WH 3925

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: WH: w ḍbʾ l- nbṭ "and he was on a raid to the Nabataeans"
Commentary: It seems that ḍbʾ without l- almost certainly means "to raid", since on several occasions it is followed by a prayer for booty (e.g. HaNSB 365, KRS 269, ThSaf 56, WH 2818, 3731, etc.) and in KRS 33 the author says w dbʾ w ġnm "and he raided and took booty". However, ḍbʾ followed by l- is never associated with references to "booty and it seems that it is more likely to mean "he sought refuge with", as in Classical Arabic ḍabaʾa ilā (Lane 1763a), as suggested in Macdonald 1993: 314, n. 72.

[HYGQ] Ḥasan, Y.F.Y Nuqūš ṣafawiyyah min ǧabal qarmah (dirāsah taḥlīliyyah). Unpublished MA thesis, Yarmouk University. 2001.
[Lane] Lane, E.W. An Arabic-English Lexicon, Derived from the Best and Most Copious Eastern Sources. (Volume 1 in 8 parts [all published]). London: Williams & Norgate, 1863-1893.
[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].
[WH] Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.

Updated 16 Sep, 2024