C 766

Siglum: C 766
Alternative Sigla: Dunand 1161 a
Transliteration: l mty bn ʾs¹lhm w wgm [ʿ][l]- ʾhl [-h] h- frs¹
Translation: By Mty son of ʾs¹lhm and he grieved {for} {his} family [and his is] the horseman

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: C: ʾẓlm for ʾs¹lhm; wgm ʾhl h-frs¹ for wgm ʿ][l]- ʾhl [-h] h- frs¹
Commentary: The phrase ʾhlhfrs¹ for *ʾahlohaffaras¹ is probably an example of cross word-boundary assimilation, as in wlhrgm for *waloharrugm. See Macdonald 2018.

Provenance: We have not been able to identify this site with any certainty. According to C (p. 91), it is about 30 km west of Ruǧm al-Marʾah. The co-ordinates we have given it are therefore taken from a point 30 km due west of Ruǧm al-Marʾah, but this can only be a very approximate position. Note that this site is not the same as Ḥuǧayr al-Helle, where C 2 was found, which is on the north-western edge of the Ṣafā.

Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.
Al-Jallad, A.M. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 80). Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Macdonald, M.C.A. Clues as to how a Nabataean may have spoken from a Hismaic inscription. Pages 231–239 in G.R. Smith, Near Eastern and Arabian Essays: Studies in Honour of John Healey. (Journal of Semitic Studies Supplement, 41) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018