AH 204

Siglum
AH 204
Transliteration
----ʿ----ʾl / bn / zdl{h} ---- ʾḫt -h / ʾrqww / h---- bt / hm -ḏ / nḏr / ḏġ[b][t] ---- [f] rḍ -hm / w s¹ʿd -hm / ---- s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ʾr[b][ʿ] ---- bn hnʾs¹ mlk lḥy[n] ---- rʿ
OCIANA
Translation
By / son of / ---- ʿ---- ʾl son of {Zdlh} ---- his sister ascended [the mountain] ---- bt in accordance with what he vowed to {Ḏġbt}----{and so} favour them and help them ---- In the year twenty{-four} ---- son of Hnʾs¹ king of {Lḥyn}---- --- rʿ
OCIANA
Language and Script
Dadanitic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
TEXT Line 1. Abū l-Ḥasan: s¹ʿdʾl for ----ʿ----ʾl. Line 6. Abū l-Ḥasan does not read bn at the beginning of this line. Lines 6–7. trʿ for ----rʿ. TRANSLATION Line 2. ʾrqww, Abū l-Ḥasan: '(they) spilled a liquid'. Line 3. hm -ḏ, Abū l-Ḥasan: 'since'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary
Line 2. For the verb ʾrqww <*rqw compare Arabic raqiya 'to ascend', 'to mount upon the mountain, upon the house-top' (Lane 1863-1893: 1140a/b). The fact that the inscription was found on the mountain Jabal ʾUmm Daraǧ corroborates this translation. Line 3. The expression hm ḏ nḏr 'in accordance with' is based on its occurrence in JSLih 073/4, see also Private Collection 1. The inscription is broken on the left side so it is very difficult to provide a suitable interpretation of the whole text. This practice of carving a text in relief but incising the last line(s) is quite common in Dadanitic. It might appear that the carver of a particular inscription miscalculated its length and ran out of space towards the end, so that he had to incise the last line(s) on the "frame", but this happens so often that one wonders if there could really have been so many incompetent masons in Dadan, and perhaps another explanation is needed.

Editio Princeps
OCIANA

Technique
Mixed relief & incised
Direction of Script
Horizontal line right to left

  • [AH] Abū ʾl-Ḥasan, Ḥ.ʿA.D. Nuqūš liḥyānīyah min minṭaqat al-ʿulā. (Dirāsah taḥlīliyyah muqāranah). al-Riyāḍ: Wizārat al-maʿārif, 2002. pp 56–58
  • Hidalgo-Chacón Díez. M. del C. The divine names at Dadan: a philological approach. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 46, 2016: 125–136
  • [Lane] Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon, Derived from the Best and Most Copious Eastern Sources. (Volume 1 in 8 parts [all published]). London: Williams & Norgate, 1863-1893.
Site
The oasis of al-ʿUlā, Al-Madīnah Province, Saudi Arabia
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Date (s¹nt), Deity, Genealogy, Historical, Isolated Prayer, Relatives, Religion, Topographic features
Old OCIANA ID
#0033213
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Updated 08 Jan, 2025 by OCIANA