DhI 8
Text Information
- Siglum
- DhI 8
- Transliteration
-
s²b dhr rb ḥs² w hl
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Translation
-
Dhr, lord of plunder and fear, burned fiercely
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Language and Script
- Dhofari 2
Interpretation
- Commentary
-
This remarkable and unique text appears to be a quotation from a literary composition, perhaps a lamentation over Fate, dhr. This term corresponds to the classical Arabic ad-dahru 'Fate-Time', found in the Quran 45:24 - qālū mā hiya ʾillā ḥayātu-nā d-dunyā namūtu wa-naḥyā wa-mā yuhliku-nā ʾillā d-dahru 'They said: what is there but this lowly life of ours - we sleep and we wake up and nothing dooms us but Fate-Time.' Dahr is also marginally attested in Safaitic and Hismaic.
s²b: The verb šabba in Arabic can signify anything elevated or raised, often times referring to quality. For example, it is applied to horses to describe their briskness, to fire when it burns brightly and fearcely (Lane, 1492c). The sentence šabba l-ḥarba means 'he kindled the war.' When applied to dhr, it could mean that Fate (=death) reigned, referring to the dry season, corresponding to the North Arabian phrase mlkt dhr 'the reign of Dahr'. Since Dahr derives from terms having to do with 'fire' and 'destruction' (see below), the literal translation of s²b as 'to burn feircely' is offered, with a seasonal metaphorical meaning implied.
dhr: 'Fate-time'; the etymology of the word has to do with 'burning' and 'destruction' (Beeston et al. 1982: 35).
rb: The term for lord, compare with Arabic rabbun, Aramaic rābbā. It is previously attested in Dhofari in KMI 5.
ḥs²: Compare with Mehri ḥōś 'to steal by force, plunder' (Johnstone 1987: 162). Pre-Islamic poetry commonly describes fate as a hunter and plunderer.
hl: Compare with Arabic hawlun 'terror, fear'. The pair forms a well-balanced poetic epithet, rabb ḥōś wa-hōl.
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Editio Princeps
- Twitter: @ahmed6412
- Field Collector
- Ahmed AlMashikhi
- Technique
- Painted
- Direction of Script
- Right to left
- Associated Inscriptions
- Al-Jallad, A. The Decipherment of the Dhofari Script: Three halḥam abecedaries and the first glimpses into the corpus. Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux (JEOL) 49, 2025d: 119-147
- Al-Jallad, A. Preliminary Notes on Script 2 of the Dhofari Epigraphic Complex: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17276961.
- Johnstone, T.M. Mehri Lexicon and English-Mehri Word-List. With a list of the English definitions in the /Jibbāali Lexicon/ compiled by G.R. Smith. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1987.
- [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
- Jabal al-Qamar, Rayḫūt province , Dhofar Governorate, Oman
- Date Found
- 2023
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subject
- Religion
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