LP 430

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 430: bll for {kn}.
Commentary: Area A. The stem of the second letter of ẓnʾl is not as long as it appears at first glance. It was extended up in alignment with it and a more thinly scratched line running round the ẓ was then drawn to join it with the lām auctoris. The very thinly scratched line which crosses the g is extraneous. The third prong of the ḏ is joined to the previous letter. The reading of the last two/three letters is not completely certain: it is possible that the join between the curving part of the k and the vertical stem which follows is accidental (it continues beyond the vertical line and touches the last letter). However, the reading kn is confirmed by other examples of the gnealogy such as WH 1685 and KRS 1169. Five m's of various sizes have been incised on the same face of the stone four of them partly or completely covering the text.

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.
Original Reading Credit: OCIANA
Original Translation Credit: OCIANA

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 Laïla Nehmé, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–1996, and published here.