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

Ja 616
Jamme 1962 a: pl. 12
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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

13-14

Beeston 1976 b: 30: tʾ[d]mw.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Whbʾwm Yʾḏf and his brother Ydm Ydrm and his sons
   2  Ḥmʿṯt ʾzʾd and ʾbkrb ʾs¹ʿd and S¹ḫymm Yzʾn,
   3  of the family S¹ḫymm, owners of the house Rymn, ʾqwl of the tribe Yrs¹m of
   4  S¹mʿy, the third of Hgrm, mqtt of Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of
   5  Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn, kings of
   6  Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, dedicated to their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm,
   7  this statue in bronze in praise because he fulfilled His servants Ḥmʿṯt
   8  ʾzʾd and ʾbkrb ʾs¹ʿd, of the family S¹ḫymm, in all the favours and requests
   9  and oracles they sought and requested and asked for from Him when
  10  their lord Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of Sabaʾ
  11  and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn, kings of Sabaʾ
  12  and ḏu-Raydān, ordered them to go on an expedition and save the tribes and the nomads of Ḫwln Gddm and they
  13  praised the might and the power of their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because
  14  all the tribes and the nomads of Ḫwln Gddm assembled and submitted (?) and they brought back all
  15  their free men as hostages (?) and rounded them up (?) and all those whom their lord
  16  Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, ordered them (to round up?) towards
  17  Ṣnʿw and in that very rescue operation they sent their scouts to enter for them into
  18  S¹hrtn and their scouts reported to them in the town of Rḥbmm of
  19  the land of Ḫwln that indeed the tribes of Dwʾt were well-disposed towards them, and in the very
  20  day in which their scouts made the reports to them, (the tribes of Dwʾt) came to grips with their contingent and wiped out
  21  their foraging party (?) and their contingent regrouped (numbering) twenty-six horsemen and three
  22  hundred men from their tribe Yrs¹m and from the guard of the king
  23  and those from Ḫwln and they conducted a raid in the morning and waged war on the nomads of Dwʾt,
  24  namely the nomad group of ʾbʾs¹,ʾydʿn, Ḥkmm, Ḥdlnt (or, Ḥdgnt), Ġmdm,
  25  Khlm, ʾhlny, Gdlt, S¹bs¹m, Ḥrmm, Ḥgr Lmd,
  26  ʾwmm and Rḍḥtn from Ḥrt and they waged war in the plain of the valleys
  27   of Bʾrn, Ḫlb and Tdḥn, and they praised the might and the power of their lord
  28  ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because He granted them that they and
  29  their horsemen and their contingent returned in safety and glory and success and with spoils
  30  and civil prisoners and killings and war prisoners and booty and loot in abundance
  31  and that satisfy them; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn,
  32  Lord of ʾwm, continue to fulfill and protect His servants, the family S¹ḫymm, in all
  33  the favours and requests and oracles they will continue to seek and request and ask for from Him and may their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn,
  34  Lord of ʾwm, grant them the goodwill and the satisfaction of their lord Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb,
  35  king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn,
  36  kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, and soundness of faculties and material resources and abundance of
  37  crops, and may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, deliver them from any evil
  38  and mischief and from the malice and the maleficence and the slander and the subjection of any enemy, the one far
  39  or near, the one they are aware of and the one they are not aware of. By ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm.

	Translation in French by Robin 2014: 192-194.
14-16	Beeston 1976 b: 29: "because in their military service [conjecturing tʾ[d]mw] they reduced to submission the communes and nomad tribes of the Greater Khawlān and brought back all their free men as hostages and rounded these up into Ṣanʿā along with all such others as were included in the king's orders". In this translation, Beeston accepts Ryckmans's suggestion (1974: 248, fn. 2) of interpreting qtḍn on the basis of "Ar. qāḍa 'défaire, démanteler', qui signifie à la 5° forme 'mettre en déroute' et à la 7° 'être mis en déroute'". Before, he had interpreted the sentence with a positive meaning (Beeston 1972 a: 453): "Ar. iqtaḍā 'require, demand': the Ḫawlān 'assembled and were called up for military duty'". This is the sense that Jamme had proposed (1962 a: 115: "because have joined and settled down all the tribes and groups of Ḫawlān Gaddum, and they brought back all their freemen [as] firm pledges and their fullers and all those [whom] has ordered them their lord ..."). He later defended this sense in Jamme 1988: 301-307: the Ḫwln Gddm were not enemies but allies. Stein 2003 a: 192: "dafür, daß sie (sc. die Stifter) zusammenkamen und alle Stämme und Abteilungen von ḪWLN GDDM unterwarfen". Robin 2014: 193: "parce qu'ils ont réuni et contraint à se soumettre toutes les communes et les tribus de Khawlān Gudādum et ont ramené tous leurs hommes libres comme garants et ils les ont retenus, ainsi que tous ceux que leur avait ordonné (de retenir) leur seigneur".
18	ṯhb: Beeston 1976 a: 413-414: "in all the occurrences the verb has a direct personal object [...] the sense in all contexts is "to return an answer to (someone) [...] hṯb also has the general sense of "return" [...] I would not be so categorical as Jamme is in rejecting the possibility of a metathesis".
20	nzʿw gys²-hmw: "hatte ihren Truppe Feindberührung" (Nebes 1995: 228).
22	nẓr: Beeston 1975 a: 195-196: "some kind of royal official(s)" (cf. nṣr in Ja 647), probably "palace official".He discusses the meaning also in Beeston 1981: 69-71. Robin 2014: 193: "de la garde du roi".

Jamme 1962 a: 115	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.
Beeston 1972 a: 453	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1972. Notes on old South Arabian lexicography VII. Le Muséon, 85: 535-544.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1974: 248, fn. 2	Ryckmans, Jacques 1974. Himyaritica 3. Le Muséon, 87: 237-263.
Beeston 1975 a: 195-196	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1975. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography IX. Le Muséon, 88: 187-198.
Beeston 1976 a: 413-414	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1976. Notes on Old South Arabian lexicography X. Le Muséon, 89: 407-423.
Beeston 1976 b: 29-30	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 1981 c: 69-71	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1981. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography XII. Le Muséon, 94: 55-73.
Jamme 1988: 301-307	Jamme, Albert W.F. 1988. Miscellanées d'ancient arabe XVI. Washington. 2025/04/17; https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.38250299. [Privately printed]
Nebes 1995 a: 228	Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Stein 2003 a: 192	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.
Robin 2014: 192-194	Robin, Christian J. 2014. Sabaʾ et la Khawlān du Nord (Khawlān Gudādān): l'organisation et la gestion des conquêtes par les royaumes d'Arabie méridionale. Pages 156-203 in Alexander V. Sedov (ed.). Arabian and Islamic studies. A collection of papers in honour of Mikhail Borishovich Piotrovskij on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Moskow.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 1.26, w. 45.5, th. 32.8
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: 113-117, pl. 12	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.
Beeston 1976 b: 29-30	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.
Robin 2014: 191-194	Robin, Christian J. 2014. Sabaʾ et la Khawlān du Nord (Khawlān Gudādān): l'organisation et la gestion des conquêtes par les royaumes d'Arabie méridionale. Pages 156-203 in Alexander V. Sedov (ed.). Arabian and Islamic studies. A collection of papers in honour of Mikhail Borishovich Piotrovskij on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Moskow.