| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic | ||
| Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Writing technique | Incision | ||
| Measure of letters | 2 ca. | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
| 17-18 | Jamme: h[bʿl]n or h[s¹ḥt]n. |
| 15 | ys¹bʾ is at the singular, as in ll. 19 and 23, but in the latter cases the verb is followed by the subject Ẓbym. In l. 15, ys¹bʾ may be a scribal or transcription error for ys¹bʾw, because also the coordinated verb ytqdmw is at the plural. |
| 24 | Beeston (1976 b: 42) suggests ṯ(l)ṯ instead of ṯny (Jamme's original copy was ṯnṯ, then emendated to ṯny). |
| English | |
1 [Ẓbym Yrzḥ ... ...] 2 [... ...] dedicated to ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, 3 the statue in bronze, in praise because He granted and vouchsafed 4 and helped their lords ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother Yʾzl 5 Byn, kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, sons of Frʿm Ynhb, king of 6 Sabaʾ, in the defeat, destruction and capitulation of the tribes and armies of Ḥimyar, and so 7 their lords returned in safety and with glory and what satisfies them 8 from all the campaigns and confrontations which they undertook and engaged against 9 Krbʾl ḏu-Raydān and the armies of Ḥimyar; may ʾlmqh continue 10 to protect and to take under His protection the persons of their two lords, and in praise 11 because ʾlmqh granted His servant Ẓbym Yrzḥ a return 12 in safety and with spoils, captives, loot and booty from all the campaigns and 13 confrontations in which they did service to their two lords, and in all the campaigns and 14 raids and battles which they undertook and in which they engaged as their two lords ordered them 15 in the land of Ḥimyar, and he (or, they ?) participated in one raiding with forty 16 men in the vicinity of S¹rʿn, and they confronted four 17 hundred soldiers of Ḥimyar, and ʾlmqh favoured them with 18 the seizing (?) and the defeating of those Ḥimyarites, of whom they killed twenty-seven 19 who had surrendered, and after that Ẓbym undertook a raid with fifty 20 men in the vicinity of S¹rʿn and confronted the tribe of Qs²mm, and 21 ʾlmqh saved and granted them to kill ʾlʿz ḏ-Rbḥm and some 22 of his soldiers - fifty-one killed in combat - and they seized their riding camels and 23 baggage-train of which they allotted a quarter-share to their two lords, and after that Ẓbym went on 24 a third (?) expedition in order to humiliate [... ...] |
| Support type | Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription |
| Material | Stone |
| Link to object record |
| 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 |
| Jamme 1962 a: 93-94 | 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: 41-42 | 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. |
| Nebes 1995 a: 41, 44-45 | Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. |