BES15_MS 220

Siglum
BES15_MS 220
Transliteration
l {ʿ}{m} bn ḥm bn ḥrb bn ḥy bn qdm bn ʿm{r} w rʿy rḥmw
Phillip Stokes
Translation
By {ʿ}{m} son of Ḥm son of Ḥrb son of Ḥy son of Qdm son of ʿm{r} and he pastured during abundant rain.
Phillip Stokes
Language and Script
Safaitic

Interpretation

Commentary
RḤM(W) – With the exception of the r, this word is clearly inscribed, and represents as far as I am aware a hapax legomenon in the Safaitic inscriptions. The root attests verbs with the basic meaning “to be merciful,” probably a denominative derived from raḥimun “womb,” itself possibly borrowed from Aramaic. None of these meanings makes much sense in the context of this inscription. Lane (1056) provides a usage of the noun raḥimatun that fits the present context quite nicely, namely “Rain; abundance of herbage.” Although the singular form should be realized as rḥmt in Safaitic, the plural ruḥumun/ruḥmun matches the form attested in this inscription. Thus I suggest interpreting w rʿy rḥm as “and he pastured on the abundance of fresh herbage.” The final w here is open to several interpretations. Most likely is that the author intended to continue but for whatever reason stopped after writing the w. That he did not continue writing is evident because the rock face following the inscription is largely free of damage. A less likely interpretation is that the w here represents wawation, a feature attested primarily in Nabataean Aramaic, but is also sparsely attested in Safaitic as a hypocoristic on masculine names (for this feature in Nabataean, see Diem 1973; Blau 2006: 28–9; Healey 1994; cf. ʿmrw). It is only attested in Safaitic on proper names, and since there is no evidence that rḥm here is a toponym, it is better to interpret the w here as a conjunction and that the author simply neglected to finish the thought.

  • [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 220,' ed. A. Al-Jallad and M.C.A. Macdonald, OCIANA, 19 Oct, 2026. https://ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions/46904. Accessed: 24 Oct, 2026.