KJC 138

Siglum
KJC 138
Transliteration
s¹r zdhlh f g{h}{d} {h}rʿ b{ġ} ḥt {h} s¹ḥ ʿn ḥt w zdlh ḫṭṭ
OCIANA
Translation
Zdlh journeyed and so {he exerted himself, hurrying, searching for} male ostrich of these regions after male ostrich, and Zdlh is [the] drawer
OCIANA
Language and Script
Hismaic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
TRANSLATION ḫṭṭ, King: "[the] inscriber". DISCUSSION King (1990: 330–331) commented: "The text is difficult to translate with confidence as the paucity of particles makes the division of some of the words ambiguous and several of the letters are unclear. s¹r, cf. Ar. sāra ‘journey’. In this context it might equally be translated from sarā ‘journey by night’. Since zdlh has stated he is the inscriber, it is reasonable to assume that the is the subject of the text although he has made a mistake and written zdhl. The next h is most probably a correction, although he has not crossed out the previous one written before the l, as, if it is taken as a particle, then it is difficult to see how the rest of the text would divide up satisfactorily. The word after the particle f is doubtful. The fork of the h is partly damaged and the following d has an indistinct spine and the loop of the letter is partially filled in. If the spine is not intentional, it could be a damaged t or b. Ar. jahada means ‘labour, exert oneself’, a translation from the passive juhida ‘he was wearied’ would fit the context equally well. The next letter might be an ʾ although what appears to be the bottom right hand fork is a slight chip perhaps caused by the inscribing of the r which, having been left out was added to the right. The Ar. verb haraʿa means ‘hurry, go quickly’ and here would be a participle hāriʿ as would be the following word bġ cf. Ar. baġā ‘seek after’, participle bāgin. Both words form a ḥāl clause (Wright 1896-1898: 112 C,D). The word ḥt occurs in Saf. C 4384 in the phrase w ṣ¹yd ḥt which the Corpus translates as ‘Et piscatus est pisces’ cf. Ar. ḥūt ‘a fish’. It is more likely, at least in the region where the present inscription was found that the word refers to an animal of some kind. The word ḥatt in Ar. has the meaning ‘swift’ and is applied not only to horses and camels but also to a male ostrich. As. sāḥah pl. sāḥ and sūḥ refers to a court-yard or open space in front of a house but can also mean ‘region or tract’ which would be suitable in this context. An alternative translation from s¹yḥ, sayḥ ‘running water’ would be appropriate if ḥt meant ‘fish’ but would not be relevant to an ostrich hunt. For ʿn Ar. ʿan with the meaning ‘after’, see Wright 1896-1898: 143A and the examples quoted in Lane: 2164b. For the formula at the end of the text, see Ch.4.G.(3)".

Editio Princeps
King 1990: 330–331

  • [AMJ] 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.
  • [Lane] 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.
  • Wright, W. A Grammar of the Arabic Language. Translated from the German of Caspari and edited with numerous additions and corrections. Third edition revised by W. Robertson Smith and M.J. de Goeje. (2 volumes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1896-1898 (3rd ed.).
Site
Wādī Ǧudayyid site C, Al-‘Aqabah Governorate, Jordan
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Camping, Wild animals
Old OCIANA ID
#0049215
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Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA