U 072

Siglum: U 072
Transliteration: bl{q}ṭ/b[n] bġḍh/ḏ- ʿmrtʿ/ʾẓ– ll/l- ḏġb[t] b- khl/bʿ[d] ----l -h/b- blḥ [f][r]ḍ -h/w s¹ʿd -h
Translation: {Blqṭ} {son of} Bġḍh of the family of ʿmrtʿ per– formed {the ẓll-ceremony} for {Ḏġbt} at Khl {for the sake of} his ----l at Blḥ {and so} {favour} him and help him

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Line 2. Sima reads the name as Mġḍh, but it seems more likely that it is Bġḍh (compare the m in the line below). Bġḍ is well-known from Safaitic and Bġḍt has been found once in WH 1952 (Winnett and Harding 1978: 303, pl. 37). Line 5. It seems unlikely that more than one letter has been lost at the end of line 5, but there is space for several letters in the patch of damage at the beginning of line 6. Lines 5–6. Sima restores [nḫ]l -h, but there are other possibilities such [m kn] l -h, [m] l -h or [ḏ] l -h. TRANSLATION Lines 3–4. ʾẓll l- ḏġb[t], Sima: '(he) covered for Ḏġbt (the subterranean water-channel)'. Line 5. b- khl bʿ[d], Sima: 'by his abilities in the direction [of]'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2014: 16–17, 20–22, for the place names Blḥ and Khl. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary: Both sides of the text have been damaged with the loss of a number of letters. Line 1. The q in the first name has strange shape, but cannot really be anything else. Lines 8–9. Since it seems that the beginnings of the lines on the right side of the inscription were not aligned vertically but that each line began a little further to the right than the one before, it is possible that the h of s¹ʿd -h may have been carved at the end of 6 and that the single h in line 8 may be the end of [ʾḫrt] -h.

Provenance: Al-ʿUḏayb (Jabal ʿIkmah). The inscription is chiselled on a rock inside the gorge
Original Reading Credit: OCIANA
Original Translation Credit: OCIANA

Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 23 Plate 17b
Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978. pp 303 Plate 37
Hidalgo-Chacón Díez, M. del C. Place names in the Dadanitic inscriptions of al-ʿUḏayb. Adumatu 30, 2014: 15-30
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