RWQ 191

Siglum: RWQ 191
Transliteration: l {ḥ}{n}y bn ys¹lm bn {ʿ}{w}ḏn bn mlk w ḥll h- dr s¹nt gly ʾl- ʾbgr mn- s¹dr w ḫw{ʾ} {ʾ}l yhd f h bʿls¹mn fṣyt m- bʾs¹ w ḫlṣt
OCIANA
Translation: By {Ḥny} son of Ys¹lm son of {ʿwḏn} son of Mlk and he camped here the year the lineage of ʾbgr fled from S¹dr and {the driving out} of the {people of} the Jews and so O Bʿls¹mn [grant] deliverance from misfortune and safety
OCIANA
Language and Script: Safaitic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: RmNSWQ 191: l ḥy bn ys¹lm bn gḏl bn mlk w ḥll h- dr s¹nt......
Commentary: The inscription runs over five faces of the rock. Comparison with other inscriptions which contain the part of this genealogy after the first name show that the third name must be ʿwḏn despite the large and misshapen ʿ. The n can be seen on the photograph, just after the ḏ. The interpretation of the passage read as w ḫw{ʾ} {ʾ}l yhd is suggested tentatively and is not a secure basis for historical speculation! The letter read as the first ʾ has been converted from a b and so has a curved form, while the letter read as the second ʾ looks more like a ṯ, and to read it as ʾ one would have to assume that the prongs of the forks at each end had been joined. The word ḫw{ʾ} has been explained from the infinitive (ḫawāʾ) of the Arabic verb ḫawā "to become devoid of inhabitants, unoccupied" used of houses or places (Lane 827b). The word gly occurs in two other Safaitic inscriptions (Ali Hajaj 22 and AbaNS 881). It has been interpreted on the basis of Arabic ǧalā "to emigrate, flee, be dispersed from one's abode through fea or famine" (Lane 446c). The ʾl ʾbgr may possibly be the people of Edessa which had a series of kings of this name, see Macdonald 2014: 160, n. 78.

[RWQ] Al-Rūsān [Al-Rousan, Rousan], M.M. Nuqūš ṣafawīyah min wādī qiṣṣāb bi-ʾl-urdun. Dirāsah maydānīyah taḥlīlīyah muqāranah. Unpublished doctoral thesis King Saʿūd University, Riyadh. 2004.
[Lane] 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.
Macdonald, M.C.A. ‘Romans Go Home’? Rome and other ‘Outsiders’ as viewed from the Syro-Arabian Desert. Pages 145-163 in J.H.E. Dijkstra & G. Fisher (eds), Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity. (Late Antique History and Religion, 8). Louvain: Peeters, 2014.

Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA