RQ.A 1

Siglum: RQ.A 1
Transliteration: l ġṯ bn ms¹k bn ḫrg bn ḥt w s²ry h- frs¹ m- mlk b- ʿs²rn mny
Translation: By Ġṯ son of Ms¹k son of Ḫrg son of Ḥt and he bought the horse from Mlk for twenty minas

Interpretation

Commentary: The text is written in large incised letters around the drawing. There is a clear distinction between b and r in this text, except it seems in the first word of the narrative which looks like s²by where the sense demands s²ry "he bought". The only other record in the Safaitic graffiti of the purchase of a horse (this time for five minas) is C 3916.

Provenance: “Rijm Qaʿqūl A” is about 900 m to the south-east of the Ruḥbah water tower, on the right bank of Wādī Shām before it arrives in the Ruḥbah. It is a large cairn with a few ruined houses and very few inscriptions. The name "Rijm Qaʿqūl" was applied by nineteenth-century visitors to at least four large outcrops at the southern end of the Ruḥbah, to the south and south-west of the modern water tower. This helps to explain the curious fact that there is no overlapping between the "Rijm Qaʿqūl" copies of de Vogüé (de Vogüé 1868–1877: nos. 212–215, 217, 219–224, 226–234, 389) and Waddington (de Vogüé 1868–1877: nos. 235–253, 388, 390–393, 397–400), Wetzstein (1860: nos 41–48, and at "a mound 10 minutes from Rijm Qaʿqūl", nos 68–88) and Dussaud/ Macler (1903: nos 30–51, 53–124), and only in a very few cases between those of de Vogüé and Waddington. We only identified the site visited by Wetzstein (Rijm Qaʿqūl A) and by but have not yet found those where de Vogüé /Waddington and Dusaud/Macler worked. The inscriptions we found at Rijm Qaʿqūl A were all texts copied by Wetzstein and no one else. It is likely therefore that this is the place he regarded as "Rijm Qaʿqūl".

Associated Signs: Sun sign near the horse's back legs
Associated Drawings: A horseman pursuing with a lance what is probably an oryx

Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.