SHSP 1

Text Information

Siglum
SHSP 1
Transliteration
l mʿn bn ṣyd bn ḥd ḏ- ʾl ms¹lq w qyẓ mʿ ʾl tdmr ʿl- fnyt ḫfr l- -hm w wgd s¹fr ḫl -h mḥwr
Ahmad Al-Jallad (OCIANA)
Translation
By Mʿn son of Ṣyd son of Ḥd of the lineage of Ms¹lq and he spent the dry season with the people of Tdmr [Palmyra] on the edge of Fnyt as a guide for them, and he found the inscription of his maternal uncle Mḥwr
Ahmad Al-Jallad (OCIANA)
Language and Script
Safaitic 3

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus

SHSP: qyf "he followed the trace" for qyẓ "he spent the dry season"; ḫfr "guard" for "guide."

Commentary

qyẓ: It is clear that the first verb is qyẓ not qyf as read in the editio princeps since the third letter is quite different from the two examples of f in the text.

FnytThis is the name of what appears to have been the region on the border of the ḥarrah and the ḥamād where some nomads spent the dry season (see for example AbaNS 92, BES18 2 and a number of other inscriptions found along this border by the Badia Epigraphic Survey and which will be entered in this database in the near future). 

ḫfrThis can be compared to Classical Arabic ḫafīrun, meaning "protector" or "guardian (of people) who remain under their protection as long as they are in their territory" (Lane 722c). More likely, considering the usage in Safaitic, it refers to a "guide" (SafDict, 80), someone leading the Palmyrenes through the Ḥarrah on a journey to the Ḥawrān.

Editio Princeps
Al-Salameen, Harahsheh, & Al-Shdaifat 2019
Field Collector
Al-Salameen, Harahsheh, & Al-Shdaifat

Technique
Chiselled
Direction of Script
Coil

Associated Signs
Two sets of 7 lines, 6 lines joined at one end
Associated Inscriptions
SHSP 2 lightly incised between lines 2 and 3.

  • [SafDict] Al-Jallad, A. & Jaworska, K. A Dictionary of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill, 2019
  • [SHSP] Al-Salāmīn [Al-Salameen], Z.M., Ḥarāḥšah [Harahsheh], R.M.A. & Al-Shdaifat, Y. The Palmyrenes in a new Safaitic inscription. Syria 96, 2019: 387–394.
Site
Tall Buḫaytah in al-Laẓayim, west of Qāʿ Abū al-Ḥuṣayn and south-west of Al-Ruwayšid, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
Date Found
2017
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Finding inscription(s), Genealogy, Outside peoples, Relatives, Season
Old OCIANA ID
#0057056
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Updated 01 Apr, 2025 by Ahmad Al-Jallad