LP 330

Siglum: LP 330
Alternative Sigla: Is.Mu 144
Transliteration: l qdm bn ʾnʿm bn mġny bn mġny w qyẓ ʿl- h- nmrt w qnṭ h- s²nʾ f h lt s¹lm
Translation: By Qdm son of ʾnʿm son of Mġny son of Mġny and he spent the dry season near Al-Namārah and he feared the enemy, so, O Lt, [grant] security

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 330: ʿl- h- nmrt "in front of han-Namārat" for "near Al-Namārah"
Commentary: The usual expression is w qyẓ + place name or topographic feature, and it is not entirely clear what qyẓ ʿl- implies. Al-ʿĪsāwī where this inscription was found is about 3.3 km north of the basin of Al-Namārah and about 1 km north-east of the modern barrage at the north-eastern end of the (ancient) lake at Ishbikkat al-Namārah. For this reason we have translated ʿl- as "near". Al-Jallad (2015: 148–149) translates "on the edge of Namārah".

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.

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.
Al-Jallad, A.M. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 80). Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.