C 4756

Siglum: C 4756
Alternative Sigla: Dunand 880 b
Transliteration: l ʾḥrg bn ʾys¹ ḏ- ʾl qs²m w kry l- ʾys¹ bn -h h- rmy f h lt s¹lm l- -h w s¹ʿd (-h) (h) rḍy
OCIANA
Translation: By ʾḥrg son of ʾys¹ of the lineage of Qs²m and he grieved for ʾys¹ his son the Roman and so O Lt keep {him} safe and help {him} {O} Rḍy
OCIANA
Language and Script: Safaitic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: C: ʾḥlm for ʾḥrg; w kry l- ʾys¹ bn -h h- rgy "and he dug for ʾys¹ his son this well" for w kry l- ʾys¹ bn -h h- rmy "and he grieved for ʾys¹ his son the Roman"; w s¹ʿd b- (h) rḍy "and happiness through (H-) Rḍy" for s¹ʿd (-h) (h) rḍy "and save {him{ {O} Rḍy"
Commentary: The translation offered here is based on the following. We have interpreted kry on the basis of Syriac kǝrā "to grieve [for someone]" which can take either ʿal or lǝ- (Sokoloff 2009: 650b). Grammatically, there is no way of telling whether the author or h-rmy is the subject of this verb, but there seems no identifiable reason why a Roman should grieve for this man's son and so it is more likely that it was the author who was grieving. In this case h-rmy must refer to the son, ʾys¹. This does not mean, of course, that he was a Roman citizen (though depending on the date, it could be possible that he was). It is more likely that he had gone to work for the Romans, either as a soldier or in another capacity, and was called h-rmy by his family because of this. An alternative interpretation of h-rmy would be "the archer", compare Classical Arabic ramā "to shoot an arrow" (Lane 1161a). Either way, he was apparently in trouble and his father was worried for him.

[Lane] Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon, Derived from the Best and Most Copious Eastern Sources. (Volume 1 in 8 parts [all published]). London: Williams & Norgate, 1863-1893.
[C] Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.
Sokoloff, M. A Syriac Lexicon. A Translation from the Latin, Correction, Expansion, and Update of C. Brockelmann's Lexicon Syriacum. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns / Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2009.

Site: On the left bank of Wādī Ġarz, beside the track leading from Damascus to Zalaf (C p. 585), Al-Suwaydāʾ (al-Sweidah) or Rif Dimašq Governorates, Syria

Date Found: 1920s and 1930s
Current Location: In situ
Subjects: Deity, Genealogy, Grieving, Isolated Prayer, Lineage, Outside peoples, Relatives
Old OCIANA ID: #0007960
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Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA

OCIANA. 'C 4756.' OCIANA. 16 Sep, 2024. https://ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions/15779. Accessed: 13 Jun, 2025.