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

Robin and Gajda 1994: pl. 50
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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	470 Ḥim (Ybḥḍ bn ʾbḥḍ)

Textual typology

Commemorative text

GENERAL NOTES

The name ʿbdn in the text seems to indicate a territory (ll. 34 and 35), but it is also a city (l. 32), probably to be identified with the modern Niṣāb. The inscription is dated according to the Ḥimyarite era: Ybḥḍ bn ʾbḥḍ stays for Mbḥḍ bn ʾbḥḍ.

TEXT

Apparatus

	Large portions of the text, at the top and in the middle, are not readable, due to the uneven surface of the stone. The text, with its 44 lines, is one of the longest south Arabian inscription.
1	Mrṯdm ʾmrr in Ḥabtūr 3, 1.
2	probably to be read S²rḥbʾl ʾ(zʾd); the editors integrate ʾqwl [s²ʿbn Ms²rqn].
24, 26	For Ṯʾrn ʾyfʿ and Ḏmrʿly ʾyfʿ as kings, see the cultural notes.

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Mls²n ʾrym and his sons Ḫwlym Yzd and S²rḥbʾl ʾm[.]r and Mʿdkrb [... ...] and Mrṯdm ʾm[..] sons of Mls²n and Brlm Ymgd and Ḫwlym Yzd
   2  and S²rḥbʾl ʾ[..] sons of Mʿdkrb of (the lineage of) Yzʾn and Ylġb and Kbrn ʾqwl of the tribes Ms²rqn et Ḍyftn, have engraved and consigned in this inscription all of the
   3  great deeds and hunting expeditions [... ...], farm estates (?) belonging to the palaces, dams (?), small weirs (?), fields laid out in terraces [... ...] plantations of vines, whatever were their great deeds and hunting exploits that they accomplished; they accomplished all of the great deed that they have
   4  consigned in this inscription [... ...] Mls²n departed on an expedition where his son participated in combat for the first time with him [... ...] Ḫwlym killed a man and captured a man; they took as spoils captives and cattle in
   5  abundance. Then, Ḫwylm departed on an expedition in the S¹hrtn with the king Ṯʾrn Ynʿm and killed two men; they took as spoils captives and cattle in abundance. Then, Ḫwlym departed on an expedition in which participated in combat for the first time with him his brother
   6  S²rḥbʾl [... ...]; Ḫwlym killed a man, S²rḥbʾl captured a man and they took as spoils captives and camels (?) in abundance. Then departed on an expedition Mls²n and his sons Ḫwlym
   7  and S²rḥbʾl toward the Land of [... ...] and the bedouins of Ḥaḍramawt [... ...] and of the land of Mhrt, against [... ...]; they arrived in Ybrn and, from Ybrn,
   8  [... ...] the Arabs [... ...] they reassembled and returned
   9  [... ...] they took as spoils all the camels of the lords of Ṣdyn S¹nytn and the tower Zfd[... ...]
  10  [... ...] they returned to the stronghold of ʿbdn the seventh month. Then Mls²n, Ḫwlym and S²rḥbʾl departed on an expedition
  11  in which Mʿdkrb participated in combat for the first time with them [... ...] Mhrt and they fought against Tġmʾ; all the qayls took part in the massacre (?); their noblemen and their tribe captured, massacred and vanquished seventy-two (warriors) in combat and three hundred cap-
  12  tives [... ...] Ḫwlym, S²rḥbʾl and Mʿdkrb departed on an expedition, in which their brother Mrṯdm participated in combat for the first time with them and
  13  [... ...] and Mrdm, Ms²rqn, Ḍyftn and the bedouins of Ḥaḍramawt, of whom the Yazʾanides took the lead in the vanguard
  14  [... ...] Ḫwlym captured Ṯʿlbt son of S³llm, chief of d'ʾyḏm; killed and vanquished his brothers
  15  all the [... ...] and they took as spoils [... ...] captives as well as two thousand five hundred camels; they seized and killed nine
  16  horses [... ...] Mrṯdm with the king Ṯʾrn Ynʿm in the land of ʾs¹dn; they fought Ṣdyn
  17  and Rs¹n and killed [... ...] Ḫwlym and his brothers, sons of Mls²n, against Gwn and Ḫrgn; they took the head of
  18  their tribe and the citizens of Mrb [... ...] S²ddm and Ḫwln ḏ-Ḥbb and their tribe, the citizens of Ms²rqn and of Ḍyf-
  19  tn; their entire army was in the vanguard [... ...] and three hundred horsemen; they waged war against the valiant Ḫrgt and some nomadic groups from Mʿdm; did
  20  kill and vanquish their noblemen and their army [... ...] and one hundred captives; they took as spoils three thousand two hundred camels
  21  and seized and killed twenty-five horses. Then, departing on an expedition and [... ...] and his brothers, sons of Mls²n, with their tribe, the citizens of Ms²rqn and Ḍyftn, against Mhrt,
  22  two campaigns, where they avenged themselves against Wʾlm son of [... ...] Ḥbrt, Q[..]m, ʿynm, Dmqt, ʾf Rdḫ and Lbḥn; vanquished and killed
  23  the ʾqwl twenty-one warriors in combat [... ...] they killed three hundred and eighteen warriors in combat and prisoners and (took) six hundred and thirty captives and
  24  two thousand three hundred fifty camels [... ...] one thousand sheep. Then, the ʾqwl, sons of Mls²n, departed on an expedition with the king Ṯʾrn ʾyfʿ against S¹hrtn
  25  with their tribe; the king waged war at Ġṯyn in the valley of Ḫlb [... ...] Mʿdkrb a man in combat and Mrṯdm captured a man; they took as spoils, they, their tribe and their noblemen, three hundred camels,
  26  two thousand cattle and thirty-one captives and [... ...] S²rḥ]bʾl and Mʿdkrb, with the king Ḏmrʿly ʾyfʿ, against S¹hrtn, with their nobles (the two of them), after which their brother Ḫwlym was freed from his obligations;
  27  the king waged war against ʿkm in S²wryn and S³rdd; S²rḥbʾl captured a man and they took as spoils, they and their noblemen, forty-three captives and five camels. Then Mʿdkrb and Mrṯdm departed on an expedition against M-
  28  ʿdm after which their brother S²rḥbʾl was freed from his obligations [... ...] Ms²rqn, Ḍyftn, Kinda, Mḏḥgm and Mrdm - the strength of their army was raised to two thousand worriers and one hundred and sixty
  29  horsemen - when Brlm son of Mʿdkrb participated in combat for the first time [... ...] Mʿdm and [... ...] the nomad tribe ʿbdqys¹n at S¹yn, at the waters of the wells of S¹gh, between the Land of Nzrm and the Land of Ġs¹n; they did
  30  wage war against the nomad tribe S²nn, against banū Nkrt, against banū Ṣbrt [... ...] ʿbdqys¹n; Mrṯdm captured two men; Brlm killed one man in combat and captured two men; killed
  31  their nobles and their army one hundred and fifty killed in combat and prisoners; they killed and seized eighteen horses and took as spoils four hundred captives, four
  32  thousand camels and twelve thousand sheep. They completed in addition (work) on their palaces and their lands as they were reconstructing their city ʿbdn, after the Ḥaḍramawt had destroyed it.
  33  They built for the palace of ḏ-Yzʾn three towers, Kwkbn, Yġl and Yṯb, and repaired their palace Yḥḍr at ḏ-Ylġb, at Ḥlzwm; they furnished them with terraces and enlarged their terraced fields Mṣ-
  34  bġt and ḏt-ʾmrḫn at Hdwn and ʾġylm, the terraced field of Ḥṭb, the terraced fields of ʿbdn (called) Ys¹r, Yʿd, ḏt-ʾṯln, Mṭqm and Mlḥtn, a field at Nwḫn, ḏt-Ms³-
  35  ḫrm at Ḍrʾ, Mqrṭn and Ġyln at the waters of Gzʾy. They did the planting in all of their terraced fields and in the midst of their uncultivated lands in ʿbdn, Ḍrʾ, S¹lfn, Ḥlzwm and Mlkt,
  36  twenty-three thousand plants, six thousand jujubes, two thousand moringas and, in ʿbdn and Grbt, five vineyards. They built in all of the domains of their palaces at ʿb-
  37  dn, Ms²rqn, ʾdmn and Ḍyftn, forty-one small weirs (?) and dams (?). They completed at [... ...] in the port of Qnʾ five vessels with their rigging. They hunt-
  38  ed in the mountains of Ḥgr, in the land of S¹ybn, in the desolate regions of the high country, in Grdn, in the land of Ḍyftn and in the mountains of Ks²r with eight hundred warriors and five hundred dogs after having beaten ibexes and
  39  other game toward the mountains close to ʿbdn. They hunted on their horses the cattle of Rynm, as well as the bulls and the onagers of ʾṣwtn, of Dtnt, of ʾḥwr and of Ḍln and they killed the cows, the bulls, the ona-
  40  gers, the ibexes, the panthers, and all types of game in abundance. The ʾqwln, sons of Mls²n, were the victors in all of these expeditions, with the dead and the prisoners: the qyl Ḫwlym,
  41  eleven warriors; S²rḥbʾl, ten warriors; Mʿdkrb, nine warriors; Mrṯdm, ten warriors and Brlm, three warriors. What they accomplished and con-
  42  signed as great deeds in this inscription was (possible) thanks to the aid and the power of ʿṯtr S²rqn and the divinities of their land and with the power of their lords, the masters of Raydān. Regarding this inscription, they entrusted it against
  43  all decay and all damage to ʿṯtr S²rqn, to Wdm Lord of Myfʿt and to S¹yn ḏu-ʾlm. In the month of ḏu-Mḏrʾn of the year four hundred seventy of
  44  the era of Ybḥḍ bn ʾbḥḍ, that is, in the Ḥaḍramite calendar, the month (?) S²ms¹ḥy of ʾs¹lmm [... ...].

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Rock inscription
Measures	h. 275, w. 430
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	ʿAbadān
Ancient site	ʿbdn
Geographical area	Niṣāb
Country	Yemen
Found	In situ
Notes	The inscription is engraved at the foot of jabal Malaḥa, on the left bank of wādī ʿAbadān.
Link to site record

CULTURAL NOTES

History

This inscription is commissioned by members of the Yzʾn clan and describes the Ḥimyar conquest wars in central and south Arabia. By that time the clan is part of the Ḥimyarite confederation; its members adopted the Sabaic language, spelling their name Yzʾn instead of Yḏʾn (see the Hadramitic text Ja 994). Moreover, the reference to the destruction of the city of ʿbdn by Ḥaḍramawt (l. 32) could lead to suppose that Yzʾn had become ally of Ḥimyar before the latter annexed Ḥaḍramawt, at the end of the third century AD. This would also explain the great fortune of this clan in the following centuries.

History

At l. 29 the text refers to a battle against ʿbdqys¹n, a great tribe from Baḥrayn, which is fought "at S¹yn, at the well of S¹gh, between the land of Nzrm and Ġs¹n". This could be an indication of the border between Nizār and Ghassān in the fourth century (see Robin 1986).

Society

The text refers to the initiation of the young aristocrats into the war activity. They are introduced to the battle (verb: tbkr) by their father or their relatives. As for the king Ṯʾrn ʾyfʿ (l. 24), he seems rather a member of the royal family replacing the king in battle than a real king. The same can be said regarding Ḏmrʿly ʾyfʿ.

Religion

Wdm, Master of Myfʿt, the modern Naqb al-Hajar, is in all likelihood the tutelary deity of the Yazʾanites. Moreover, the mention of the Ḥaḍramitic national god shows that the Yazʾanites are still loyal to their country even after it was conquered by Ḥimyar (but, contra, see what said above).

History

L. 14 Ṯʿlbt bn S³llm s¹yd ʾyḏm could be identified with "Ṯaʿlabat b. Salūl" chief of the ʾIād tribe in the Islamic sources (Robin 2005 c: 6)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robin and Gajda 1994: 113-137, pls 49-57	Robin, Christian J. and Gajda, Iwona 1994. L'inscription du Wādī ʿAbadān. Raydān, 6: 113-137.
Robin 1986	Robin, Christian J. 1986. Du nouveau sur les Yazʾanides. Appendice. Les inscriptions Mafray-Abu Ṯawr 1-3. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 16: 181-197.
Robin 2005 c: 6	Robin, Christian J. 2005. Himyar, des inscriptions aux traditions. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 30: 1-51.

CSAI

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions

ʿAbadān 1

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

GENERAL NOTES

TEXT

TRANSLATIONS

OBJECT INFORMATION

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

CULTURAL NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY