BES18 23
Text Information
- Siglum
- BES18 23
- Transliteration
-
l ʾfln bn ḥrḍ ḏ- ʾl ṣlḫd h- lṣṭ w wgm ʿl- ʾm -h ʾs¹r -h ʾl rm f h lt s¹lm w ngy m- ġqt
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Translation
-
By ʾfln son of Ḥrḍ of the people of Ṣlḫd, the bandit, and he grieved for his mother, whom the Romans had taken captive, so, O Lt, may he be secure and be delivered from distress
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Language and Script
- Safaitic 4
Interpretation
- Commentary
-
ʾfln: This is a Safaitic transription of the Greek name, Ἀπόλλων /apóllōn/.
slḫd: This is the town Ṣalkhad, located in Hawran. The author of KRS 2813 also claims to be from Ṣalḫad.
lṣṭ: A title, 'the bandit,' from Greek ληστής. The same word is borrowed into Classical Arabic as لص. Another man from the tribe of Ḍf, also uses this title in two inscriptions, AMSI 50 and ShNGA 1.
ġqt: Both ġwq and ġqq are rare, onomatopoeic roots in Arabic that signfiy sounds of animals, specifically those of birds, as well as the sound of boiling, churning, or a female during intercourse (Lisān, 3278). The context implies a negative experience, as the author requests ngy /nagāy/ (CAr. naǧāʾun, "deliverance/escape") from it. Accordingly, I provisionally suggest that Safaitic ġqt denotes a cry of distress.
Ahmad Al-Jallad
- Editio Princeps
- OCIANA
- Field Collector
- BES18 team
- Special Letter Forms
- s¹ without uptick
- Technique
- Incised
- Direction of Script
- Boustrophedon
- [BES18] Inscriptions recorded during the Badia Epigraphic Survey 2018 and published here
- Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. al-Mukarram / A.F. al-Wānib et al. (eds) in A.F. al-Wānib et al. (eds), Lisān al-ʿArab. (15 volumes). Bayrut: Dār Ṣāder / Dār Bayrut, 1955-1956.
- Site
- Wādī Qaṣṣāb, Al-Mafraq Governorate, Jordan
- Date Found
- April 2018
- Current Location
- In situ
- Subjects
- Genealogy, Place-name, Grieving, Outside peoples, Deity