as three personal names, of which only the first and second would be separated by a word-divider. Both authors add the verb ʾẓlw before h-ẓll because of the plural pronominal suffixes in the other lines. Abū l-Ḥasan read the third word as ʾfyh, which he suggested represented *ʾafāʾ which he took to be a spelling of the Dadanitic verb ʾfy (cf. Arabic awfà ‘to accomplish ( a vow)’) with the final h representing hamza [?]). Sima believed that the second word should read ḏ[ʾ]lh 'of the lineage of' in which the mason had erroneously omitted the letter ʾalif and had inserted a word-divider between this and the following word. Lastly, Farès-Drappeau considers that the first word is a noun in the plural and the second (ḏlhʾbyh) is an ethnic name. She also inserts the verb ʾẓllw.
Following Farès-Drappeau, we take the first word of line 1, ʾbʿl, to be the plural of the noun bʿl "lord", perhaps "property owners" or "priests" as in Sabaic (Beeston et al., p. 25). It is clear on the photograph that the second word in this line is ḏl preceded and followed by word-dividers and that the third word is ʾbyh or more probably ʾfyh (compare the third letter of line 5 (f) with the 4th letter of line 2 (b)). Abū l-Ḥasan was the first to recognize this, though we do not follow his interpretation of the verb. Ahmad Al-Jallad suggested that ʾfyh here is the 3rd person feminine singular of the suffix conjugation (*ʾawfiyah) in which the final [-t] had become [-h] as in Hebrew and sporadically in Dadanitic. If ʾbʿl is taken as a group then the feminine singular would be an acceptable verbal agreement despite the plural suffixes later in the text. If this is correct it is unnecessary to insert another verb, as Stiehl, al-Qudra, Sima, and Farès-Drappeau did.
Ḏl can be interpreted as a tribe, an institution or a place.
2The letter before rḍ-hm is a clear b but we would suggest that it is a mason's error for the f- which is found universally in this expression. On other errors made by the mason who carved this text see General Notes.
3For ʿqb cf. Arabic ʿaqb ‘children, offspring’, an alternative to the more usual ʾẖrt. The m of -hm is badly carved and the following word divider is bent to the left.
ʾny: We would therefore tentatively interpret ʾny as marking a new clause and Ahmad Al-Jallad has compared it to Ugaritic hny, Hebrew hinneh and Arabic inna. If this is correct it is new in Dadanitic.
4For ys¹rg cf. Arabic yusarraǧu, the passive of the II form: "it was rendered beautiful, it was embellished ". For ʾb, cf. Arabic abb "herbage, pasture". We have tentatively taken the letter after the w in the next word as a m rather than a b (cf. the second letter in line 5 which also seems to be a m). Mʿn here could be interpreted on the basis of Arabic maʿān "a place of abode".
6We follow Sima in interpreting mfr on the basis of Geʿez mufār "farmland, pasture" and taking {M}s²hl as a place-name.
For other transliterations see the bibliography.

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  The lords of Ḏl accomplished the ẓll ceremony (as they had vowed)
   2  for ḏ-Ġbt (and so) favour them and he-
   3  lp them and their children [or successors]; see now that [?]
   4  their pasture may be beautified and the[ir] abode
   5  and their cultivated land in Ms²hl.
For other translations see the bibliography.
Stiehl 1971: 14-15 (A 04), pl. 12Stiehl, Ruth 1971. Neue liḥyānische Inschriften aus al-‛Uḏaib. Pages 3-40 in Altheim, Franz and Stiehl, Ruth (ed.). Christentum am Roten Meer I. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.
al-Qudra 1993: 16 (L 004)al-Qudra, Ḥusayn M. 1993. Dirāsa muʿǧamīya li-ʾalfāẓ an-nuqūš al-liḥyānīya fī ʾiṭār al-luġāt as-sāmīya al-ǧanūbīya. (MA).
Abū l-Ḥasan 1418/1997: 133-135 (AH 038), pl. 5 (facsimile)Abū l-Ḥasan, Ḥusayn 1418/1997. Qirāʾa li-kitābāt liḥyānīya min ǧabal ʿIkma bi-minṭaqat al-ʿUlā. ar-Riyāḍ: maktabat al-malik Fahd al-waṭanīya.
Sima 1999c: 12 (U 026), pl. 6bSima, Alexander 1999. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf.
Farès-Drappeau 2005: 193 (D 097)Farès-Drappeau, Saba 2005. Dédan et Liḥyân. Histoire des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse et hellénistique (IVe-IIe s. avant l'ère chrétienne). (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranée, 42). Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée; J. Pouilloux.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support typeRock inscription
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin
Modern siteal-ʿUlā
Ancient siteDdn
Geographical areaḤijāz
CountrySaudi Arabia
NotesFound in Al-ʿUḏayb (Ǧabal ʿIkmah). It is incised amongst a mass of others on one side of the huge rock, which Stiehl called 'Block A'. It is below U 025, to the left of U 023, and to the right of U 029.
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Stiehl 1971: 14-15 (A 04), pl. 12Stiehl, Ruth 1971. Neue liḥyānische Inschriften aus al-‛Uḏaib. Pages 3-40 in Altheim, Franz and Stiehl, Ruth (ed.). Christentum am Roten Meer I. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.
Beeston et al. 1982 (=SD)Beeston, Alfred F.L., al-Ghūl, Maḥmūd ʿA., Müller, Walter W. and Ryckmans, Jacques 1982. Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Dictionnaire Sabéen (anglais-français-arabe). Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions Peeters / Beirut: Libraire du Liban.
al-Qudra 1993: 16 (L 004)al-Qudra, Ḥusayn M. 1993. Dirāsa muʿǧamīya li-ʾalfāẓ an-nuqūš al-liḥyānīya fī ʾiṭār al-luġāt as-sāmīya al-ǧanūbīya. (MA).
Abū l-Ḥasan 1418/1997: 133-135 (AH 038), pl. 5 (facsimile)Abū l-Ḥasan, Ḥusayn 1418/1997. Qirāʾa li-kitābāt liḥyānīya min ǧabal ʿIkma bi-minṭaqat al-ʿUlā. ar-Riyāḍ: maktabat al-malik Fahd al-waṭanīya.
Sima 1999c: 12 (U 026), pl. 6bSima, Alexander 1999. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf.
Farès-Drappeau 2005: 193 (D 097)Farès-Drappeau, Saba 2005. Dédan et Liḥyân. Histoire des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse et hellénistique (IVe-IIe s. avant l'ère chrétienne). (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranée, 42). Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée; J. Pouilloux.
Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2014Hidalgo-Chacón Díez, María del Carmen 2014. Place Names in the Dadanitic Inscriptions of al-'Uḏayb. Adūmātū, 30: 15-30.