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

By kind permission of GOAM

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Qatabanic » Central Qatabanic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Measure of letters

3.2

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Legal text

Royal inscription

Yes

TEXT

Apparatus

	The letters ḫ are reversed.
1-2	we can integrate: [s¹ḥr]m
3-4	The editors: ʾḫh-; the last y in ʾḫh(y)- is probable (see Mazzini 2020: 182, n. 102).

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Hwfʿm Yhnʿm son of ʾnmrm, king of Qatabān [decreed]
   2  and gave the propriety to his two servants Tbʿm, he of ʿmʾl and of ʿmʿ-
   3  ly, and to ʾbkrb son of Rtʿ of the family ʿs³bm, and to the brothers
   4  of them both and to their sons and their successors, of their houses Y-
   5  fʿn and Yʿd and all their lower rooms and their upper rooms, those
   6  in (Ḫ)ms¹, which are (present) in the city of Mrymtm, those near
   7  Ṣnqn: the house of Whbʾl S¹flyn the eastern one; and near
   8  Ṣnqn: the house of ḏ-Ḥmym, the southern one; and near Ṣnqn: the house of
   9  [..]wn son of Bʿn, the western one; and near the houses of he of Ḫs²n and
  10  of the family ʾs²s², the northern one. Let these houses, their lower rooms
  11  and their upper rooms be indeed as a legal property, as they were the houses to which
  12  the kings of Qatabān decreed and gave the propriety in their two cities Mrymtm and Hrbt. Let
  13  be interdicted for everyone who uses them for rural estate (?), for
  14  permanent residence, and for the end (as a tomb ?) or who plunders, or ruins or causes damage
  15  or submission (?) within these houses; and every female and
  16  male servant, who may have raised problems, committed a sin, or caused damage,
  17  let these people be interdicted; that was (established) as an order and (a decree of) legal property. He
  18  who contravenes against this land concession, he must assign his life
  19  and his property to the king and to these men, the lords of
  20  these houses; and the king Hwfʿm gave his protection and garanteed for these lords
  21  what he fulfilled for them and granted them according to this concession and this
  22  legal property document, and this land concession is effective for ever.
  23  Hwfʿm ordered for these men to write and engrave
  24  this concession on stone or wood on the façade relating
  25  these houses, in the month ḏ-Rbs² in the year of ʿmḏḫr ḏ-
  26  Mḥḍrm the latter; and Hwfʿm signed.

15-16

"within these houses and (among) all the servants and the properties/cattle, or who may have raised problems (he of the fault), or committed a sin (they of the sin), or caused damage (they of the damage), let (all these people) be interdicted".

OBJECT INFORMATION

Deposit	ʿAtaq, Museum, ATM 866
Support type	Stone inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 110, w. 45, th. 7.5
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	Ḥinū az-Zurayr
Ancient site	Hrbt
Geographical area	Wādī Ḥarīb
Country	Yemen
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arbach, Bāṭāyiʿ and al-Zubaydī 2013: 59-66, figs. 91 (10 A, B, C, D)	Arbach, Mounir, Bāṭāyiʿ, Aḥmed and al-Zubaydī, Khayrān 2013. Nuqūš qatbāniyya ǧadīda (3). Raydān, 8: 49-103.
al-Ḥasanī 2015: 289-290	al-Ḥasanī, Jamāl Muḥammad Nāṣir 2015. Naṣṣ qānūnī li-malik Qatabānī yuḏkar li-ʾawwal marra. majallat ḥawlīyat kullīyat al-ʾādāb, 11-12: 287-322.
Mazzini 2020: 182, n. 102	Mazzini, Giovanni 2020. The Ancient South Arabian royal edicts from the Southern Gate of Timnaʿ and the Ǧabal Labaḫ. (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 8).