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

Jamme 1962 a: pl. 5
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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

3.3 (max.); 2.9 (min.)

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text

Royal inscription

Yes

TEXT

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother Yzʾl Byn, kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, sons of Frʿm
   2  Ynhb, king of Sabaʾ, dedicated to ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, the two statues in silver, in praise
   3  because He granted and vouchsafed to His servant ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, to take reprisals on the Abyissinians and the people of
   4  S¹hrtm, for the hostile actions they had committed in their villages in the valley of S¹hm. Thereupon ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb, king
   5  of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, declared war, and together with him part of his army and his ʾqwl, against the troops of the Abyssinians and their concentrations
   6  in the cultivated parts of the valley S³rdd, and then they came into conflict with those Abyssinians and the people of S¹hrtm at the two humps of Wdftn and Wdyfn,
   7  and the cultivated countryside of Lqḥ, and they came into conflict at those two humps with 25 patrols (comprising) Aksumites and Gmdn and
   8  ʿkm together with some patrols of the people of S¹hrtm; and in praise because they returned those and their ʾqwl and their arny and their
   9  cavalry in safety, and with glory, with prisoners and captives and loot and booty in great quantity, which satisfied them.
  10  And after they returned in the city of Ṣanʿāʾ, a delegation from Gmdn approached them in humiliation
  11  and with guarantees, and they offered their children as hostages, and (these) were (assigned) to the king of Sabaʾ; and as for the city of Lqḥ,
  12  they offered hostages and the equivalent of them (what Gmdn had offered); and may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, continue to grant them favours
  13  in the humiliation and crushing and overwhelming and humiliation of all their war enemies and personal enemies. By ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Deposit	Mārib
Support type	Stone inscription
Material	Stone
Measures	h. 54; w. max. 79.5 (top); w. min. 78.9 (bottom); th. 17.3
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: 60-64, pl. 5	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 1965: 187, 189-191	Irvine, Arthur K. 1965. On the identity of Habashat in the South Arabian inscriptions. Journal of Semitic Studies, 10/2: 178-196.
Beeston 1972 e: 351	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1972. Review of 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. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 35/2: 349-353.
Beeston 1976 b: 27-28	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.
Beeston 1987: 12	Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1987. Ḥabashat and Aḥābīsh. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 17: 5-12.
Nebes 1995 a: 22, 41, 52	Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.