KRS 1024

Siglum: KRS 1024
Transliteration: l ʿbd bn ḫlf bn ʾnʿm bn rbʾl bn ʾnʿm bn ms¹k bn s²rb bn ġlmt bn dʾf bn ḫld ḏ- ʾl dʾf w wgm ʿl- ms¹k w <<>> ʿl- mʿ{n} w s¹rt ʿ{l-} ḫr hdy s¹nt qttl hrdṣ f h lt s¹lm w ġnmt l- ḏ dʿy w qttl {g}fṯr
Translation: By ʿbd son of Ḫlf son of ʾnʿm son of Rbʾl son of ʾnʿm son of Ms¹k son of S²rb son of Ġlmt son of Dʾf son of Ḫld of the lineage of Dʾf and he grieved for Ms¹k and for {Mʿn} and he served in a military unit {under} Ḫr the commander the year Herod waged war and so O Lt may he who reads aloud [the inscription] have security and booty and {Gfṯr} waged war

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: Macdonald 1995: 286: s¹nt qttl hrdṣ "the year Herod died mad"; probably referring to Herod the Great Al-Jallad 2015: 131: s¹nt qttl hrdṣ - the year Herod waged war
Commentary: The ʾs and ts have "square" forms. After the w following the name ms¹k the text continues in two directions one of which has been abandoned. The author wrote wgm l m and then presumably decided that if he continued in this direction there would not be enough room to complete what he wanted to say and so continued to the right instead. There is scratching over the ninth l and the fourth letter from the end is a loop which might be a g or a m similar in form to the m of the word s¹lm. On the interpretation of s¹rt as "he served [in an army unit]", see Macdonald 2014: 159–160. We have interpreted s¹rt ʿ{l}- ḫr hdy as "he served {under} Ḫr the commander", literally "he served, Ḫr being commander", compare Arabic ʿalay-hi amrun "command lies upon him, he is in command", (Lane 2145a, and see Macdonald 2014:160, n. 78). See also RQ.A 10 w [[]]s¹rt ʿl- mlk h- s¹lṭn "and he served [in an army unit] under the possessor of authority". We have preferred Al-Jallad's interpretation of qttl (2015: 131) to Macdonald's earlier one (1995: 286). The verb occurs again in NEH 8. For the interpretation of dʿy see Al-Jallad 2015: 309.

Inscriptions recorded by Geraldine King on the Basalt Desert Rescue Survey in north-eastern Jordan in 1989 and published here
Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon, Derived from the Best and Most Copious Eastern Sources. (Volume 1 in 8 parts [all published]). London: Williams & Norgate, 1863-1893.
Macdonald, M.C.A. Herodian Echoes in the Syrian Desert. Pages 285-290 in S. Bourke & J.-P. Descoeudres (eds), Trade, Contact, and the Movement of Peoples in the Eastern Mediterranean. Studies in Honour of J. Basil Hennessy. (Mediterranean Archaeology. Supplement, 3). Sydney: Mediterranean Archaeology, 1995.
Macdonald, M.C.A. ‘Romans Go Home’? Rome and other ‘Outsiders’ as viewed from the Syro-Arabian Desert. Pages 145-163 in J.H.E. Dijkstra & G. Fisher (eds), Inside and Out. Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity. (Late Antique History and Religion, 8). Louvain: Peeters, 2014.
Al-Jallad, A.M. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 80). Leiden: Brill, 2015.
Inscriptions recorded by the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme in 1995 at the site which Wetzstein called Riǧm Qaʿqūl, and published here.