C 4718

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: C: w ns¹ḥ l-dqr "and abundant irrigation for a garden" for "and may the planting be well watered"
Commentary: The inscription shown on this copy is too fragmentary to allow any interpretation to be offered with confidence (see Macdonald 2009: I, 317, n. 96). If this interpretation is correct, the planting could refer to opportunistic sowing of grain in the desert (see Macdonald 2009: I, 316–318, and n. 106). It is worth noting that this text was reputedly found at the point where the Wādī al-Gharz debouches into the Ruḥbah, a large alluvial plain which is the largest area in the ḥarrah for opportunistic agriculture. Nevertheless, it should be stressed that, while this interpretation may be possible, given the problematic copy, it can be no more than a suggestion.

[MNH] Macdonald, M.C.A. Nomads and the Ḥawrān in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods: A reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. Syria 70, 1993: 303-413. [Reprinted with the same pagination, plus addenda and corrigenda as Article II in M.C.A. Macdonald, Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, (Variorum Collected Studies Series no. 906), Farnham: Ashgate, 2009].
[C] Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.

Site: On the left bank of Wādī Ġarz, beside the track leading from Damascus to the Ruḥbah (C p. 579), Al-Suwaydāʾ (al-Sweidah) or Rif Dimašq Governorates, Syria

Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA