KJC 590

Siglum: KJC 590
Transliteration: ny{k} ----rʾt ks¹by bṣ fʾ lḥgbhns²mm
Translation: ---- {had sex repeatedly} with a woman ---- ks¹by bṣ fʾ lḥgbhns²mm

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: King (1990: 426–427) commented: "I cannot translate this text satisfactorily but it may be worth mentioning some of the possibilities and difficulties. The first word nyk is clear despite the fact that the tail of the k is slightly curved, and probably the rest of the inscription is related to love or sexual activity. The name of the subject of the verb is covered by hammer marks as is the first letter of the object which I would restore as m and read mrʾt, Ar. maraʾah ‘woman’, which occurs in KJA 20 and KJB 129. The s¹ of the next word has been left out and is written to the right of the k. The next letter is probably a b although the curve is not as pronounced as the other b’s in the text. I am inclined to read the word ks¹by as a name either of the woman or in construct with mrʾt ‘the wife of ks¹by’. ks¹by is not in Harding 1971. There are several possible divisions of the following letters and none of them are altogether satisfactory. One alternative is to read bṣ and translate it from Ar. bayṣ ‘difficulty’, here as an adverbial particle ‘with difficulty’, cf. my suggestion for ʿṣ in KJA 28. A second alternative would be to divide the letters b ṣfʾ where b would be the infinitive noun ṣafāʾ of the verb ṣafā meaning ‘happiness, joy’. b would be the preposition ‘with’ and the phrase would translate as ‘with happiness’. I cannot see with either of these how the rest would translate".

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 [Unpublished]. 1990.