LP 675

Siglum
LP 675
Transliteration
l ʿwḏ bn s¹ʾb bn ʿwḏn w ṣyr m- h- nmrt ḥḍr s¹nt ngy h- rmy f (h) (l)t s¹(l)m w wgd ʾṯr (ʿ)wḏn f ngʿ
OCIANA
Translation
By ʿwḏ son of S¹ʾb son of ʿwḏn and he returned from H-Nmrt where he had camped by water the year the Roman escaped. {So} O Lt [grant] security and he found the traces of {ʿwḏn} and longed [for him]
OCIANA
Language and Script
Safaitic

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus
LP: hrmy could also represent a personal name. MNH p. 331 and n. 185: s¹nt ngy h- rmy "the year the Rmy escaped".
Commentary
H-nmrt, modern Al-Namārah, is a place of semi-permanent water in the Wādī al-Shām (in the Syrian desert) approximately 20 kms (as the crow flies) east-north-east of Ṣanāyim al-Gharz where this inscription was found. The latter is near Wādī al-Gharz and one possibility could be that the author had been camping at al-Namārah but that the water there had run out and so he moved to Ṣanāyim al-Gharz. However, since al-Namārah has a huge natural water catchment area (now made into an artificial lake) it seems unlikely that there would be a shortage of water there but not at Senayim. In view of this, it seems better to translate ṣyr here as simply "he returned" rather than "he returned to permanent water".

  • [LP] Littmann, E. Safaïtic Inscriptions. Syria. Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1904–1905 and 1909. Division IV. Section C. Leiden: Brill, 1943.
  • [MNH] Macdonald, M.C.A. Nomads and the Ḥawrān in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods: A reassessment of the epigraphic evidence. Syria 70, 1993: 303-413. [Reprinted with the same pagination, plus addenda and corrigenda as Article II in M.C.A. Macdonald, Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia, (Variorum Collected Studies Series no. 906), Farnham: Ashgate, 2009].
Site
“On the road from Qabr Nāṣir to Ṣanāyim al-Ġarz not far east from Ġadīr]al-Darb" (Littmann 1943: 170), Al-Suwaydāʾ (al-Sweidah) Governorate, Syria
Date Found
1904–1905
Current Location
In situ
Subjects
Date (s¹nt), Deity, Finding inscription(s), Genealogy, Grieving, Isolated Prayer, Movement, Outside peoples, Place-name, Watering
Old OCIANA ID
#0009259
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Updated 16 Sep, 2024 by OCIANA

Cite this Site

OCIANA. 'LP 675.' OCIANA. 16 Sep, 2024. https://ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions/580. Accessed: 07 Jul, 2025.