| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic | ||
| Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Writing technique | Incision | ||
| Measure of letters | 2.6 | ||
| Chronology |
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| Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
| Beeston 1976 b considers Ja 643 and Ja 643 bis the same inscription, but the length of the lines is different. |
| 4-18 | Beeston 1985 a's edition has been followed. |
| 4-5 | Jamme's copy goes until w-ḏ, but ʿInān's gives also the filiation. Beeston notes that this must have been followed by a title of some sort, but the full titulature for Ḏmrʿly Ḏrḥ was probably too long for the space available, so it might have consisted only in the title of mlk S¹bʾ (Beeston 1985 a: 110). Note that Jamme reads the beninning of l.5 as [... ...]ḫ bn (the ḫ being a misreading for n, according to Beeston); ʿInān: [... ...] bn. |
| 5-6 | w-hṣrn [... ... Y—dʿʾl] (Jamme). |
| 8-9 | At the beginning: [... ...]w (Jamme); Beeston 1985 suggested a possible restoration w-[blt]w. At the end: Beeston 1985 a proposes the restoration [ Byn w-mṣr-hw], on the basis of his edition of the text (following ʿInān's) "klm s¹lmm w-mẓʾw". On the contrary, Jamme reads "klm s¹lmm mẓʾw". |
| 9-10 | w-bl—[..] mlk (Jamme). Restoration by Beeston (1985 a). |
| 11 | Beeston 1985: tnbltn, even if both Jamme and ʿInān transcribe tbltn. |
| 14-15 | s¹t—ḏn in Beeston 1985's edition is probably an oversight, as both Jamme and ʿInān transcribe s¹t—ʾḏn. |
| 29 | For the form b-ʿlw-hw, see Stein 2003 a: 218. |
| English | |
1 Ns²ʾkrb [... ...] Ṯwbn ʾnṭ[... ... of the family Grt, ʾqwl] 2 [of the tribe S¹mhrm, dedicated to ʾlmqh] Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm [... ...] 3 [Ns²ʾkrb ... ...] ḏ-W[...]bn of the family Grt praised the power of ʾlmqh [... ...] 4 [... ... protected] their lord Krbʾl Byn, king of Sabaʾ and ḏ-Raydān, son of Ḏmrʿly Ḏrḥ, king of [Sabaʾ and] 5 [ḏu-Raydān] from the expedition that undertook, the hostilities that brought about and the army that moved 6 Ydʿʾl, king of Ḥaḍramawt, and the tribe of Ḥaḍramawt and the tribes which were with him among the tribes 7 [... ...] and Ydʿʾl and his army marched and arrived in the vicinity of the town of Ḥnn [... ...] 8 and sent to Krbʾl Byn an embassy with peaceful declarations; but Krbʾl [Byn and ... ...] proceeded to return 9 a negative answer, rejecting to resume peaceful relations with him, because of the events that occurred in the city of Mryb, and 10 the king of Ḥaḍramawt sent to Krbʾl Byn, from the territory of the town of Ḥnn, messengers to persuade him to send 11 him some Sabaeans and ʾqwln, for the events that prevented to the king of Ḥaḍramawt to have diplomatic relations with 12 the king of Sabaʾ; and Krbʾl Byn sent his servant Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and with him three 13 hundred soldiers from the tribe S¹mhrm, and then they arrived to the king of Ḥaḍramawt in the vicinity of Ḥnn, and they 14 gave Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, to the king of Ḥaḍramawt, in answer (compensation) for the events reported by him (declared as his responsibility), as he had been charged (to do) 15 by their lord Krbʾl Byn; and then the king of Ḥaḍramawt saw that they were not his responsability those events 16 reported (or, those events to be blamed) against the persons of the men who had returned from Mryb to the vicinity of Ḥnn; and he allowed to dismiss 17 Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and the men who were with him. And they returned to their lord Krbʾl Byn in 18 the city of Mryb in safety. Yet at that very same time, the king of Ḥaḍramawt and his 19 army started a campaign into the district of Yṯl, while Krbʾl Byn and his army feared their aggression from the town of Mryb 20 to the region of Ḥnn; (the Ḥaḍramis) penetrated into the territory of the the town of Yṯl, but the officers whom (the Sabaean king) had established 21 within that town of Yṯl made them temporize and the Ḥaḍramis encamped there. And from Yṯl, the king of the Ḥaḍramawt and all his army 22 marched towards the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n; but their people, the lords of these towns, and the garrison, that the king 23 of Sabaʾ had ordered to defend those towns, fought them off. Then Krbʾl Byn ordered his servant Ns²ʾkrb, 24 of the family Grt, and, together with him, S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army and the cavalry from the troops of the king of Sabaʾ to go to help 25 into the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n. When the king of Ḥaḍramawt got news of this relief force, 26 he retired - the king of Ḥaḍramawt and all his army - from the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n. And a spy came to them 27 in Yṯl (with the information that) Krbʾl Byn and the army with him were on the march against them from Mryb, while 28 his servants Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army with them (were marching) from the town of Ns²qm; so 29 the king of Ḥaḍramawt feared that the two armies would converge against him in the town of Yṯl; so he abandoned the town of Yṯl and 30 retired into the territory of the town of Ḥnn. And their lord Krbʾl Byn, king of Sabaʾ and du- 31 Raydān, and the soldiers who had been summoned with him in the town of Mryb did battle with them; and the king of Ḥaḍramawt and all his army retired from the territory of 32 Ḥnn in defeat and rout, and marched to the temple of Yġrw, and Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, 33 and S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army with them came back from Ns²qm to the town of Mryb to 34 arrive at a confrontation with the king of Ḥaḍramawt, but the king of Ḥaḍramawt and all his army retired again from the temple of 35 Yġrw into the territory of the town of Ḥnn, and a pitched battle was fought against them by their lord Krbʾl Byn, 36 king of Sabaʾ and du-Raydān, son of Ḏmrʿly Ḏrḥ, and his servant Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt [... ...] |
| Beeston gives the translation of ll. 4-18 (Beeston 1985 a) and ll. 18-36 (1976 b), which - according to him - are followed by the lines of Ja 643 bis. | |
| 8-14 | See Ryckmans 1967: 511, fn. 13, for a French translation of ll. 8-14. |
| 10 | According to Beeston, ḫlfn is a noun of the pattern fʿln “?magistrates?” (see also Beeston 1980 a: 19) and qnʿm an adverbial form. We prefer a concrete sense: qnʿm as “persuader, messenger who persuades”, probably a collective. As for ḫlf-n (also in l. 31-32), it is the preposition ḫlf plus the ablative suffix -n (cf. Stein 2003 a: 237-238 and fn. 231). |
| Ryckmans, Jacques 1967: 511 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1967. Le texte Sharafaddin, Yemen, p. 44, bas, droit [Appendix to: von Wissmann, Hermann 1967. Zur Kenntnis von Ostarabien, besonders al-Qaṭīf, im Altertum]. Le Muséon, 80: 508-512. |
| Beeston 1976 b: 45-47 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1976. Warfare in ancient South Arabian (2nd.-3rd. centuries A.D.). Qahtan. Studies in Old Arabian Epigraphy. 3. London: Luzac and Co. |
| Beeston 1980 a: 19 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1980. Studies in Sabaic Lexicography II. Raydān, 3: 17-26. |
| Beeston 1985 a: 112-113 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1985. A Sabaeo-Hadramite 'incident'. Pages 109-114 in Christian J. Robin (ed.). Mélanges linguistiques offerts à Maxime Rodinson par ses élèves, ses collègues et ses amis. (Comptes rendus du Groupe linguistique d'études chamito-sémitiques. Supplément, 12). Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner. |
| Stein 2003 a: 238, fn. 231 | 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. |
| Support type | Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription |
| Material | Stone |
| Measures | h. 117.7, w. 50.6, th. 45.8 |
| Link to object record |
| 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 |
| Jamme 1962 a: 142-144 | 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. |
| Sharafaddīn 1967: iii, 62-65 | Sharafaddīn, Aḥmad H. 1967. Taʾrīḫ al-Yaman al-ṯaqāfī. Cairo. |
| Beeston 1976 b: 45-47 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1976. Warfare in ancient South Arabian (2nd.-3rd. centuries A.D.). Qahtan. Studies in Old Arabian Epigraphy. 3. London: Luzac and Co. |
| Beeston 1976 a: 413-414 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1976. Notes on Old South Arabian lexicography X. Le Muséon, 89: 407-423. |
| ʿInān 1976: 332-336 | ʿInān, Zaid b. ʿA 1976. Taʾriḫ ḥaḍāra al-Yaman al-qadīm. Cairo. |
| Beeston 1985 a: 109-114 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1985. A Sabaeo-Hadramite 'incident'. Pages 109-114 in Christian J. Robin (ed.). Mélanges linguistiques offerts à Maxime Rodinson par ses élèves, ses collègues et ses amis. (Comptes rendus du Groupe linguistique d'études chamito-sémitiques. Supplément, 12). Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner. |
| Stein 2003 a: 218 | 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. |