OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

U 028

Siglum
U 028
Alternative Sigla
Stiehl A 20; Al-Qudrah 1993: 20, no. 20; D 113
Transliteration
zdlh/t----r/ʾẓl hrb---- l/ḏh ʾr---- ḏġbt/b- khl bʿd/dṯʾ -h/b- ḏʿ– mn/f rḍ -h/w ʾḫrt -h
Translation
Zdlh T----r performed the ẓll-ceremony Hrb ---- this ʾr --- Ḏġbt at Khl for the sake of his crops of the season of the later rains in Ḏʿ– mn and so favour him and his posterity

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
TEXT The line numbers below refer to the OCIANA reading not those of Stiehl, Sima, Al-Qudrah and Farès-Drappeau. What they read as line 1 is U 27.1 here. Line 1. Stiehl followed by Al-Qudrah and Farès-Drappeau: tmhr rather than t--- -r; Sima: t[l]{f}r for t----r in addition, he marks the word divider between the first two words as doubtful, but it is clear in the photographs. Lines 2–3 . Stiehl, followed by Al-Qudrah and Farès-Drappeau does not read the whole of line 2 and the beginning of line 3 in the OCIANA reading. Stiehl followed by all subsequent editors, takes the half line above line 1 as the first line of this text. However, the fact that its beginning is not aligned with the rest of the text and the odd relationship of the words in it to those at the beginning of line 2, suggest it should be taken as a separate text giving just a name and patronym, which we have designated as U 027.1. TRANSLATION Line 1. ʾẓl, Stiehl : '(he) took care'; Al-Qudrah: '(he) constructed'; Sima: '(he) covered'; Farès-Drappeau: '(he) offered'. Line 3. b- khl, Stiehl followed by Sima: 'by his abilities'; Al-Qudrah: 'professionally'; AH: 'in the month Khl'. Line 4. bʿd dṯʾ -h, Sima: 'in the direction of his spring field'; Farès-Drappeau: 'on behalf of his spring harvest'; dṯʾ -h, Stiehl followed by Al-Qudrah: 'his spring harvest'. Line 5. ʾḫrt -h, Farès-Drappeau: 'he has guided him'. DISCUSSION Déroche 1987: 228. 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
The first three lines are in relief and the last two are incised. Line 1. The letters between the t and the letter r in the second word are not sufficiently clear on the photographs to attempt a reading. The verb ʾẓl means "he performed the ẓll-ceremony", the exact nature of which we do not know. Usually, but not always, this verb is followed by the noun h-ẓll meaning "the ẓll-ceremony". Thus, ʾẓl and ʾẓl h-ẓll both mean "he performed the ẓll-ceremony". Line 2. The relationship of the first word to the demonstrative adjective ḏh at the end of the line is uncertain. The first word looks like h- rbġ (cf. Arabic rabaġ "abundance of the good things of life" ?), but it is difficult to see how this can relate to the verb which immediately precedes it. Lines 4–5. These are incised and are inset in relation to lines 1–3.

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

Technique
Mixed relief & incised

Associated Inscriptions
It is below U 027, to the right of U 031 and U 032, to the left of U 024 and above U 029

  • 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 202
  • Sima, A. Die lihyanischen Inschriften von al-ʿUḏayb (Saudi-Arabien). (Epigraphische Forschungen auf der Arabischen Halbinsel, 1). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 1999. pp 13 Plate 7a
  • 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, 24–25 Plate 24
  • 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.
  • Déroche, F. Recherches sur l'oasis de Dedan / al-Ula. Thèse de Doctorat: Études arabo-islamiques, Paris IV, 1987. [Unpublished], 1987.
  • 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, Isolated Prayer, Place-name, Religion, Season
Script
Dadanitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0037843
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