| 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 | Iryānī's South Arabian transcription: w-tʾwl-hw; mḍʾw (correction mẓʾw by Ryckmans). Mḫwn identified with al-Mukhaʾ (al-Sheiba 1987: 51). |
| English | |
1 S²rḥʿṯt ʾs²wʿ he of Ḥbb[... ...] ʾqwl of the two tribes of Ṣrwḥ and Ḫwln Ḫḍlm, dedicated to their Lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, the statue in bronze that he had promised to Him in praise because he came back and was safe from overseas where their lord Krbʾl Wtr Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt, had dispatched him, and he dispatched them as a delegation to the land of the Abyssinians and the Aksumites, to the negus, and their Lord ʾlmqh granted them to come in safety and get back in peace; he dispatched with him, as a delegation, ʾḥyqm and Zlns¹, and He granted to His servant to come back in seven days and nights and their return, and they proceeded to Mḫwn in safety; 2 they praised their Lord ʾlmqh that he brought him back in safety and the two legates of the Abyssinians (or, the Abyssinian delegation) and He retained the wind for seven months on the sea, and they praised ʾlmqh that they found their lord Krbʾl Wtr Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt, in safety. May He grant His servant S²rḥʿṯt the protection of his hand and his tongue and the goodwill and the satisfaction of their lord Krbʾl Wtr Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt, and may He grant them crops and harvests from all their lands and their territories in abundant and sound wheat and barley and irrigated crops. By ʾlmqh. |
| 1 | For this interpretation of the phrase k-ʾs¹yw mrʾ-hmw ... ... b-wfym, cf. Drewes 1979: 102, who suggests that the meaning of the verb ʾs¹yw is here "to find". Instead, Ryckmans considered the king as the subject of the sentence and corrected ʾs¹yw into ʾs¹y-hw "leur seigneur Karibʾil ... [l']a envoyé" (Ryckmans 1975: 201). Regarding the phrase ʾty s¹bʿt ymtm b-llt, see the grammatical remarks by Stein 2003 a: 73, fn. 220. |
| 2 | According to Ryckmans, the "hand" and the "tongue" are the god's action and oracle that protected the dedicant, but the meaning of the sentence is clarified by the other attestations of this formula in an optative context: w-l s²rḥ yd-hw w-ls¹n-hw. |
| Ryckmans, Jacques 1975 a: 201 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1975. Ḥimyaritica 5. Le Muséon, 88: 199-219. |
| Drewes 1979: 101 | Drewes, Abraham J. 1979. A note on ESA ʾsy. Raydān, 2: 101-105. |
| 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: 147-150 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1973. Fī taʾriḫ al-Yaman. Cairo. |
| Ryckmans, Jacques 1975 a: 200-203 | Ryckmans, Jacques 1975. Ḥimyaritica 5. Le Muséon, 88: 199-219. |
| al-Sheiba 1987: 51 | al-Sheiba, Abdullah Hassan 1987. Die Ortsnamen in den altsüdarabischen Inschriften (mit dem Versuch ihrer Identifizierung und lokalisierung). Archäologische Berichte aus dem Yemen, 4: 1-62. |
| al-Iryānī 1990: 183-186 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1990. Fī-taʾrīḫ al-Yaman. Nuquš musnadiya wa-taʿliqāt. Ṣanʿāʾ: Markaz al-dirāsāt wa-l-buḥūṯ al-Yamanī. |