Corpus of Ancient South Arabian minuscule texts
This corpus in CSAI comprises about 40 minuscule texts out of some hundreds that have been published to date. The “minuscule” register of ASA writing derives from the "monumental" writing. It features more cursive shapes of the letters – though these are never linked by ligatures – facilitated by the practice of handwriting on soft materials, mainly wooden sticks. A few minuscule texts on waxed tablets, rock or stone are known as well.
Learn more »This typology of writing is also called zabūr, a term borrowed by the Arab-Islamic tradition that mentioned such kinds of documents – based on the Sabaic verb zbr “to write” – and opposed to musnad – based on the terms ms³nd “inscription” – for the monumental register.
The first two documents were discovered at the beginning of the 1970s, during clandestine excavations in as-Sawdāʾ (Yemeni Jawf). The scholar Mahmoud al-Ghul was the first to partially decipher these new documents. During the following years this work was continued by Y. Abdallah, J. Ryckmans, A. Drewes, W. Müller, P. Stein and M. Maraqten, who published several collections of sticks held in European and Yemeni libraries and museums.
Most part of the known documents come from the Jawf region, especially from an archive in as-Sawdāʾ, and are in Sabaic, Amiritic and Minaic. Few examples come from Ḥaḍramawt. They cover the entire chronological span of the South Arabian history until the 6th century CE. Radio-carbon dating suggests that the earliest specimina date from the 10th century BCE.
The already published texts contain correspondence, legal and economic documents such as contracts between private individuals, as well as writing exercises and records from religious practice. They reveal the vocabulary used in daily life, but they also help in obtaining a more complete frame of the South Arabian language, revealing grammatical forms unattested before such as first and second person pronouns and verbs.
The first two documents were discovered at the beginning of the 1970s, during clandestine excavations in as-Sawdāʾ (Yemeni Jawf). The scholar Mahmoud al-Ghul was the first to partially decipher these new documents. During the following years this work was continued by Y. Abdallah, J. Ryckmans, A. Drewes, W. Müller, P. Stein and M. Maraqten, who published several collections of sticks held in European and Yemeni libraries and museums.
Most part of the known documents come from the Jawf region, especially from an archive in as-Sawdāʾ, and are in Sabaic, Amiritic and Minaic. Few examples come from Ḥaḍramawt. They cover the entire chronological span of the South Arabian history until the 6th century CE. Radio-carbon dating suggests that the earliest specimina date from the 10th century BCE.
The already published texts contain correspondence, legal and economic documents such as contracts between private individuals, as well as writing exercises and records from religious practice. They reveal the vocabulary used in daily life, but they also help in obtaining a more complete frame of the South Arabian language, revealing grammatical forms unattested before such as first and second person pronouns and verbs.