Al-Mafraq Museum 59

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Siglum: Al-Mafraq Museum 59
Transliteration: l bl < y > < b > n ws¹mt h- ḥmr w ʿdy b- ʾs²ll
Ahmad Al-Jallad
Translation: By < Blg > < son of > Ws¹mt is (the image of) the donkey and he was raided by ʾs²ll
Ahmad Al-Jallad
Language and Script: Safaitic 1

Interpretation

Commentary: It appears that the name of the author has been vandalized. A line has been drawn through the g causing it to appear as a q; the b of bn has been changed to a ḥ. The translation of the narrative is tentative. ʾs²ll is a well-attested tribe in Safaitic. The verb ʿdy 'to transgress', 'to wrong' (SafDict, 51b) appears for the first time here in such a construction. It is possible to take it as a passive, meaning 'he was wronged'. Classical Arabic records the expression ʿudiya ʿalay-hi 'he had his property stolen and was wronged' (Lane, 1977c). While the prepositional phrase is missing here, if the same sense is implied, then the inscription would register that our author was raided by men of ʾs²ll. On the other hand, ʿdy may be construed as active and refer to the act of raiding, in which case the inscription could be compared to the common genre of ġzz 'raiding' inscriptions, which also seem to take a direct object introduced by the preposition b-.

Associated Drawings

Mounted donkey

Associated Inscriptions

[SafDict] Al-Jallad, A. & Jaworska, K. A Dictionary of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden: Brill, 2019
[Al-Mafraq Museum] Inscriptions kept at the Al-Mafraq Antiquities Office and Museum of uncertain provenances
[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.

Current Location: Al-Mafraq Antiquities Office and Museum
Subjects: Drawing of a domestic animal, Genealogy, Group (in the narrative), Raiding
Old OCIANA ID: #0051955
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Updated 01 Dec, 2024 by Ahmad Al-Jallad