Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Early Sabaic | ||
Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
Writing technique | Incision | ||
Chronology |
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Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
This text is Sabaic, but the verb of dedication is the Madhabaic s³lʾ. |
1 | Halévy read Ḥybṣm, but cf. ll. 21-22; the correction Ḥnbṣm has been proposed by CIH. |
2 | The conjunction between the two names was not recorded in the copy by Halévy. |
4 | We do not know whether the object of the dedication (ʿṯt) is the pillar or a person. |
6 | Halévy read hbḏ, but cf. the record of the same events in RES 3945/14: w-gbḏ ʿs²r w-Byḥn w-kl ʾḏbh-hw. |
11-12 | It is not clear whether Ṣdqn, Yʿd and Fnwn are toponyms or names of buildings. The masculine suffix pronoun -hw should not refer to the word hgrn, that is feminine. Note that in Haram 24/2, Yʿd and Fnwn are probably buildings, as they are the object of the verb bny. |
19 | Fys²n seems to be a local toponym (the name of the cultivated land), but Robin suggests that this is a reference to the Sabaean tribe (see Robin 1992 a, 59: "il se pourrait que cela signifie l'établissement de colons sabéens à Haram"). |
English | |
1 Ḥnbṣm son of Ḥlwm, 2 father of Ntnm and Ṣdqyfʿ, 3 of the clan Nʿmn, dedicated 4 to Mtbnṭyn ʿṯt, when 5 Yḏmrmlk charged him 6 with the campaign against Awsān and the campaign of plundering 7 of the oasis of Nashshān, and he was governor in 8 Nashshān for two years until Krbʾl 9 required Nashshān from them and 10 destroyed it, and took in the city [... ...] 11 and its constructions and Ṣdqn 12 and Yʿd and Fnwn and 13 its constructions, and took its ditch (?) 14 Ḍfw and took in the two oasis 15 Qtbt and ḏ-Ḥqr [... ...] 16 and Qhd and in S¹ybn 17 the irrigated land (or, the half) of ḏ-Ḫlwkl in 18 ʾḥgwn - field (?) of a hundred measures (?) -, 19 and he cultivated Fys²n in measures (?), 20 and he excavated Tġl and Yḏmrmlk granted it 21 as a ditch (?) to Ḥnbṣm, 22 and he made a sacrifice for ḏ-Qbḍ 23 and Wdm twice, by the command of 24 ʾlmqh and Mtbnṭyn and 25 Yḏmrmlk and by Bʿṯtr and by 26 Haram and ʾlmnbṭ and his son, 27 and he made pay the tithe of what he made him inherit (?). |
7 | It is not clear whether the subject is still Yḏmrmlk and ʿqb is governed by the verb hqdm, "and (Yḏmrmlk appointed him) governor in Nashshān", or here a new sentence starts whose subject is the dedicant of the inscription. |
11, 13 | The word ḫṭb refers to a part of a building (Beeston et al. 1982: "lower storey"). |
13, 21 | For the meaning of nwy, see Avanzini 1995: 97 ("retaining ditch"), with a reference to Müller, Walter W. 1962: 108. Robin translates "domaine octroyé" (Ar. nawà "conserver"). |
17 | fqḥ means "exploit land by irrigation" or "half". |
19 | "et il multiplia les parcelles pour Fys²n" (Robin). The SD gives a different meaning for wfd: "cultivate". |
26-27 | "Il décupla (?) ce dont il hérita" (Robin). It is not clear who is the subject of this sentence. It could be the author of the text, who pays the thite on his concessions. It remains unclear who are "ʾlmnbṭ and his son" and which role they play: we know that the name ʾlmnbṭ was typical of the royal dynasty of Nashshān. |
Avanzini 1995 | Avanzini, Alessandra 1995. As-Sawdāʾ. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. 4. Paris: de Boccard / Rome: Herder. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente] |
Beeston et al. 1982 (=SD) | Beeston, Alfred F.L., al-Ghūl, Maḥmūd ʿA., Müller, Walter W. and Ryckmans, Jacques 1982. Sabaic Dictionary (English-French-Arabic). Dictionnaire Sabéen (anglais-français-arabe). Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions Peeters / Beirut: Libraire du Liban. |
Support type | Inscription on architectural structure » Pillar |
Material | Stone |
Measures | h. 260, w. 55, th. 25 |
Link to object record |
Modern site | Kharibat Hamdān |
Ancient site | Hrm |
Geographical area | Jawf - Wādī Madhab |
Country | Yemen |
Found | In situ |
Archaeological context | Religious context: Temple of Mtbnṭyn |
Notes | When the inscriptions of the extra muros temple were recorded by Halévy, they were in situ; they disappeared after his visit. For the reconstruction of the position of the pillars in the temple, see Robin 1992 a: 19, fig. 1. The temple was originally called Hdnn. |
Link to site record |
Robin 1992 a: 82-85 | Robin, Christian J. 1992. Inabbaʾ, Haram, al-Kāfir, Kamna et al-Ḥarāshif. Fasc. A: Les documents. Fasc. B: Les planches. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. 1. Paris: de Boccard / Rome: Herder. [Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; Istituto italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente] |