KJA 20
Text Information
- Siglum
- KJA 20
- Transliteration
- ʿd ḏs²ry gḥf l h- yb{s¹} b rḥm w b gnnt w b s¹rr {ʾ}ḫ b{n} bhʾ w qdr frḥt b mrʾt ḥdṯt
- Translation
- May Ḏs²ry return Gḥf to the {woman} with tenderness and with madness (of passion) and with joy {ʾḫ ?} {son of} Bhʾ, and may [Ḏs²ry] cause happiness with a new woman
Interpretation
- Apparatus Criticus
- King (1990: 180–182) commented: "The text is below KJA 16. It is written down and then turns to the right and continues to the left. The last part is written upwards and then loops back. The end of the inscription b mrʾt ḥdṯt suggests that the prayer is concerned with love or sexual desire although it is difficult, as with the other longer love texts, to offer a satisfactory translation. There is another ‘love’ prayer in KJB 138 which is less ambiguous. The spine of the first d is faint but the reading is certain. The first word might derive from the weak roots ʿdd, ʿdw or ʿwd of which the last Ar. Form I ʿāda ‘return’ provides the most satisfactory meaning although here the verb has a transitive sense which is found in Ar. form IV ʾaʿādahu ‘restore it, return it’. The verb is a perfect with an optative sense. The object of the verb is gḥf or possibly gḥfl, both of which names occur frequently at these sites, although, since the verb ʿāda takes the preposition ‘to’, the l is most likely to be Ar. li ‘to’. The fourteenth letter was copied as r in the field but from the photograph the depth of the curve and a slight tail suggests that it is more likely a s¹. Given the uncertainty of the text it is worth mentioning possible translations should the reading r be correct. It might be a proper name, hybr is listed in Harding (1971: 631) as occurring in Qatabanian. Here is would be the name of a woman. An alternative division of the letters would be hy b rb etc. Ar. hawan means ‘beloved’ which would fit the context well although it is difficult to justify the lack of the medial w. b would be a preposition Ar. bi and rb the particle occurring frequently in other loves texts (see Ch.4.E.1), which I have translated as ‘much’. The initial part of the text would then read ‘May ḏs²ry return gḥf to a beloved [one] with much etc.’. However, I am inclined to think that the fourteenth letter is a s¹ and to read the letters h ybs¹ b, h being the definite article. yabās in Ar. has the meaning ‘genitals’ which would fit the ‘love’ context of the inscription and should perhaps be translated here as meaning ‘woman’. An explicit reference to the female anatomy in a sexual context probably underlies the word s¹lʿt in KJC 539. b would be the preposition bi ‘with’. gḥf has asked to be returned to the woman with a number of positive attributes, in KJB 138 the author has asked ḏs²ry to grant a woman without a series of negative ones. For rḥm, cf. Ar. ruḥm ‘tenderness’ and Syriac reḥem ‘tenderness, affection’. gnnt perhaps has a meaning similar to Ar. junūn ‘loss of reason’, referring here to the instability of ‘madness’ of passion. s¹rr occurs frequently in love texts at these sites, see KJA 24 (in an adverbial form) 46 etc., and I have translated it from Ar. surūr ‘happiness or joy’. I am uncertain how the next part of the text ʾḫ bn bhʾ should be translated. The reading of the letters is fairly certain although one of the forks of the first ʾ does not appear to be joined to the rest of the letter, a stroke of the ḫ is faint, the n, although copied in the field, is unclear in the photograph and the b has a slight tail, giving it the appearance of a k. The name bhʾ occurs as the father of gḥf in KJB 47 and 57 and the authors of these inscriptions sometimes write their patronym after the main part of the text, although usually at the end rather than in the middle. It is possible gḥf intended to finish at this point and then decided to continue. This interpretation, however, makes it difficult to explain ʾḫ. The following verb cf. Ar. qaddara ‘determine, ordain’, which I have translated as ‘cause’ is an optative with ḏs²ry as the implied subject. frḥt, Ar. farḥah ‘joy’, mrʾt Ar. maraʾah, the word probably occurs again in KJC 590. ḥdṯt is the fem. of Ar. ḥādiṯ ‘new’".
- Original Reading Credit
- King 1990: 180–182
- Original Translation Credit
- King 1990: 180–182
- Harding, G.L. An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian Names and Inscriptions. (Near and Middle East Series, 8). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971.
- King, G.M.H. Early North Arabian Thamudic E. A preliminary description based on a new corpus of inscriptions from the Ḥismā desert of southern Jordan and published material. Ph.D thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1990. [Unpublished]. 1990.
- Site
- Wādī Ǧudayyid site A, Al-‘Aqabah Governorate, Jordan
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subjects
- Deity, Genealogy, Isolated Prayer, Religion, Women
- Script
- Hismaic
- Old OCIANA ID
- #0047693
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