WH 149

Siglum: WH 149
Transliteration: l flṭt bn tm bn ʾs¹ḫr ḏ- ʾl rfʾt w ḫyṭ h- ʾ{ṯ}f ls¹ f rḍy
Translation: By Flṭt son of Tm son of ʾs¹ḫr of the lineage of Rfʾt and he passed through ... so he was pleased

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: WH: "...He passed quickly through the new growth (which) he ate and was satisfied (or through ha-ʾfls¹)
Commentary: WH's interpretation of ʾf as 'new growth' comes from comparison with the Classical Arabic expressions, ʾanf al-maṭar 'the first vegetation produced by rain' and ʾanf al-marʿā 'the first of the herbage or pasture', with the assimilation of the /n/ in Safaitic. Since /ls¹/ can be connected to Classical Arabic lassa 'to eat, graze', one could be tempted to interpret the two words as constituting a construct chain, ʾf-ls¹ 'first pasture (?)'. The definite article on the first term, however, makes this unlikely. The reading of ls¹ as a verb 'to eat, graze' is also difficult from a syntactic point of view, as we would expect either a conjunction or relative pronoun to connect it with the rest of the sentence. A close inspection of the photograph reveals that there is an unread ṯ between the third ʾ and the following f. This produces the rather awkward sequence ʾṯfls¹. The length (5 consonants) and the final s¹ could suggest that it is an attempt to approximate a Greco-Roman personal name or toponym, but which one exactly is unclear.

Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.