BES25_MG1 15.2

This inscription is closely connected with BES25_MG1 15.1. The author is Bnʿtm son of ʿḏr son of Ḏl son of ʾs¹ son of Ns²l son of Ḏl. In BES25_MG_1 15.1, the author is Hnʾ son of Bnʿtm, who preserves the same genealogy and extends it by one generation: Hnʾ bn Bnʿtm bn ʿḏr bn Ḏl bn ʾs¹ bn Ns²l bn Ḏl bn Ḥyr. The two inscriptions therefore appear to form a father-son pair. In the present inscription, Bnʿtm grieves for Ẓʿn, while in BES25_MG1 15.1 his son Hnʾ “built for” the same Ẓʿn. The shared genealogy and the reference to the same commemorated individual strongly suggest that the two inscriptions belong together. 

The personal name Bnʿtm is of particular interest. Al-Manaser discusses Bnʿtm as a recurring Safaitic personal name and connects a group of inscriptions with a Bnʿtm who was killed and mourned by others (Al-Manaser 2019: 29). Several of the genealogies cited by Al-Manaser show close affinities with the sequence preserved in the present pair of inscriptions. Particularly relevant is Al-Manaser’s inscription 2: Bnʿtm bn ʿḏr bn Bnʿtm bn ʿḏr bn Ḏl bn ʾs bn Ḏl, where the text goes on to express grief for Bnʿtm mqt[l], “Bnʿtm, who was killed” (Al-Manaser 2019: 29, no. 2). Al-Manaser also notes that another inscription, Al-Manaser 2008 no. 139, appears to request vengeance from ʾġfr, who may have killed Bnʿtm (Al-Manaser 2019: 29).

Also relevant is Al-Manaser’s inscription 4: Bnʿtm bn Nṣr bn ʿtm bn ʿḏr bn Ḏl bn ʾs, which again contains the sequence ʿḏr - Ḏl - ʾs¹ in the ancestry of a Bnʿtm figure (Al-Manaser 2019: 31, no. 4). A particularly useful comparison is CSNS 410, cited by Al-Manaser: l bnʿtm bn qymt bn ʿḏr bn ḏl bn ʾs¹ ... This text shares the ancestral sequence ʿḏr - Ḏl - ʾs¹ and also contains the expression w bny ʿl-ʿd, “and he built for ʿd”, which may be compared with w bny ʿl-ẓʿn in the present inscription (Al-Manaser 2019: 29, 35 n. 3). Al-Manaser further cites KRS 1554, where an event is dated to s¹nt qtl bʿtm, “the year Bnʿtm was killed” (Al-Manaser 2019: 29, 35 n. 4). These parallels do not prove that the Bnʿtm of BES25_MG1 15.2, and therefore the father of Hnʾ in the present inscription, is identical with the murdered Bnʿtm discussed by Al-Manaser. Nevertheless, since Bnʿtm is not a very common name, and since the sequence Bnʿtm bn ʿḏr bn Ḏl bn ʾs¹ corresponds closely to the wider Bnʿtm genealogical cluster, a connection is plausible. The present inscription and BES25_MG1 15.2 may therefore preserve an additional pair of texts by relatives or members of the same broader family or lineage group associated with this cluster.

• BES25_MG1 15.1