Sigla: C 3450; V 255; Wetzstein 298  Script: Thamudic B

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Transliteration
l db{l}{q} b{n} {y}ḍ h rḍw {ġ}nmt

Translation
By {Dblq} son of {Yḍ} O Rḍw [grant] {booty}

Apparatus Criticus
C (from de Vogüé and Wetzstein's copies): [l]ḍ(b)ʾ b(n) q[n] h gdl h rḍw ġnmt "By {Dbʾ} {son of} {Qn} the Gadil. O Rḍw booty".

Commentary
The inscription was photographed by Professor Maurice Sartre.

Subjects
Genealogy Prayer Deity

Country: Syria
Region: Rif Dimashq
Site: Al-Namārah (C p. 443)
Latitude: 32.88545
Longitude: 37.29163
Present Location: In situ
Find date: 1858, 1861, 1862
Field collector: Wetzstein, de Vogüé
Notes: Al-Namārah itself is an "island" in a basin at the confluence of the Wādī al-Ṣawṭ and the Wādī al-Shām. The island rises to a considerable height above the wadi bed. On it's top are the ruins of a Roman fort the outlines of which, and the square north-east and south-west towers, can still be made out. However, much of the masonry has been reused to build a mediaeval mausoleum, including a lintel with an unfinished Greek inscription mentioning Marcus Aurelius (Waddington 1870: no. 2264) and stone doors. There are many Safaitic, Greek and two Latin graffiti on the slopes of the island and the banks of the wadi. In antiquity, there were small dams, cisterns, wells and diversion channels to trap the water and to lead it to nearby fields, see Macdonald 2009.

References:
de Vogüé, M. Syrie Centrale. Inscriptions sémitiques. Paris: Baudry, 1868-1877. Plates: 32 Number: 255

[Wetzstein] 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. Plates: XI Number: 298

Macdonald, M.C.A. Transformation and continuity at al-Namarā: Camps, settlements, forts, and tombs. Pages 317-332 in K. Bartl & ʿA. Moaz (eds), Residences, Castles, Settlements. Transformation Processes from Late Antiquity to Early Islam in Bilad al-Sham. Proceedings of the International Conference held at Damascus, 5–9 November 2006. (Orient-Archäologie, 24). Rahden/Westf.: Leidorf, 2008.

[C] Ryckmans, G. Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: Pars Quinta, Inscriptiones Saracenicae Continens: Tomus I, Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Safaiticae. Paris: E Reipublicae Typographeo, 1950–1951.

Waddington, W.H. Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie recueillies et expliquées. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1870.

URL of this record (for citation): http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0006654.html