WH 190

Siglum: WH 190
Transliteration: l n{w}l bn ʾml w h rḍw whb l- h- s¹ʾl nf{ḍ}t -h
Translation: By {Nwl} son of ʾml and O Rḍw grant to the petitioner his request

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: WH: nfḥt for nf{ḍ}t; translation of nfḥt-h "his gift"
Commentary: It is possible that the third to last letter is a ḍ though, if so, the lower horizontal line extends beyond the left vertical and the right vertical is invisible. The extended lower horizontal line also makes WH's reading, ḥ, unlikely. If it is a ḍ, the root nfḍ in Arabic has the sense of shaking or knocking, and can refer to a range of things, from the fallen fruit of the tree to a women having many children (Lane 2832). The context of this inscription makes it clear that nfḍt refers to the object of the petitioner's request, but anything more exact is impossible to determine. Our current interpretation also differs from WH's reading in terms of syntax. WH take s¹ʾl nf{ḥ}t -h [sic] as a genitive construction and l- -h as the dative preposition with a clitic 3ms pronoun. We think it makes more sense to regard h- s¹ʾl as a definite noun, the dative object of whb, as it is difficult to make sense of what an alleged "petition of his request" should mean. The suffix pronoun on the final word also rules out interpretations that involve general petitions for things, such as petitions for offspring, agricultural produce, etc.

Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Inscriptions recorded during the Badia Epigraphic Survey 2023 and published here