Siglum: Is.M 160  Script: Safaitic

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Transliteration
l {ṯ}mm bn ḥddn bn ḥddn ḏ- ʾl dʾf w wld h- mʿzy s¹nt ʾty h- qṣ f h lt brʾ l- h- ns¹

Translation
By {Ṯmm} son of Ḥddn son of Ḥddn of the lineage of Dʾf and he helped the goats give birth the year that the [disease] qṣ came and so O Lt [grant] healing to the people

Commentary
The expression w ʾty h- qṣ is unattested and in view of the prayer for healing it probably refers to an epidemic disease. Qṣ might represent Greek kausos which Liddell and Scott (p. 932a)identify as “causus i.e. bilious remittent fever (the endemic fever of the Levant).” However this is not entirely satisfactory for kausos is a true Greek word (from kaiœ “to burn”) and it seems unlikely that an endemic fever would be called by a Greek name in a Safaitic inscription.

Subjects
Genealogy

Country: Syria
Region: Rif Dimašq
Site: Al-ʿĪsāwī
Site number: 15
Map reference: x: 0.297; y: 0.106 (Lambert Syria)
Latitude: 32.903569
Longitude: 37.320314
Present Location: In situ
Find date: 1996–2003
Field collector: Michael Macdonald
Survey: Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme (SESP)
Notes: Al-ʿĪsāwī is the name of a probably ancient well between two headlands on the eastern side of the Wādī Shām as it runs northwards from the modern Al-Namārah dam to the Ruḥbah. The well is large, stone lined and with stone water-channels running from it. The main concentration of published inscriptions is on the top of the northern headland, but there also many inscriptions on its south-west slopes, coming down to the well and on the southern headland, on the crest of which is a stone tower.
Associated Inscriptions: M 158-159 (on the same face)
Associated Remains: None

URL of this record (for citation): http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0026930.html