Is.M 148
Text Information
- Siglum
- Is.M 148
- Transliteration
-
l {l}{y}{s¹} bn bny bn s¹ḫr bn ʿbd w byt h- dr w ʿlf h- mrbʿt ʿl- h- nmrt w ṣlf mʿ{z}y {-h} ---- y{z}ʾ{z}s¹mr----
OCIANA
- Translation
-
By {Lys¹} son of Bny son of S¹ḫr son of ʿbd and he spent the night here and he fed on dry fodder the camels born [or who had given birth] near al-Namārah in a time of abundance and {his} {goats} {failed to multiply} ----
OCIANA
- Language and Script
- Safaitic
Interpretation
- Commentary
- The reading of the first name is very difficult and lys¹ is suggested very tentatively. The first two letters touch each other and the “s¹” which is made up of one straight and one curving line could be a k. The sign immediately following the s¹ may be the last letter of the text. Neither lys¹ nor lyk are attested but cf. perhaps Ar. lays “courage” or lāka “to chew” (?). Littmann copied part of the f of ʿlf and part of the following h and the m of mrbʿt as belonging to letters in LP 355 (M 147). The word mrbʿt recurs in LP 357 where Littmann took it as representing the fem. pl. of the active participle of the IV Form of rbʿ murbiʿāt (Vocabulary p. 342b) and translated it “spring camels” without explaining quite what he meant by this. As Musil explains “in the inner desert the word rab¡ʿ does not signify a season of the year” but the abundance following good rains at any season “it is therefore impossible to translate it by the word spring as we may when we are dealing with the settled and cultivated territories. The fellẓhḤn inhabitants of the cultivated territories enjoy the rabḤʿ from year to year and as it always begins at the same season the rabḤʿ for them signifies the spring” (Rwala p. 13-14). According to Lane (p. 1017b-c) rubaʿ signifies “a young camel brought forth in season called rab¡ʿ” (of which the fem. pl. is rubaʿāt) though Musil says that the Rwala give this name to a she-camel in her sixth year which is when she may first be covered by the male (Rwala p. 333). Lane (p. 1020a-b) says that murbiʿ (without tāʾ marbºṭa) or mirbāʿ is “applied to a she camel that brings forth in the season called rab¡ʿ or that has her young with her the young one being called rubaʿ.” From this it would seem that no appropriate exact parallel to mrbʿt is provided by the Arabic lexica which probably explains Littmann's choice of the ambiguous “spring camels” but that the translations offered above are pronbaly not too far from the mark. The author appears to have omitted the f of ṣlf and to have added it to the side of the text. In Ar. the verb ṣlf is used of things which do not live up to expectations (clouds which give little or no rain seed that does not produce much growth etc.).If the following word is mʿzy the z is imperfectly formed. The -h is followed by two crossed lines more lightly incised than the rest of the text and which may not belong to it. I can make no sense of the rest of the text.
- Editio Princeps
- OCIANA
- Technique
- Incised
- Direction of Script
- Boustrophedon
- Associated Remains
- None
- Associated Inscriptions
- M 147; 149-151 (on the same face); M 146 (on the ridge between two faces); M 144 (begins on one face and ends on the same face as 145)
- Site
- Al-ʿĪsāwī, Rif Dimašq Governorate, Syria
- Date Found
- 1996–2003
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subject
- Genealogy
- Old OCIANA ID
- #0026918
- Download Images
Updated
16 Sep, 2024
by
OCIANA
Cite this Site
OCIANA. 'Is.M 148.' OCIANA. 16 Sep, 2024. https://ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions/3415. Accessed: 27 Jun, 2025.