BES15 875

OCIANA 1: Reading, l bny bn ḫl bn ʾs¹ḫr bn bhs² bn ʾḏnt w ḫyṭ h- rḍt f wgd ʿrd m twb ḥl -h [[]] gm{l} m ʾẓmy l- -h; trans. 'By Bny son of Ḫl son of ʾs¹ḫr son of Bhs² son of ʾḏnt and he came to this meadow and found ʿrdmtwbḥlh gmlmʾẓmylh'

This fascinating inscription records one of the only examples of Safaitic writers interacting with traders. It, morever, seems to record Allāh's dominion over rainfall and growth. 

ʿr dmt:  The first word of this phrase should be connected to the Arabic ʿīr 'caravan' and dmt with the oasis city of North Arabia, present-day Dūmat al-Ǧandal.

b-ḥl-h: The infinitive preceded by b- denotes an event performed in close temporal proximity with the main event. The pronominal suffix marks the subject (Al-Jallad 2026c, 16.4).

m ʾẓmy: This is a negative optative suffix conjugation construction employing the negator m /mā/. ʾẓmy should be connected with Arabic ʾaẓmā 'anything withered, dried up by heat' (Lane, 1924b). The present attestation must be construed as a C-stem suffix conjugation, 'to cause withering.' This root seems closely related to ẓmʾ, a byform perhaps produced by the loss of the glottal stop in some dialects or grammatical situations that was subsequently lexicalized. 

lh: The divine name Allāh, attested also as ʾlh (Al-Jallad 2025c).