LP 305

Siglum: LP 305
Alternative Sigla: Is.Mu 44
Transliteration: l mnʾl bn ʾws¹ʾl bn s¹ḫr bn ḥml w wgd s¹fr mnʾl w s¹fr tmʾl w s¹fr s¹ḫr <<>> ḍlln f h lt s¹lm l- ḏ s¹ʾr w nqmt m ḏ qtl w wgm ʿl- ʾs¹ w ʿl- wdʿ gr {-h} ḍlly w h bʿl[[]][[]][[]]s¹mn ʿwr ḏ yʿwr h- s¹fr
Translation: By Mnʾl son of ʾws¹ʾl son of S¹ḫr son of Ḥml and he found the inscription of Mnʾl and the inscription of Tmʾl and the inscription of S¹ḫr who are lost and so O Lt [grant] security to him who remains and revenge on him who killed [them] and he grieved for ʾs¹ and for Wdʿ {his} neighbour both lost and O Bʿls¹mn blind whoever scratches out the inscription

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 305 reads the scratched over d before ḍlln as a h; wdʿ w kl ḍlly for wdʿ gr {-h} ḍlly.
Commentary: After w s¹fr s¹ḫr the author appears to have carved a d before scratching over it and carving a ḍ. It is impossible to know whether he had originally intended to carve something else or whether /d/ and /ḍ/ were close enough in his dialect for him to be uncertain as to which was required. Ḍlln here is the plural of the passive participle. Although, it literally means "lost", it is clear from what follows that they had been killed. Whereas, s¹ʾr is usually found in blessings on those who leave the inscription "untouched", here, in the context of the cry for revenge on the murderer(s), it would seem to refer to the author as the one who was not killed, and so "remains". After wdʿ, Littmann reads w kl ḍlly, despite the fact that his copy has gr {-h}. We have interpreted gr on the basis of Arabic ǧār "neighbour". If the next letter is a h, as we have read it, it's fork has been covered by a thicker line running from the ḍ across it and the r and ending just above the g. Ḍlly here would be the dual referring to the two men for whom he was grieving. In the following prayer, the author first continued the divine name bʿls¹mn on the same face, but then realised that he did not have enough space for the rest of the prayer and so scratched out the letters lmn and recarved them on the adjacent face with the rest of the prayer.

Provenance: 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.

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.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.

Date Found: 1904–1905
Current Location: In situ
Subjects: Curse, Deity, Finding inscription(s), Genealogy, Grieving, Isolated Prayer
Script: Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID: #0008889
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