Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic | ||
Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
Writing technique | Incision | ||
Measure of letters | 3 | ||
Chronology |
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Textual typology | Dedicatory text | ||
Royal inscription | Yes |
2 | Ryckmans, G. 1956 reads l-hzmn . |
6 | Hʿn as proper name (Jamme 1962). |
8 | [w-]tʾwlw: variant reading by Ryckmans, G. 1956. |
English | |
1 ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother Yzʾl Byn, kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, sons of Frʿm Ynhb, king of Sabaʾ dedicated [... ...] of 2 the clan S¹ḫymm and ʿlyn of the clan Yqnʿm and their troops, when their lord ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, sent them to extirpate those Abyssinians [... ...] 3 king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, and his army and some of his ʾqwl to take reprisals in that battle. And they took the field to fight (starting) from the city of Ṣanʿāʾ, and they sent ahead of them scouts in order to bring report of the enemy concentration [... ...] 4 Bklm, and they went down to S¹hrtn against the enemy concentration (which the scouts) had reported to them, and posed a strategic threat to those concentrations from the flank (?) of the mountain of Wḥdt, and (the enemies) moved into the coastland, but (the Sabaean forces) pursued them on their track and brought them to battle [... ...] 5 those Abyssinians and ʿkm and some folk of the sedentaries of the S¹hrtm who had given help to them, after their children and their flocks. And they (the Sabaeans) regrouped, came to a confrontation and engaged in battle with those Abyssinians and [... ...] and 6 as for their children and their women, they were killed or taken captive. And after that, (the Sabaeans) turned back and mounted operations at ʿynm, and on the day following, some of the survivors of those Abyssinians and ʿkm mounted an offensive against them, together with reinforcements which they had summoned to their aid [... ...] 7 ... with the decisive defeat and killing and routing of the offensive contingent of those Abyssinians and ʿkm, and all those who had given help to them among the tribes of S¹hrtm, and they inflicted among them killings in great quantities [... ...] 8 they returned in safety and with glory and with killing, captives, loot and booty in great quantities; and in praise because he encountered his brother Yʾzl Byn, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, in Ṣanʿāʾ and in (the palace) S¹lḥn and [... ...] |
2 | Ryckmans G. 1956, on the basis of Ar. hzm, translates "pour mettre en fuite". |
4 | Beeston 1976 b: 28 translates kfl ʿrn "a commanding position in the citadel". |
5-6 | "und ihre (männlichen) Kinder und ihre Frauen töteten sie bzw. nahmen sie gefangen. und von dort gingen sie zurück und kämpften in ʿynm" (Nebes 1995: 32, 42). |
6 | Ryckmans G. 1956 translates: "et vint au secours de dū-Muḫârim contre eux ce qui restait de ces Abyssins et ʿAkkum". |
Ryckmans, Gonzague 1956 b: 384 | Ryckmans, Gonzague 1956. Inscriptions sud-arabes. Quatorzième série. Le Muséon, 69: 369-389. |
Beeston 1976 b: 28-29 | 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. |
Nebes 1995 a: 32, 42 | Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. |
Support type | Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription |
Material | Stone |
Measures | h. 34 (right), h. 24.6 (left), w. 108.1, th. 24 |
Link to object record |
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 |
Ryckmans, Gonzague 1956 b: 381-389, pl. III | Ryckmans, Gonzague 1956. Inscriptions sud-arabes. Quatorzième série. Le Muséon, 69: 369-389. |
Jamme 1962 a: 64-67 | 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, 191-194 | Irvine, Arthur K. 1965. On the identity of Habashat in the South Arabian inscriptions. Journal of Semitic Studies, 10/2: 178-196. |
Ryckmans, Jacques 1967: 511 | 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. |
Beeston 1976 b: 28-29 | 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. |
Nebes 1995 a: 32, 42 | Nebes, Norbert 1995. Die Konstruktionen mit /fa-/ im Altsüdarabischen. Syntaktische und epigraphische Untersuchungen. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 40). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. |