AH 138

Siglum: AH 138
Alternative Sigla: Sima 1999: 45–46
Transliteration: zkyh[/]s¹lḥ/ḏġbt ʾgw/ʾ- ẓll/l- ḏġb– t bʿd/ṯbrt -h/w s²ym -h f rḍ -h/w ʾṯb -h
Translation: Zkyh priest of Ḏġbt organized the ẓll-ceremonies for Ḏġb– t for the sake of his grain and his field and so favour him and reward him

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: TEXT Line 2. Abū l-Ḥasan: ʾṭll rather than ʾẓll. TRANSLATION Line 1. Sima does not translate the word s¹lḥ. Line 2. ʾgw, Abū l-Ḥasan: '(he) offered; ʾgw ʾẓll, Sima: '(he) covered the subterranean water-channels'. Line 4. ṯbr -h w s²ym -h, Abū l-Ḥasan: 'his agricultural field and his black camels'; bʿd ṯbr -h w s²ym -h, Sima: 'in the direction of his fallow field and his field'. DISCUSSION Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary: Lin2 2. The use of ʾ- instead instead of h- as the definite article in line 4, is unlikely to be a mistake on the part of the carver, as suggested by Sima, but instead is probably an alternative form of the definite article, as in Safaitic, see Al-Jallad 2015: 16–17. Other examples can be found in AH 119 and JSLih 276. Line 4. We follow Farès-Drappeau (2005: 206, siglum D 121) in taking ṯbrt as possibly cognate with Hebrew šeber "grain". Though this is by no means certain, it fits the context well. See also the discussion in Sima 1999: 45–46.

Abū ʾl-Ḥasan, Ḥ.ʿA.D. Qirāʾah li-kitābāt liḥyāniyyah min ǧabal ʿakmah bi-minṭaqat al-ʿulā. Al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-malik fahd al-waṭaniyyah, 1997. pp 300–302 Plate 16
Farès-Drappeau, S. Dédan et Liḥyān. Histoire des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse et hellénistique (IVe–IIe s. avant l'ère chrétienne). (Travaux de la maison de l'Orient, 42). Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée — Jean Pouilloux, 2005. No. 121 pp 206
Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 45–46
Al-Jallad, A.M. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 80). Leiden: Brill, 2015.
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