Language | Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Central Middle Sabaic | ||
Alphabet | Ancient South Arabian | ||
Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
Writing technique | Incision | ||
Chronology |
| ||
Textual typology | Dedicatory text |
23 | Bron wrongly transcribes b-wṣt. |
26 | Bron wrongly transcribes w-ġnm. |
English | |
1 Whbʾwm Yʾḏf ḏ-Gdnm and Ḫḏwt and 2 Krbʿṯt ʾs¹ʿd of the banū S¹ʾrn, Mḥylm, 3 Mwḍʿm and S³mkm, officers of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb 4 and his brother Yʾzl Byn kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, sons of 5 Frʿm Ynhb king of S¹bʾ, dedicated to ʾlmqh Master of 6 Ms¹kt and of Yṯw of Brʾn the statue in bronze, in praise because 7 ʾlmqh Master of Ms¹kt and of Yṯw of 8 Brʾn granted and bestowed on their lords ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother Yʾzl 9 Byn kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān their satisfaction in the oracle 10 and the document that they ordered to their servants Whbʾwm and Krbʿṯt 11 to record in Brʾn, in the month of ḏ-ʾbhy in the third year of 12 Ns²ʾkrb son of Mʿdkrb banū Ḥḏmt, and 13 they obtained in this document favourable oracles by 14 ʾlmqh in Brʾn for the going up and ascending of their lords 15 to the town of Ṣnʿw and to Rḥbtn. And in this very year 16 S²mr ḏu-Raydān and the ʾqwl of 17 Ḥimyar sent a mission and dispatch to their lords ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother 18 Yʾzl Byn kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, to seek peace 19 and fraternity and to join the two palaces Salḥīn and 20 Raydān. And in the same year their lords 21 ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and his brother Yʾzl 22 Byn kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān went on an expedition and waged war on the enemy troops (or: the camps) of the 23 Abyssinians and of ḏ-S¹hrtm, and encountered them in the middle of S¹hrtn 24 on the hillocks of the citadel of Wḥdt, and their lords 25 and their (i.e. of the kings) armies came back in success and glory, with spoils, 26 prisoners, booty and loot, which satisfied them. And in 27 the same year, their lord 28 ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān went on an expedition and waged war for a second time 29 up to S¹hrtm against the enemy troops (or: the camps) of the Abyssinians and of ḏ- 30 S¹hrtm, and his army - the army of Sabaʾ, and some 31 of the ʾqwl and the tribes of Ḥimyar - served him and encountered 32 their troops in Mqrfm (or: and destroyed their camps), in the plain of the land of ʿkm 33 and their lord ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb king of Sabaʾ 34 and ḏu-Raydān and his two armies, the army Sabaʾ and Ḥimyar, 35 came back in succes and in glory and with spoils. |
5-6 | Bron interprets the epithet of ʾlmqh "bʿl Ms¹kt w-Yṯw Brʾn" as "seigneur de Ms¹kt qui réside à Brʾn". |
14 | tyfʿn: Bron contests the translation proposed by the Sabaic Dictionary "dynastic accession", because Ṣanʿāʾ was not a capital; a similar meaning to s³mk should be retained. |
19 | ḥs²k has to be associated to the word ḥs²kt "wife". |
22, 29, 31-32 | ʾʿṣd: Bron translates "encampment", on the basis of the observation by Shitomi that the word occurs only in relation with the Ḥabašat and is therefore to be considered as a loan from the Geʿez ʿṣd, pointing to a closed land. |
32 | According to Iryani, Mqrfm is a toponym. Bron, on the basis of a comparison with the Geʿez qwārafa "cut into pieces", suggests that wkb b-mqrfm should be interpreted as an expression meaning "to annihilate". |
Bron 1993: 80-83 | Bron, François 1993. Sur une nouvelle inscription historique sabéenne. Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici, 10: 79-83. |
Shitomi 1981: 127-129 | Shitomi, Yuzo 1981. Une note sur ʿṣd. Raydān, 4: 127-129. |
Support type | Artefact » Base » Of statue with dedicatory inscription |
Material | Stone |
Measures | h. 72, w. 23 |
Link to object record |
Modern site | al-ʿAmāyid / ʿArsh Bilqīs |
Ancient site | Brʾn |
Geographical area | Maʾrib |
Country | Yemen |
Archaeological context | Religious context: Temple of ʾlmqh bʿl Ms¹kt w-Yṯw Brʾn |
Link to site record |
al-Iryānī 1988 a: 13-14, fig. 16 | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1988. al-Iryānī 69. Raydān, 5: 9-16. |
al-Iryānī 1990: 322-348 (facsimile) | al-Iryānī, Muṭahhar 1990. Fī-taʾrīḫ al-Yaman. Nuquš musnadiya wa-taʿliqāt. Ṣanʿāʾ: Markaz al-dirāsāt wa-l-buḥūṯ al-Yamanī. |
Bron 1993: 79-80 | Bron, François 1993. Sur une nouvelle inscription historique sabéenne. Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici, 10: 79-83. |