RQ.D 5

Siglum: RQ.D 5
Transliteration: l ʾnʿm bn mġny bn wḥs² bn wʿl w ng{ʿ} ʿl- bt -h ḍll mn- gm -h
Translation: By ʾnʿm son of Mġny son of Wḥs² son of Wʿl and he grieved in pain for his immediate family many of whom were lost

Interpretation

Commentary: See the commentary to 3. This text is lightly scratched and written boustrophedon. Note the curious form of the ḥ in wḥs², which looks more like a ḏ. There is an extraneous scratch, which is lighter and thinner than the lines which make up the letters running from the ʿ of ngʿ and across the g, making the ʿ look at first sight like a y. In view of the gender of ḍll, bt presumably represents bayt “immediate family, tent-group” rather than bint "daughter". The passage ḍll mn- gm -h would seem to mean literally "lost from much of it", that is "much of which was lost". The passive participle ḍll is used in Safaitic both of those who are lost and of those who are dead and it is not possible in this context to say which is intended here. For gm compare Arabic ǧamm "many, much" (Lane 449a).

Provenance: “Rijm Qaʿqūl D” is a low outcrop with cairns and ruined structures about 100 metres south. of the water tower at the Ruḥbà. None of the inscriptions found here had been published. 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.

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.
Inscriptions recorded by the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme in 1995 at a site not previously visited near Wetzstein's Riǧm Qaʿqūl, and published here.