OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

KJC 115

Text Information

Siglum
KJC 115
Transliteration
s¹mʿt ḏs²[r]y l zdn w ʿ{ṣ}b {-h} h lt lʾlk{n}
Translation
That {Ḏs²ry} may listen to Zdn and {bind ?} {him} O lt lʾlk{n}

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
King (1990: 324–325) commented: "The text starts after KJC 107. Several of the letters are unclear and the rock is chipped and worn at the end. The r has been left out of the divine name ḏs²ry. Prayers using s¹mʿt occur elsewhere, see Ch.4.C.4, but the rest of the inscription is difficult to interpret. A circle with a line attached are the only parts of the letter after the second ʿ which are visible. The length of the line suggests that it is not a y when compared to that letter in ḏs²ry which has only a short tail and perhaps the abrasion covers another circle at the end in which case the letter should be read g or perhaps the fork of a ṣ is obscured. Form II of the root ʿjb, Ar. ʿajjaba means ‘cause to wonder’ and the underlying meaning of the root ʿṣb is ‘twist, wind’ cf. Ar. ʿaṣaba ‘he tied or bound’. The following h of which the fork is indistinct, is most probably the third person suffixed pronoun. The reading h lt ‘O lt’ is certain and since there is no conjunctive particle the deity must be the subject of the verb which would be the feminine imperative form. The word order however, is different from more certain examples in Saf., where imperative verbs occur after the deity’s name (see Ch.4 n.43). The meaning of ‘Cause him to wonder O lt’ or ‘Bind him O lt’ is obscure. The final part of the text might be a prepositional phrase introduced by l Ar. li with the meaning ‘to’ or ‘for’ with a following proper name ʾkln (cf. ʾkl Harding 1971: 62) or perhaps it should be interpreted as an initial l introducing another text l ʾkln ‘By ʾkln’. For texts that are inscribed directly after another, see for example, KJC 99 and 100 on this rock and Ch.2.G".

Original Reading Credit
King 1990: 324–325
Original Translation Credit
King 1990: 324–325

  • 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 [Unpublished]. 1990.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 C, Al-‘Aqabah Governorate, Jordan
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Deity, Isolated Prayer, Religion
Script
Hismaic
Old OCIANA ID
#0049189
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