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. |
Iryānī's South Arabian transcription has been mainly followed. However, some errors are apparent. The variants of reading are given in the notes. | |
1 | In Ir 26 a statue is dedicated as a tithe. Here we have only "a tithe". |
1 | In Iryani's South Arabian transcription: bny; w-ms²rqt-hmw. In Iryani's Arabic transcription: bythn; b-qyḍ; nkytm; w-mrq-hmw. In ʿInān's transcriptions: bnw; Ġymn ʾrbʿw-hmw; ʾwm ḏn ṣlmn ḏ-dhbn ḥg-n whq-hmw ʾlmqh ʾtw ʿs²rm l-ḏt; w-ʾḏʿbm; w-mhʿmmm; w-ms²rq-hmw. In Iryani's and ʿInān's transcriptions: mqyḍ and qyḍn, corrected by Ryckmans 1974 into mqyẓ and qyẓn; w-b-kl mknt-hmw. |
2 | In ʿInān's transcription: w-b-ḏt ḫmr-hmw ʾlmqh ʿbd-hw Dwmn bny ḏ-Ġymn; ʿdy kl b-ʾrḍ-hmw w-ʾs¹rr-hmw w-ms²ymt-hmw w-mqyḍt-hmw w-ṣnʿy-hmw; ʾbyt Ġymn w-s²ʿb-hmw Ġymn w-ʾwld-hmw; w-s²ṣy s²nʾm; w-bn bʾs¹tm w-nkytm b-ʾlmqh Ṯhwn bʿl ʾwm. |
English | |
1 Dwmn Yʾzm, of the family of Ġymn, lords of the two palaces Ḏrḥn and Yḥḍr, ʾqwl of the tribe Ġymn and their townsfolks of ḏ-Ykn and Mwrtm and Nʾs¹m, dedicated to ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, a tithe because ʾlmqh, Lord of ʾwm, brought and protected the crops that are in their land growing summer crops and in their territory and in their valleys and in all their fields irrigated by canals in the summer season, in the fourth year of Wddʾl, son of ʾbkrb, of the family Kbr Ḫll, and because He granted them the coming and the accomplishment of that rainy season, in safety without any pest and calamity; and because He granted them the rains and the abundant flash-floods and the widespread rains in prosperity in all their land and their valleys and their fields irrigated by canals and their eastern lands and their highlands. 2 Because ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, granted his servant Dwmn Yʾzm, of the family of Ġymn, the goodwill and the satisfaction 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; may He continue to grant them good rains and abundant flash-floods and crops in all their land and their cultivated areas and their land growing summer crops and their artificially irrigated land and their eastern lands and their highlands. May He grant them the safety of their persons and their houses, the houses of ḏ-Ġymn, and their tribe Ġymn and may He grant them soundness of faculties and resources and may He deliver them from the maleficence, malice and slander of any enemy, the one they are aware of and the one they are not aware of, and from any evil and mischief. By ʾlmqh, Lord of ʾwm. |
1 | For ʾrbʿw-hmw "townsfolk", see Beeston 1975: 190-191. Ryckmans translates: "ses quarts". Stein 2003: 68, fn. 182 notes that in Ja 610/5 dʿt is masculine (dʿt kwn). For the discussion of the phrase ʾtw w-s¹twfyn hwʾ brqn cf. Nebes 1987. For ms²rq, see Stein 2003: 59, fn. 87. |
Ryckmans, Jacques 1974 a: 510-511 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1974. Himyaritica 4. Le Muséon, 87: 493-521. |
Beeston 1975 a: 190-191 | Beeston, Alfred F.L. 1975. Notes on Old South Arabian Lexicography IX. Le Muséon, 88: 187-198. |
Nebes 1987: 85-87 | Nebes, Norbert 1987. Zur Konstruktion von Subjekt und Objekt abhängiger Infinitive in Sabäischen. Pages 75-98 in Christian J. Robin and Muḥammad ʿA. Bāfaqīh (eds). Ṣayhadica. Recherches sur les inscriptions de l'Arabie préislamique offertes par ses collègues au professeur A.F. L. Beeston. (Arabie préislamique, 1). Paris: Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner. |
Stein 2003 a: 59, fn. 87; 68, fn. 182 | 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. |
Deposit | Ṣanʿāʾ, al-Kuhālī collection (Private 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: 126-129 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1973. Fī taʾriḫ al-Yaman. Cairo. |
Ryckmans, Jacques 1974 a: 510-511 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1974. Himyaritica 4. Le Muséon, 87: 493-521. |
ʿInān 1976: 219-223 | ʿInān, Zaid b. ʿA 1976. Taʾriḫ ḥaḍāra al-Yaman al-qadīm. Cairo. |
al-Iryānī 1990: 160-163 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1990. Fī-taʾrīḫ al-Yaman. Nuquš musnadiya wa-taʿliqāt. Ṣanʿāʾ: Markaz al-dirāsāt wa-l-buḥūṯ al-Yamanī. |