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Record’s details

Editor(s)

CSAI Team
First published

2013-10-01
DOI

10.82194/dasi-epi-5584

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INSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Language

Ancient South Arabian » Sabaic » Southern Middle Sabaic

Script

Ancient South Arabian

Script typology

Monumental writing

Text direction

Right-to-left

Text appearance

Recessed

Execution technique

Incision

Chronology

Period	D
Start date - BCE/CE	272 CE
End date - BCE/CE	272 CE
Date accuracy	Accurate

Textual typology

Dedicatory text

GENERAL NOTES

The typology of the text is peculiar; instead of the usual verb "to dedicate" to a god, here we have the verbs: tkrb, hgl, tnḍʿ, s²tft.

TEXT

marker

Apparatus

1	hll (Bāfaqīh for al-Miʿsāl 6).
6	ʿldbm or ʿgdbm.
10	Zqrns¹ or Zfrns¹.
11	Bāfaqīh reads Lmd instead of Gmd.
13	Yhgmn or Yhlmn.
14	Bāfaqīh reads Ldmm instead of Gdmm.
20	Bāfaqīh reads ḏ-l-s¹ṯt instead of ḏ-l-ṯmnwt.

TRANSLATIONS

English

   1  Ḥẓyn ʾwkn ibn Mʿhr and ḏ-Ḫwln, qyl of the tribe of Rdmn and Ḫwln invoked, make known, prayed and asked his Solar deity ʿlyt, the Lady of the citadel S²ḥrrm, because She granted to them, accorded and helped with assistance
   2  and safe and successful undertakings and goods for them in the houses of banū Mʿhr and ḏ-Ḫwln, where their lord Ys¹rm Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, settled them inasmuch they covered themselves with glory for their lords, the masters of the house of Raydān, just when he gave orders to them and they got ready to perform due service for
   3  their lord S²mr Yhḥmd, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, from the houses of the banū of the two tribes in the town of Radaʿ ḏ-Qrnʿm; he killed three soldiers and a sufficient number of prisoners. After that they performed due service for their lord S²mr, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, in the land of Rymn and they brought back from there
   4  thirty spoils and prisoners; after that their lord Krbʾl ʾyfʿ, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, settled them in the houses of the banū ḏu-Mḏrḥm and they carried out a military expedition and waged war to Mʿlln and their tribe Mhʾnfm and those of (the tribe) ʾlhn Ts¹rʿ with them. And they carried out a military expedition and
   5  proceeded in the direction of the lowland of the path cut in the mountain ḏu-Ṣbrn and there the hunger stopped them, during the night and the day, until some of the Sabaean army reached them and they fought until they invaded the land of the tribe ʾlhn and they engaged the enemies below the citadel ḏ-Ys¹rn and they fought with them and killed them and took alive some of them.
   6  And he took the qyl S²rḥʾl Mṯqrm and ʿldbm and the tribe. They came back with carnage and spoils in seventy men. And from there they waged war to Rḥbtn and with the some of the ʾqwl and the army of ḏu-Raydān and they submit themselves; and he came into the open under the command of the qyl from the right side and the moved and besieged the fortress Brḥ and the fortress
   7  Mtnh and the palace of Rdmn; they brought back and took prisoners all the servants and the men and the equipment and the goods of those fortresses and they burnt all those fortresses and a part of the ʾqwl - thirty - with carnage and prisoners and their tribe with carnage and prisoners except what did the part (of ʾqwl); and he killed and took prisoners and booty of the tribes with them fifty and two hundreds thirty
   8  of carnage and prisoners not to mention the equipment and the goods. After that they waged war as a protective force the qayl and the soldiers with them from their tribe Mhʾnfm in the lowland of the path cut in the mountain Ys¹lḥ and Ygrn; and he came into the open against them, the Bʾrn in the land of Bklm ḏ-ʾlhn. They initiated hostilities there during the night and they do not
   9  even send a man among them (and they did not lose even a man) and a part of the ʾqwl - three soldiers - and what remains of the tribe. And then they proceeded in the direction of Byt Nḥym and S¹ḫymm that in Rḥbtn; they made an incursion against them and took as booty their livelihoods. And then their lord Ys¹rm Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, gave them orders when
  10  the two kings of Ḥbs²t, Dtwns¹ and Zqrns¹, and ḏ-Mʿfrm and the army of Ḥbs²t arrived in the land of Ḥimyar, they began to fight below ḏ-Ṣhbm in the wadi Ḫbn and they fought hard and threw arrows against them during three months in which they built camps in front of camps. And then gathered in the wadi Bnʾ
  11  and they engaged the enemies below Byt ḏ-ʾrtʿ and fought against them and fought them until they drove them to their camps on the run and they broke him who betrayed among the mqtwt and the infantrymen of the king and the avant-garde with them. The qyl took their chief Kmmm and some of the armed bands of Gmd. After that they came back. Their lord
  12  Ys¹rm Yhnʿm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, granted to them and settled in the houses of the banū Yhfrʿ. After that they carried out a military expedition and the king sent with them and with their tribe Mhqrʾm, the tribe of Yḥṣbn, the tribe of Mʾnfm, the tribe ʾlhn and all the tribes ḏ-Bhl and their ʾqwl. They subjected and went to the assault against the Abyssinian raiders and against the tribe of ʿrybn and
  13  the tribe of Ḥbrn and the tribe Yhgmn and they humbled and led to capitulation. They brought back all their chiefs, their guarantees, and they brought back their fellow soldiers and their support troops and the tribe Yhgmn. They moved in their power and moved and seized and burnt all their fortresses, five fortresses and all their sons and daughters and their goods and villages. They moved and a part of the ʾqwl with carnage
  14  and spoils, fifty soldiers and sons and two hundreds prisoners except a part of the tribe, three hundreds prisoners excluded the equipment and goods. After that they carried out a military expedition against the tribe of Wṣb and Gdmm and the citadel ḏ-ʾddn and Dws¹tn; they brought back and killed and took prisoners all the villages and the fortresses, which they found and in which they settled in all that land and citadels. And a part of
  15  the ʾqwl -eight- with carnage and spoils and a hundred prisoners other than one tribe, three hundred and spoils and prisoners, excluded the equipment and the goods. After that their lord Ys¹rm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, granted to him and settled his servant Ḥẓyn ʾwkn ibn Mʿhr and ḏu-Ḫwln. And they moved a military campaign and waged war
  16  against the Abyssinian raiders against the tribe Ḥdln ḏ-Rḥbn and those with them and with their tribe, ʾqwl and army, which the king sent and they invaded and besieged all the fortresses and the villages of that land; a part of the ʾqwl - eleven soldiers - with carnage and one hundred and thirty prisoners; for their tribe and five with them three hundred seventy prisoners and carnage.
  17  After that they moved a military campaign and attacked and blocked the port [...] and Ḥẓf, their tribe; and they moved to the port of Aden. After that he lead them the next day against the tribe Ḫdntn in Mṭwdn below Mrkbtn and they fought against them and their groups and he killed and routed them from Mṭwdn until they drove them back to the barbarian sea. There were no deaths
  18  among themselves excluded twenty soldiers from the tribe Ḫdntn. And after that they moved a military campaign against the tribe Yhnṭl and some of the land ḏ-ʾs²rq and some of the land Ḫdrm and with them the qyl and the army which commanded their lord Ys¹rm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, and they attacked all those lands Ḥẓf, with an attack. And brought back and made a sack
  19  and took prisoners their servants found there ... and they performed due service for their lord Ys¹rm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, in the town of Grby, and they killed a man who is leading in front. And they performed due service for their lord Ys¹rm, king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, in the citadel ḏ-Ytly and the destroyed the fortress for them [... ...] their tribe and
  20  [... ...] carnage and spoils [... ...] in the citadel [... ...] in the attack, and the qyl killed two lions. And they came back [... ...] in the year one hundred ninety eight [... ...].

6	"ils s'engagèrent et offrir au service du prince la main droite" (Robin 2013: 129).

Robin 2013	Robin, Christian J. 2013. À propos de Ymnt et Ymn: « nord » et « sud », « droite » et « gauche », dans les inscriptions de l'Arabie antique. Pages 119-140 in Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Catherine Fauveaud and Iwona Gajda (eds). Entre Carthage et l’Arabie heureuse. Mélanges offerts à François Bron. (Orient & Méditerranée, 12). Paris: de Boccard.

OBJECT INFORMATION

Support type	Rock
Link to object record

ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE

Origin and provenance

Modern site	al-Miʿsāl
Ancient site	Wʿln
Geographical area	al-Bayḍāʾ
Country	Yemen
Found	In situ
Link to site record

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bāfaqīh 1994 c: 57-77, photos	Bāfaqīh, Muḥammad ʿA. 1994. Muḥtawā naqš al-Miʿsāl 5. Raydān, 6: 57-77. [Arabic section]
Müller, Walter W. 2010: 28-31	Müller, Walter W. 2010. Sabäische Inschriften nach Ären datiert. Bibliographie, Texte und Glossar. (Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, 53). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

CSAI

Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions

Editor(s)

First published

DOI

MAFRAY-al-Miʿsāl 5