OCIANA
Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia

WH 54

Siglum
WH 54
Transliteration
l rġḍ bn mfny bn rmzn bn nʿmn bn whb w ḥll h- rḍt dṯʾ w ḫrṣ h- ḫl f h bʿls¹my s¹lm
Translation
By Rġd son of Mfny son of Rmzn son of Nʿmn son of Whb and he camped at this meadow in the season of the later rains and he was on the look out for the troop of horsemen so O Bʿls¹my [grant] security!

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
WH: w ḫrṣ h- ḫl "and he was on the lookout for the horses" SadF p. 46: w ḫrṣ h- ḫl - "and he dressed the wound of H̲l" (wa ʿamal jarḥan l h- ḫl (ka-ʿamal ʿilāj¡)); or "he offered h- ḫl" (wa qaddama h- ḫl).
Commentary
Horse is widely attested in Safaitic as frs¹. H̲l probably refers more specifically to horsemen, as a collective noun. This would make more sense given the context of the inscription.

Provenance
WH Cairn 2 and this inscription were rediscovered and photographed by the Badia Epigraphic Survey in 2018 and the co-ordinates given are exact.
Original Reading Credit
Ed. pr.
Original Translation Credit
OCIANA

Technique
Scratched & incised

Associated Remains
Cairn
Associated Inscriptions

  • Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Site
WH Cairn 2, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
Date Found
1958–1959
Current Location
in situ
Subject
Genealogy
Script
Safaitic
Old OCIANA ID
#0010799
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