Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic | ||
Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
Writing technique | Incision | ||
Chronology |
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Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
Iryānī transcribed the text in a paragraph arrangement that did not respect the original disposition of the lines. |
1 | Höfner 1981: 36, on the basis of RES 4962, 1-2: Ṣʿqn w-Tṯʿd, thinks that Tzʾd could be a mistake of Iryānī. |
1 | Iryānī's South Arabian transcription: ḏts¹tmyn (so also ʿInān: one might hypothesize an engraver's haplography); Tḥʾl. Iryānī's Arabic transcription: byt-hw ʿInān: ḏn ṣlmn; s¹tmlʾ w-tbs²rn; w-s²fqm (instead of w-Ṣʿqm) |
2 | Iryānī's Arabic transcription: s²ʿby-hw. ʿInān's transcription: w-rḍw mrʾ-hw; ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb w-Yʾzl w-ḥẓy w-rḍw s²ʿb-hmw; ʾnṯt-hw; no transcription of: w-tṯʿt, w-ʾl dʿw. For the correction of the haplography (of the inscription's engraver or of Iryānī's transcription) mhʿmm, see Stein 2003 a: 202 and fn. 287. Cf. ʿInān's transcription: mʿmmm. |
English | |
1 Rbʿṯt Yġnm, of the families Ṣʿqn and Tzʾd and Nhmn, dedicated to ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, the statue in bronze that he had promised Him in praise because ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, granted His servant Rbʿṯt Yġnm of the families Ṣʿqn and Tzʾd and Nhmn (satisfaction) in all the favours and good news he requested and asked from Him, that He would successfully accomplish for him to bring home and unite and marry the bride, who is called Tḥyʾl, daughter of the families Grfm and Ṣʿqm to their house, the house of Tzʾd; 2 he praised the might and the power of ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because He satisfied and protected him in all the favours and good news that he requested and asked from Him; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, satisfy His servant Rbʿṯt Yġnm, of the families Ṣʿqn and Tzʾd and Nhmn, in all the favours and good news he will continue to request from Him; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, grant Rbʿṯt Yġnm, of the families Ṣʿqn and Tzʾd and Nhmn, the goodwill and the satisfaction of the heart of their lord Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn, kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, and the goodwill and satisfaction of their tribes Sabaʾ and Fys²n and the soundness of faculties and material resources and abundant and full cereal crops in spring and autumn in all their lands and fields whatever will be cultivated and made cultivate; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, grant His servant Rbʿṯt Yġnm luxuriant crops in summer and spring and autumn and harvest and abundant cereal crops in spring and autumn; 3 may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, protect him from the pests of the crops and harvests and (irrigated) cultivations and from the drought of the rainy seasons; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, grant His servant Rbʿṯt Yġnm healthy male children from his wife Tḥyʾl of Tzʾd, and may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, deliver them from any damage and mischief and the surrender and the maleficence and the slander of any enemy and any evildoer, far or near, the one they are aware of or not aware of. By ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm. |
1 | For the interpretation of the phrase ʾwln w-hkrbn w-hklln mrʾtn, see Beeston 1980 a and 1981 b. See also Ryckmans 1974 for the hypothesis that the mrʾt mentioned in l. 1 is a different person than the ʾṯt in l. 3. |
Ryckmans, Jacques 1974 a: 512-514 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1974. Himyaritica 4. Le Muséon, 87: 493-521. |
Beeston 1980 a: 18-19 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1980. Studies in Sabaic Lexicography II. Raydān, 3: 17-26. |
Beeston 1981 b: 27-28 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1981. Two epigraphic South Arabian roots: HYʿ and KRB. Pages 21-34 in Roswitha G. Stiegner (ed.). al-Hudhud. Festschrift Maria Höfner zum 80. Geburtstag. Graz: Karl-Franzens-Universität. |
Deposit | Ṣanʿāʾ, al-Kuhālī collection |
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 |
al-Iryānī 1973: 132-136 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1973. Fī taʾriḫ al-Yaman. Cairo. |
ʿInān 1976: 259-264 | ʿInān, Zaid b. ʿA 1976. Taʾriḫ ḥaḍāra al-Yaman al-qadīm. Cairo. |
Höfner 1981: 36 | Höfner, Maria 1981. Sabäische Inschriften. (Letzte Folge). Sammlung Eduard Glaser. 14. (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 378). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. |
al-Iryānī 1990: 167-171 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1990. Fī-taʾrīḫ al-Yaman. Nuquš musnadiya wa-taʿliqāt. Ṣanʿāʾ: Markaz al-dirāsāt wa-l-buḥūṯ al-Yamanī. |
Stein 2003 a: 202 | Stein, Peter 2003. Untersuchungen zur Phonologie und Morphologie des Sabäischen. (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 3). Rahden: Marie Leidorf GmbH / Westf.: Marie Leidorf GmbH. |