LP 343

Siglum: LP 343
Alternative Sigla: Is.Mu 118
Transliteration: l ẓnʾl bn s¹lmn bn s¹lm w rʿy s¹nt s¹mh h- qy
Translation: By Ẓnʾl son of S¹lmn son of S¹lm and he pastured [in] the year in which he pastured the desert

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: LP 343: s¹nt s¹mh h- qṣl "the year in which he let the small herd of camels pasture" for s¹nt s¹mh h- qy "the year in which he pastured the desert"
Commentary: Unfortunately LP's interpretation was based on taking the y as a ṣ and taking a stray line at the end of LP 342 as a l belonging to the end of this text. As can be seen on the photographs, the line is much thicker and more firmly incised than the last two letters of this text and there would have been no reason for the author to have placed it there if it was part of his text. There are thinly scratched lines crossing between LP 343 and the last line of of LP 342 and one of these crossed the bottom of the final y in LP 343. LP seems to have mistaken this for the fork of a ṣ. All the letters are clear but it is difficult to interpret the text. The translation offered here is not very satisfactory. It is based on the Arabic verb sammaha "to let [beasts] pasture" (Hava p. 337b) and Arabic qiyy "desert" (Hava p. 636a).

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.
Hava, J.G. Al-Faraid Arabic-English Dictionary. Fifth edition. Beirut: Dār al-Mašriq, 1982.
Inscriptions recorded at al-ʿĪsāwī by Muna Al-Muʾazzin, on the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme, 1995–2002, and published here.