BES15_MS 76

Siglum
BES15_MS 76
Transliteration
l ʾṣr bn bny bn grmʾl bn mlk{ } w ḫyṭ f wgd h- ʾs¹d f {t}m{r}ʿ
Phillip Stokes
Translation
By ʾṣr son of Bny son of Grmʾl son of Mlk {} and he journeyed during Leo and found rich pasture
Phillip Stokes
Language and Script
Safaitic

Interpretation

Commentary
F WGD H-ʾS¹D – This phrase occurs for the first time here. It could mean that the author had come upon a lion or troop but the following verb fails to make sense in such a context. Rather, a calendrical meaning is preferred. The author may be recording travelling until he found Leo, that is, until its time had arrived. TMRʿ – This word is also a hapax legomenon in the Safaitic corpus. It is attested in CAr as a verb in stem I with the meaning “to anoint (the head); to abound with herbage (valley),” and in stem V with the meaning “to seek a good pasturage” (< rʿy, noun of place “pasturage” Hava 708; cf. Hebrew mirʿeh “pasturage” HALOT §5694). Steingass (987) lists “to depart, set out on a journey, travel” in forms IV and VII. Given the context of the inscription, during Leo, which occurred during the late dry season (qyẓ), we may interpret the meaning here as “depart for pasture lands.” Macdonald (1992) reconstructed the migratory patterns of the nomads that produced the Safaitic inscriptions. He notes that during the qyẓ “pasture is burnt up by the sun and only permanent or stored water is available” (3). If the interpretation of this root in this context is correct, the author seems to be on the way back toward the outskirts of the Ḥarrah in southern Syria and northern Jordan where pasturage and water were more abundant. There exists, then, the intriguing possibility that the appearance of h-ʾs¹d is connected with migration from the inner desert back to the yearly pasturelands of the Ḥarrah.

  • [BES15_MS] Stokes, P. The Badia Epigraphic Survey: The Safaitic Inscriptions of Marabb al-Shurafāt BES 2015. OCIANA: Zenodo, 2026. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23482253.
Site
Marabb al-Shurafāt, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
Date Found
Jun-15
Current Location
In situ
Updated 19 Oct, 2026 by OCIANA

Cite this Site

Phillip Stokes, 'BES15_MS 76,' ed. A. Al-Jallad and M.C.A. Macdonald, OCIANA, 19 Oct, 2026. https://ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions/46760. Accessed: 22 Oct, 2026.