OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

U 031

Siglum
U 031
Alternative Sigla
Stiehl A 23/1–6; Al-Qudrah 1993: 21–22, no. 23/1–6; AH 037; D 116
Transliteration
ʿbdhgbr/b– n/ḥblʾl/ʾfy h- ẓll/l- ḏġbt/b- khl bʿd/dṯʾ -h/b- ḏʿmn/f rḍ -h/w s¹ʿd -h/w ʾḫrt -h w bn -h/ʿbb w ʿ----
Translation
ʿbdhgbr son of Ḥbʾl accomplished the ẓll-ceremony for Ḏġbt at Khl for the sake of his crops of the season of the later rains in Ḏʿmn and so favour him and help him and his posterity and his son ʿbb and ʿ----

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
TEXT Line 3. Abū l-Ḥasan: h- ṭll for h- ẓll. Line 6. Stiehl, followed by Al-Qudrah: ʿ(bs¹) w ʿ[bd] for ʿbb w ʿ​----; Sima: wʿ{y} rather than wʾ----; Abū l-Ḥasan: ʿ----wʿ rather than w ʿ----. TRANSLATION Line 2. ʾfy, Abū l-Ḥasan: '(he) offered'. Lines 2–3. ʾfy h- ẓll, Stiehl: '(he) gave the awning'; Al-Qudrah: '(he) constructed the awning'; Sima: '(he) maintained the subterranean water-channel'; Farès-Drappeau: '(he) paid the sacrifice'. Line 3. b- khl, Stiehl followed by Sima: 'by his abilities'; Al-Qudrah: 'professionally'; Abū l-Ḥasan: 'in the month Khl'. Line 4. bʿd, Farès-Drappeau: 'on behalf of'; dṯʾ -h, Stiehl followed by Al-Qudrah and Abū l-Ḥasan and Farès-Drappeau: 'his spring harvest'; bʿd dṯʾ -h, Sima: 'in the direction of his spring field'. Line 5. ʾḫrt -h, Farès-Drappeau: 'he has guided him'. DISCUSSION Macdonald 1992: 2–3, 7 for dṯʾ. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2014: 19–22, for the place names Ḏʿmn and Khl. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016: 128, for the divine name Ḏġbt.
Commentary
Due to a crack in the rock face, the lines are not aligned on the left side. On the right side the beginning of lines 1 and 2 are not aligned with those below them. Line 6. Although in Dadanitic orthography bn -h could represent either *banay -h "his two sons" or *ibn -h "his son" we cannot be sure that the letters after ʿbb represent the name of another son and it seems safer therefore to interpret it as "his son".

Provenance
Al-ʿUḏayb (Jabal ʿIkmah). The inscription is incised amongst a mass of other on one side of a huge rock, which Stiehl (1971: 4) called 'Block A'
Original Reading Credit
OCIANA
Original Translation Credit
OCIANA

Technique
Incised

Associated Inscriptions
It is to the right to U 033 and U 034, to the left of U 027 and U 028, and above U 032

  • 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 131–133 Plate 5
  • 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. pp 203–204
  • Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 13–14
  • Stiehl, R. Neue liḥyānische Inschriften aus al-ʿUḏaib I mit einem Nachtrag M. Höfners. Pages 3-40, 565-566, 569-594, pl. 1-45 in F. Altheim and R. Stiehl (eds), Christentum am Roten Meer. 1. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1971. pp 4, 26–27 Plate 26
  • Macdonald, M.C.A. The Seasons and Transhumance in the Safaitic Inscriptions. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 3rd. series, 2, 1992: 1-11.
  • Al-Qudrah, Ḥ.M. Dirāsah muʿǧamiyyah li-ʾlfāẓ al-nuqūš al-liḥyāniyyah fī iṭār al-luġāt al-sāmiyyah al-ǧanūbiyyah. Unpublished MA Thesis, Epigraphy Section, Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid. 1993.
  • 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
Site
The oasis of al-ʿUlā, Al-Madīnah Province, Saudi Arabia
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Agriculture, Deity, Genealogy, Isolated Prayer, Place-name, Religion, Season
Script
Dadanitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0037837
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