LP 299

Siglum: LP 299
Alternative Sigla: Is.Mu 31
Transliteration: l nẓmʾl bn mms²y bn bʿḏrh bn ġḍḍt bn ʾnḍt bn ws²yt w ṣyr mn- rḥbt f wdʿ
Translation: By Nẓmʾl son of Mms²y son of Bʿḏrh son of Ġḍḍt son of ʾnḍt son of Ws²yt and he returned to the watering place from rḥbt, and he became wealthy

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 299: ʾnḍḫ for ʾnḍt;
Commentary: The inscription is carved on three faces of the stone. The final word is difficult to make out on the photograph, but the second letter is almost certainly a d rather than a g as copied by Littmann. The translation of wdʿ is based on comparison with Arabic wadaʿa "to become wealthy", though it could also mean "he became calm" (Hava 859).

Provenance: Al-ʿĪsāwī Area H. Al-ʿĪsāwī is the name of a probably ancient well between two headlands on the eastern side of the Wādī Shām as it runs northwards from the modern Al-Namārah dam to the Ruḥbah. The well is large, stone lined and with stone water-channels running from it. The main concentration of published inscriptions is on the top of the northern headland, but there also many inscriptions on its south-west slopes, coming down to the well and on the southern headland, on the crest of which is a stone tower. Littmann visited the site twice when he and other members of the expeditions copied some 450 inscriptions. Between 1996 and 2003, the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme [SESP] made a comprehensive survey of the site recording over 3500 inscriptions.

Associated Inscriptions

Littmann, E. Safaïtic Inscriptions. Syria. Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904–1905 and 1909. Division IV. Section C. Leiden: Brill, 1943.
Hava, J.G. Al-Faraid Arabic-English Dictionary. Fifth edition. Beirut: Dār al-Mašriq, 1982.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.