C 1088

Interpretation

Provenance: Note that the co-ordinates are estimates. De Vogüé gives the fullest description of al-ʿUdaysīyah. He writes: "Strictly speaking, the name al-ʿUdaysīyah refers to a point on the [southern] end of the Ruḥbah where there are rough ruins: one can distinguish a small tower, and some surrounding walls in dry-stonework. All around these remains, are traces of stoneworking: fragments, quarried blocks, unfinished slabs strewn all over the ground. Tradition has it that this was the quarry for Khirbat al-Bayḍā. At Al-ʿUdaysīyah itself there are no inscriptions, but within a fairly short radius of this point there are several nameless cairns which are covered with them. We explored four of these which furnished us with texts [V 56–130 = C 924–1016]. Near to one of them we found another quarry" (1868–1877: 144).

Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.
Grimme, H. Texte und Untersuchungen zur ṣafatenisch-arabischen Religion. Mit einer Einführung in die ṣafatenische Epigraphik. (Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Altertums, 16/01/2012). [Reprint, 1970, Johnson, New York]. Paderborn: Schöningh, 1929.

Site: Al-ʿUdaysīyah, at the southern end of the Ruḥbah, on the left [i.e. west] bank of Wādī al-Šām” ( C p.126), Rif Dimašq Governorate, Syria