HATD 1
Text Information
- Siglum
- HATD 1
- Transliteration
-
l mfny bn qdm bn mfny bn nʿmn bn whb w rʿy h- ʾbl f h lt w h s²ʿhqm w rḍy w h ḏs²r w h ʾlt h- nmrt w ʾlt {d}{ṯ}{n} w h ʾlt bʾs¹n w h lt m- m fʿl bġyt ʿl- -n bʿls¹mn f rwḥ l- h- mdnt
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Translation
-
By Mfny son of Qdm son of Mfny son of Nʿmn son of Whb and he pastured the camels and so O Lt and O S²ʿhqm and Rḍy and O Ḏs²r and O Goddess of Al-Namārah and goddess of {Dṯn} and O goddess of Bʾs¹n and O Lt (save us) from what Bʿls¹mn has unjustly wrought upon us and so (may you all) send the winds (with rain) to the province
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Language and Script
- Safaitic 2
Interpretation
- Apparatus Criticus
OCIANA 1: w ḏytmmfʿ{l / r}b{w}ytʿlnm (left without an interpretation) for w h lt m- m fʿl bġyt ʿl-n.
- Commentary
-
This remarkable inscription, publishd here with the kind permission of R. Harahsheh, records a petition to various divinities against baʿal-samīn (bʿls¹mn), the storm god, for failing to bring the rains. The author turns in desperation to the divine assembly to send relief to the province, possibly the Roman province of Arabia or Syria. The idea of gods acting unjustly is previously recorded in BES19s 1, where the petitioner asks Baalsamin to heal his companion so that "his people will say: he is just" or perhaps "so he will declare: a just god!"— f yql alh sdq (Al-Jallad 2022a).
All of the deities attested in this inscription are previously known and discussed in Al-Jallad 2022a, Appendix 1, with the exception of one.
ʾlt bʾs¹n: ʾlt 'goddess' precedes place names or tribes. This suggests that bʾs¹n is a toponym. It is tempting to connect it with ancient bāšān, but there is no evidence that this name ever contained a glottal stop. R. Harahsheh informs us that there is a village in the Hawran called ʾAwsān, in which case the divine name would be 'O Goddess who is in Awsān.'
m- m: The first m- should be construed as the preposition min, with the assimilation of the n. The second m is the indefinite relative particle, mā. The phrase would be cognate with Classical Arabic mimmā. There is a gapped verb of request, perhaps 'save.'
fʿl: The verb faʿala 'to do' (SafDict, 68-69). Its subject is bʿls¹mn.
bġyt: This noun has not been previously attested. It is cognate with Classical Arabic biġyatun, a maṣdar of the verb baġā, which means 'to seek' but also 'to act unjustly, to oppress' (Lane, 231b-c).
ʿl-n: The preposition ʿl- 'upon' and the 1st common singular suffix pronoun.
rwḥ l-h-mdnt: The imperative verb rwḥ must be construed as plural here, with the plurality of gods mentioned previously as its subject.
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Editio Princeps
- OCIANA
- Field Collector
- R. Harahsheh and M. Ababneh
- Technique
- Incised
- Direction of Script
- Coiling inwards
- Al-Jallad, A. The religion and rituals of the nomads of pre-Islamic Arabia: A reconstruction based on the Safaitic inscriptions. (Ancient Languages and Civilizations, 1). Leiden: Brill, 2022a.
- [SafDict] Al-Jallad, A. & Jaworska, K. A Dictionary of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill, 2019
- [HRWU] Safaitic inscriptions recorded by R. Harahsheh and M. Ababneh from Tall Ḏiyāb, Jordan
- [Lane] 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.
- Site
- Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
- Date Found
- 2008
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subjects
- Deity, Domestic animals, Genealogy, Pasturing, Prayer, Religion, Weather
- Old OCIANA ID
- #0038305
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