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al-Dhayyib Jabal Munīf
INSCRIPTION INFORMATION
| Language | Ancient South Arabian » Minaic » Marginal Minaic | ||
| Script | Ancient South Arabian | ||
| Script typology | Monumental writing | ||
| Text direction | Right-to-left | ||
| Text appearance | Recessed | ||
| Execution technique | Incision | ||
| Chronology |
| ||
| Textual typology | Construction text |
TEXT
1 ʾmt ʿs¹tr ʾ(nṯ)t Mrd ḏ-Ẓlwmn
2 ḏt s¹qny k-ʿṯtr bnyt l-Qs¹ bʿl Gdrn((gdrn)) f-ʿrr
3 Qs¹ ʿrr-s¹
| 1 | al-Dhayyib: ʾmt ʿṯtr instead of ʾmt ʿs¹tr; bnt instead of ʾnṯt. |
| 2 | Note that Gdrn - used to form the god's epithet - is the name of a Minaean lineage. However, gdr it is also a lexical item in ASA, meaning "enclosure" (cf. http://sabaweb.uni-jena.de/SabaWeb/Suche/Suche/SearchResultDetail?idxLemma=7627). |
TRANSLATIONS
| English | |
1 ʾmt ʿs¹tr, woman of Mrd ḏ-Ẓlwmn, 2 the one that (he) dedicated to ʿṯtr, built (this) for Qōs Lord of Gdrn (or, of the enclosure); may Qōs crush 3 the one who crushes it (i.e. the building, or the inscription). |
| 2 | al-Dhayyib considers the pronoun ḏt (referring to the woman) to be the subject of both verbs s¹qny and bnyt. However, the first verb is masculine and there is no coordination between the two propositions, suggesting that the husband of the woman is the subject of the verb s¹qny - having the pronoun as the object - while the woman is the subject of the verb bnyt only. Note the unsusual preposition k- preceding the divine name after s¹qny, and the use of the Dadanitic curse formula with the verb ʿrr. |
| 2 | Concerning the lexical meaning of gdr, cf. the lemma gdr 0x in the Sabäisches Wörterbuch (http://sabaweb.uni-jena.de/SabaWeb/Suche/Suche/SearchResultDetail?idxLemma=7627&showAll=0). |
| al-Dhayyib 2025: 8 | al-Dhayyib, Sulaymān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 2025. Naqš maʿīnī jadīd min Jabal Munīf fī muḥāfaẓat al-ʿUlā, al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Saʿūdiyya. (Dirāsāt, 79). Riyadh: Markaz al-Malik Fayṣal li-l-Buḥūth wa-l-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya. |
OBJECT INFORMATION
| Support type | Rock |
| Material | Rock |
| Link to object record |
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
| Modern site | Jabal Munīf |
| Ancient site | Unknown |
| Geographical area | Ḥijāz |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Found | In situ |
| Archaeological context | Funerary context: Necropolis |
| Link to site record |
CULTURAL NOTES
The new reading proposed in CSAI shows that the woman who left the inscription is not the daughter of a Minaean but his wife, probably of foreign origin. Compare to ʾmt ʿs¹trt, the name of a foreign wife of a man of the clan Qrn in the inscription from the Minaean capital Maʿīn 115/10-13.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| al-Dhayyib 2025: 7-11 (with photo) | al-Dhayyib, Sulaymān ʿAbd al-Raḥmān 2025. Naqš maʿīnī jadīd min Jabal Munīf fī muḥāfaẓat al-ʿUlā, al-Mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya al-Saʿūdiyya. (Dirāsāt, 79). Riyadh: Markaz al-Malik Fayṣal li-l-Buḥūth wa-l-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyya. |