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

Jamme 1962 a: pl. 19
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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

Measure of letters

2.4 (max.); 1.5 (min.)

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text

TEXT

Apparatus

4	Jamme in the text writes: ʾtwn, but in the commentary writes ʾwtn.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Rbtnf Yẓfr and Zydm
   2  ʾwlṭ and ʾs¹ʿd ʾkf and
   3  their son ʿbdʾwm, of the family ʿblm
   4  and Qtrn ʾwtn, dedicated to
   5  their lord ʾlmqh, Lord of ʾwm,
   6  the statue and the plinth in silver
   7  whose weight is a ʿs¹y, and a statue in
   8  bronze, because a male son was born to them,
   9  and they promised to
  10  ʾlmqh that if there should be born a son to them
  11  and (if he should) live, they would have dedicated
  12  a statue and a plinth in silver and
  13  a statue in bronze, and they would make an offering
  14  of two bulls in Klwnm, and their wifes and their sons
  15  would perform pilgrimage
  16  in the temple, and they would praise the might
  17  of ʾlmqh; and may He continue to grant them children.
  18  And because Yḥmd encroached upon
  19  their land and he came to blows with their children
  20  and he died at the hand of one of them; and there
  21  proclaimed against them their lord ʾs¹ʿd and he rejected
  22  the explanation; and they promised that if He
  23  save their brother from that affair, then
  24   they would dedicate and make an offering of two bulls in Klwn;
  25  and now He has saved them from that
  26  affair. May He grant them the favour and the goodwill
  27  of their lord Ṯʾrn Yhnʿm and his son
  28  Mlkkrb, the two kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān
  29  and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt. By ʾlmqh.

6-8	Beeston 1981 c translates: " two statues with a plinth in silver - the weight of the two statues being one ʿs¹y, and also one statue in bronze". Jamme translates ms³dm "an inscription".
8-26	A better translation is proposed by Mazzini 2020: 46 ' and because Yḥmd trespassed their territory and came to blows with their children and he died at the hand of one of them and he was condemned by their master ʾs¹ʿd, having the latter refused to resort to the compensation; then they promised that if He saved their fellow clansmen from that affair (judicial action) they would dedicate and sacrifice the bull as a conciliatory offering so accordingly He saved them from that affair'.
13	Jamme 1962: 175 translates the verb yhs³lnn as "and they would drive".
14-15	hwfrnn is translated by Jamme "they would increase"; Ryckmans J. 1968/1972: 380, n. 3 "they would cut their hair" (rite propitiatoire de sacrifice de la chevelure).
20-21	w-ḏmr b-ʿm-hmw: Jamme 1962: 175 translates "and condemned them publicly" but the actual meaning of the verb is "to proclaime" without this specification (Irvine 1967: 285, Ryckmans J. 1966: 495).

Jamme 1962 a: 175	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.
Irvine 1967: 285	Irvine, Arthur K. 1967. Homicide in pre-Islamic South Arabia. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30: 277-291.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1966: 495	Ryckmans, Jacques 1966. Himyaritica 2. Le Muséon, 79: 475-500.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1968/1972: 380, n. 3	Ryckmans, Jacques 1968/1972. Un rite d'istisqâʾ au temple sabéen de Mârib. Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves, 20: 379-388.
Beeston 1981 c: 64-65	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1981. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography XII. Le Muséon, 94: 55-73.
Mazzini 2020: 46	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).

OBJECT INFORMATION

Deposit	Mārib
Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	th. 16.5
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 bʿl ʾwm
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jamme 1962 a: 174-175, pl. 19	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.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1966: 495-496	Ryckmans, Jacques 1966. Himyaritica 2. Le Muséon, 79: 475-500.
Irvine 1967: 284-286, 291-292	Irvine, Arthur K. 1967. Homicide in pre-Islamic South Arabia. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 30: 277-291.
Beeston 1981 c: 64-65	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1981. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography XII. Le Muséon, 94: 55-73.
Bron 1985 a: 135-136	Bron, François 1985. Sur une locution conjonctive en araméen et en sabéen. Pages 133-136 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.
Jamme 1995: 158-162	Jamme, Albert W.F. 1995. Miscellanées d'ancient arabe XVIII. Washington. 2019/07/23; https://cuislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/cuislandora%3A201608#page/1/mode/1up. [Privately printed]
Nebes 1995 a: 48	Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.