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

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Southern Middle Sabaic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Chronology

Period	D
Date	179 Radm=363 Ḥim

Textual typology

Dedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

The typology of the text is peculiar; instead of the usual verb "to dedicate" to a god, here we have the verbs: hgl, s¹ṭr.

TEXT

Apparatus

2	Robin reads hll instead of hgl.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Lḥyʿt ʾwkn, son of Yʿzz ibn Mʿhr and ḏ-Ḫwln and Ḥẓyn ibn Klʿn, ḏ-Btʿn, and Rymn, qyl of the tribe Rdmn and Ḫwln, those who wield power upon the tribe
   2  Ḏbḥn made known and wrote this inscription in the temple of his Solar deity ʿlyt, the Lady of the citadel S²ḥrrm, because Her servant Lḥyʿt ʾwkn expressed
   3  gratitude for Her aid (for Her praise); in fact, She let him return and saved him from the plain of Ḥurma, when their lord Krbʾl ʾyfʿ, king of Sabaʾ
   4  and ḏu-Raydān and his army, army of Ḥimyar, attacked the enemies against ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb, king of Sabaʾ and his army, army of Sabaʾ, and they fought and met in battle the king,
   5  from dawn to the end of the day, in the plain of Ḥurma. From there they came back with spoils and victims, men and horses killed in the battle and alive;
   6  among them: Yḥmd ibn Mrṯdm and his horse, qyl of the tribe of Bklm ḏ-ʿmrn, and among them: S¹ʿdʾlw ibn Qdmn, he brought back alive his horse Yr-
   7  ḫm and all its harness, completely and all its equipment; among them also a maqtawi of Hamdān with the horse, that he mounted in the campaign
   8  and he brought back it alive; without speaking of the wounded: men, stud horses and foot soldiers; as well as a certain number of destructions, made by the armed forces of Ḥimyar, under his command.
   9  After this victory, the king of Sabaʾ with his army came back three times, but then he came back in his country and their lord Krbʾl
  10  ʾyfʿ and his army, army of Ḥimyar, stayed there as long as they liked. From there they came back to the town of Hakir with booty: men
  11  and horses alive and dead. Lḥyʿt ʾwkn wrote this inscription, as a fulfilment of a vow - about the exploit and the place in which the attack and the carnages occurred -
  12  made before this day. Never he came back disappointed and without spoils of killed enemies, trophies, war takings, but with spear heads, shields,
  13  bows, jewels - of gold, silver and brass - and ribbons, all that the Abyssinians have used knoting on their heads. And She granted them
  14  their harvest. This mission was excellent and sure in the month Mḏrʾn of the year 179 of the era of ʾbʿly, son of Rtʿ,
  15  and of era of Ḥimyar, the year 363 of Mbḥḍ, son of ʾbḥḍ.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Rock inscription
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	al-Miʿsāl
Ancient site	Wʿln
Geographical area	al-Bayḍāʾ
Country	Yemen
Found	In situ
Link to site record

CULTURAL NOTES

History

Also Ja 578, from the temple of Maḥrām Bilqīs, told the battle in the plain of Ḥurma. Either the Sabaean king or the Ḥimyarite king state themselves as the winners. The date of the text gives us a synchronism between the Radmanite era and the Ḥmyarite one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robin 1981 b: 315-339, fig. 9	Robin, Christian J. 1981. Les inscriptions d'al-Miʿsāl et la chronologie de l'Arabie méridionale au IIIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres: 315-338.
Müller, Walter W. 2010: 25-27	Müller, Walter W. 2010. Sabäische Inschriften nach Ären datiert. Bibliographie, Texte und Glossar. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 53). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.