RTI B

Siglum
RTI B
Alternative Sigla
King 1990: 644–646
Transliteration
w ḏkrt lt kll ḍy{r} -n w ʿbdḍn w ḥṭṭn [w] {ġ}n w s¹ʿdn w ḏkrt lt {w}s¹l {w} lʿnt [l][t]
OCIANA
Translation
And may Lt remember all our {harmed} [ones] ? and ʿbdḍn ? and Ḥṭṭn ? {and} {Ġn} and S¹ʿdn and may Lt remember {Ws¹l} and may {Lt} curse
OCIANA
Language and Script
Hismaic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
TEXT Rölling: wḏkrt lt kl lgyʿn w ʿbdgn w ḥṭṭn knw s¹ʿdn wḏkrt lt b----l{s¹}n rather than w ḏkrt lt kll ḍy{r}n w ʿbdḍn w ḥṭṭn [w] {ġ}n w s¹ʿdn w ḏkrt lt {w}s¹l {w} lʿnt [l][t]. DISCUSSION King (1990: 644–646) commented: "The reading of the most of the letters of the text are certain but the translation is doubtful as there are several possibilities all of which involve previously unattested features. As Rölling (1987: 44) points out Ar. kull is generally spelt kll in Tham. E and Saf. and I would prefer to maintain that orthography here. The thirteenth letter is doubtful. The circle does not appear to be closed on the photograph. The rock is chipped between this letter an the d above and it is possible that what remains is only part of a letter the rest of which has been destroyed. If the letter is a r, as I have suggested, then it is a different shape to the other r in the text. Ar. ḍāra from the root ḍyr means 'to harm, injure'. The word ḍyr might be a verbal adjective with a passive sense (Wright I: 136C, Rem C and 146B, C 242) meaning ''harmed'. In other texts using the expression ḏkrt lt, it is clear that the -n suffix attached to substantives (which are the objects of the verb) is the first person plural possessive pronoun and that is probably how it should be interpreted here, ḍyr being a broken plural and the expression rendered 'our harmed (ones)'. The name ʿbdḍn presents problems. ḍn, cf. Ar. ḍinn 'something which is special or highly esteemed', occurs as an element in the Safaitic compound name ḍnʾl Harding (1971: 385) but is unattested by itself as a name. It is possible that ʿbdḍn should be taken as a construct dependent of kll. ʿbd being a plural of the form ʿabīd or ʿibād and the phrase translated as 'servants of ḍn'. Again, however, the significance of the name ḍn and indeed of the phrase as a whole is obscure. Ḥṭṭn is possibly a name (cf. ḥṭṭ in Saf., Harding (1971: 193)). A translation of the word as a substantive from the root ḥṭṭ. cf. Ar. ḥaṭṭa 'to put down', would not fit the context, although, given the spelling of tmʿbdt as tmʿbḏt in RTI A, it is possible that ḥṭṭ is a variant spelling of ḫṭṭ. An instance of ḥ for ḫ occurs in Saf. ʾḥmnt (Macdonald 1982: 166) and possibly in a doubtful reading in the name ʾḥlh in C 5370. The root ḫṭṭ occurs in Tham.E as ḫṭṭ (a participle ḫāṭiṭ or noun ḫaṭṭāṭ) with the meaning 'inscriber' and here, if the n suffix is the first person plural possessive pronoun, ḫṭṭ would be a broken plural and the expression mean 'our inscribers'. The next letter after the gap in an unusual shape but similar ġ's are found among the Wādī Juddayyid texts and I would read this word and the one following the conjunction as proper names. It is difficult to explain the gap between the n of ḥṭṭn and the name ġn. It might indicate that the name ġn is the beginning of a separate text, although one would expect and initial l (or possibly a w), and it would be unusual for a prayer of this type to be acknowledged by two authors. If the name ġn etc. is taken as a continuation, then the particle w needs to be restored before the name of perhaps the lack of a particle is an indication that the word ḥṭṭ should be taken as a substantive, the name ġn and s¹ʿd being in apposition to it. In that case ḥṭṭn would be a dual 'our two inscribers'. The translation would not imply that ġn and s¹ʿdn were the inscribers of this particular text but might simply refer to an activity that they were both noted for. If it is all taken as one text it would be unusual that the prayer ḏkrt lt has been repeated, cf. the other examples of this type of prayer in Ch.4.C.1. The prayer ends with an incomplete curse, cf. the curse in TIJ 494".

Editio Princeps
King 1990

  • [HIn] Harding, G.L. An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian Names and Inscriptions. (Near and Middle East Series, 8). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971.
  • [AMJ] King, G.M.H. Early North Arabian Thamudic E. A preliminary description based on a new corpus of inscriptions from the Ḥismā desert of southern Jordan and published material. Ph.D thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1990. [Unpublished]. 1990.
  • Macdonald, M.C.A. & Searight, A. The Inscriptions and Rock-Drawings of the Jawa Area: A Preliminary Report on the First Season of Field-work of the Corpus of the Inscriptions of Jordan Project. Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 26, 1982: 159-172, 473.
  • [RTI] Röllig, W. The Thamudic Inscriptions. pp 43–45. Appendix A in Ibrahim, M. (ed.), A cemetery at Queen Alia International Airport. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1987.
  • Wright, W. A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Translated from the German of Caspari and edited with numerous additions and corrections. Third edition revised by W. Robertson Smith and M.J. de Goeje. (2 volumes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896-1898 (3rd ed.).
Site
Ǧīzah, ʿAmmān Governorate, Jordan
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Curse, Deity, Isolated Prayer, Religion
Old OCIANA ID
#0051916
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Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA