OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

LP 407

Siglum
LP 407
Alternative Sigla
Is.Mu 89
Transliteration
l wrd bn ḥr bn wrd w ḥll {h-} dr w rʿy bql b- ks¹ʾ ʾmt w ngy s¹nt {ʾ}bʾs¹ m- s²ry h- ns¹ ʾld -h w ḍll h- nʿm f h bʿls¹mn rwḥ l- ḏ s¹ʾr w ʿwr l- ḏ yʿwr h- s¹fr
Translation
By Wrd son of Ḥr son of Wrd and he camped here and pastured on spring herbage during the cosmical setting/full moon of Libra and he was saved the year in which calamity befell his children through the epidemic of pox [lit. the pox of the people] and the live-stock died [lit. went astray] and so O Bʿls¹mn [send] relief to whoever leaves intact and blindness to whoever scratches out the writing

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
LP 407: ḥb for ḥr ; rʿy bql b- ks¹ʾ h- ʾmt "and he tended flocks seeking green fodder at the expense of the community" for rʿy bql b- ks¹ʾ ʾmt "pastured on spring herbage during the cosmical setting/full moon of Libra"; w ngy s¹nt bʾs¹ m- s²ry h- ns¹ ʾndh "and he rushed forth in the year in which he was grieved by the scoff of the people" for w ngy s¹nt {ʾ}bʾs¹ m- s²ry h- ns¹ ʾld -h "and he was saved the year in which calamity befell his children through the epidemic of pox [lit. the pox of the people]"; w ḍll h- nʿm "he drove together and lost the camels" for "and the livestock died [lit. went astray]". O'Connor (1986: 609-610) wrongly emends what is clearly m- s²ry to read ms²rk.
Commentary
The r's in this text have hooks and the second name is clearly ḥr. For b- ks¹ʾ ʾmt meaning "during the cosmical setting/full moon of Libra" see Al-Jallad 2016: 101. Littmann omitted the {ʾ} after s¹nt on his copy. On the black-and-white photograph showing a detail of this section of the text the very faint lower fork of the ʾ can be made out. In s¹nt {ʾ}bʾs¹ m- s²ry h- ns¹ ʾld -h, the verb is ʾbʾs¹ "calamity befell (him)" (Lane 146a), the subject being ʾld -h (ʾawladu-hu). In the expression s²ry h- ns¹, s²ry would seem to be cognate with Classical Arabic s²aran "a kind of pox (Lane 1545c) and h- ns¹ "of the people", thus "the pox of the people", i.e. "an epidemic". ḍll may be meant literally "went astray" or metaphorically "died". nʿm = "camels, cattle, sheep".

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
LP 407–408 (= Is.Mu 89–90) on the same face as the beginning of LP 406 (= Mu 88); Is.Mu 91 on an adjacent face Beginning of LP 406, 408 (on the same face); 408.1 (on an adjacent face)

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • O'Connor, M. The Etymology of Saracen in Aramaic and Pre-Islamic Contexts. Pages 603-632 in P. Freeman and D. Kennedy (eds), The Defence of the Roman and Byzantine East. Proceedings of a colloquium held at the University of Sheffield in April 1986 (British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, Monograph 8). (British Archaeological Reports, International Series, 297.2). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1986.
  • Al-Jallad, A.M An Ancient Arabian Zodiac. The Constellations in the Safaitic Inscriptions. Part II. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 27, 2016: 84–106.
  • Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.
Site
Al-ʿĪsāwī, Rif Dimašq Governorate, Syria
Date Found
1904–1905; 1995–2002
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Astronomical, Camping, Curse, Deity, Domestic animals, Genealogy, Isolated Prayer, Medical, Pasturing, Plants, Relatives
Script
Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0008991
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