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

Sharafaddīn 1961: 44 (bottom right)
Image free from copyright

INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic

Alphabet

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Writing technique

Incision

Measure of letters

7-11

Chronology

Period

Textual typology

Dedicatory text - fragmentary

GENERAL NOTES

The lines 1-21 are published by Sharafaddīn 1967 and by Müller, Walter W. 1974 f; the rest of the text is published by Ryckmans, Jacques 1967.

TEXT

Apparatus

5	Ryckmans reads (b)n kl s¹bʾt s²wʿ[w].
11-12	For Seleucia, it is used the proper name of a late tradition for “the New Seleucia”: Kwky in the Babylonian Talmud, Kōkē in Syriac (Müller 1974 f: 162). In the Marginal Minaic inscription Riyāḍ 302F8, 9: S¹lky.
17	Ryckmans suggests to read ʾrbʿt .

TRANSLATIONS

CSAI

English

   1  Rymn, of the family Ḥzfrm and of the family ʿnnn, dedicated to
   2  ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm the statue in bronze
   3  which he promised Him in praise because He granted him
   4  to return from S¹hrtm in safety and with enemy casualties
   5  and prisoners and booty in all the expeditions that they performed
   6  with their lord S²mr Yhrʿs², king of Sabaʾ and
   7  ḏu-Raydān and Ḥaḍramawt and Ymnt and in praise
   8  because he returned in safety when his lord S²mr Yhrʿs²
   9  despatched him to Mlkm, son of
  10  Kʿbm, king for the ʾs¹d, and he went there twice
  11  and he continued until reaching Qṭwṣf and Kwk, the two
  12  royal cities of Frs¹ and the land of Tnḫ; and ʾlmqh
  13  granted him the return in safety and (He granted him) to rejoice
  14  wherever his lord despatched him and in praise
  15  because he returned in safety from the city of Ṣʿdtm,
  16  in the land of Ḫwln, when his lord
  17  S²mr Yhrʿs² ordered him to be ʿqb in it, forty
  18  years and ʾlmqh granted him good
  19  rainy seasons and peace in all the years (during which) he was ʿqb in it.
  20  May ʾlmqh continue to protect and save
  21  His servant Rymn, of the family Ḥzfrm and of the family ʿnnn,
  22  from any evil, any mischief and any wicked and contagious
  23  disease [... ...] and may He grant them the favour
  24  and the goodwill of their lords, the king of Sabaʾ and
  25  ḏu-Raydān and the return from the expedition in safety
  26  [... ...] months and irrigated fields
  27  [.] months [... ...] the safety from [... ...]

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Material	Stone
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

CULTURAL NOTES

History

The author returned safely from the journey to the royal Persan cities Of Ctesifon and Seleucia. Overlaet, Bruno 2009 has suggested that the Arab embassy received by the Sasanian king Bahram II (276-293), which is represented at Bashapur, was that quoted in this inscription. For a contrary opinion, see Robin 2004 a: 42-43.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sharafaddīn 1961: 44	Sharafaddīn, Aḥmad H. 1961. Yemen. Arabia Felix. Taʿizz.
Wissmann 1964 a: 191-194	Wissmann, Hermann von 1964. Zur Geschichte und Landeskunde von Alt-Südarabien. Sammlung Eduard Glaser. 3. (Sitzungsberichte der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, 246). Vienna: Böhlaus.
Sharafaddīn 1967: iii, 87-88	Sharafaddīn, Aḥmad H. 1967. Taʾrīḫ al-Yaman al-ṯaqāfī. Cairo.
Wissmann 1967: 489-508	Wissmann, Hermann von 1967. Zur Kenntnis von Ostarabien, besonders al-Qaṭīf, im Altertum. Le Muséon, 80: 489-508.
Ryckmans, Jacques 1967: 508-512, pl. I, fig. 1	Ryckmans, Jacques 1967. Le texte Sharafaddin, Yemen, p. 44, bas, droit [Appendix to: von Wissmann, Hermann 1967. Zur Kenntnis von Ostarabien, besonders al-Qaṭīf, im Altertum]. Le Muséon, 80: 508-512.
Müller, Walter W. 1974 f: 155-165	Müller, Walter W. 1974. Eine sabäische Gesandtschaft in Ktesiphon und Seleukeia. Neue Ephemeris für semitische Epigraphik, 2: 155-165.
Overlaet 2009: 218-221	Overlaet, Bruno 2009. A Himyarite diplomatic mission to the Sasanian court of Bahram II depicted at Bishapur. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 20: 218-221.
Robin 2014 a: 41-43	Robin, Christian J. 2014. The peoples beyond the Arabian frontier in late antiquity: recent epigraphic discoveries and latest advances. Pages 33-79 in Jitse H.F. Dijkstra and Greg Fisher (eds). Inside and out. Interactions between Rome and the peoples on Arabian and Egyptian frontiers in late antiquity. Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: Peeters.