Sigla: JSLih 384; Grimme 1937: 319; Winnett 1937: 15; CLL 092; Jamme 1968: 124; Déroche 1987: 126–127; Al-Qudrah 1993: 45, no. 129; D 158  Script: Dadanitic

//
//
//{}
/

Transliteration
1: nfs¹/ʿbds¹mn/bn
2: zdḫrg/ʾlt/bnh
3: s¹lmh/bnt/{ʾ}s¹
4: ʾrs²n/

Translation
1: The funeral monument of ʿbds¹mn son of
2: Zdḫrg which built
3: S¹lmh daughter of {ʾs¹
4: ʾrs²n}

Apparatus Criticus
TEXT
Line 1. Jaussen & Savignac: zdḫrm rather than zdḫrg.
Line 3. Jamme: gnt for bnt.

TRANSLATION
Line 2. ʾlt, Jaussen & Savignac: divinity (as the third part of the compound name zdḫrg ʾlt; Jamme: personal name.
Lines 3–4. s¹lmh bnt {ʾ}s¹ʾ rs²n, Grimme: 'S¹almāh son of Tʾ---- (of the lineage of) ʾrs²n';
Line 4. ʾrs²n, Caskel: patronymic; Farès-Drappeau: lineage name; s¹lmn, Jamme: 'his big stone'.

DISCUSSION
Déroche 1987: 104.
Macdonald 2000: 50.

Commentary
The translation has followed the syntax of the original and a more idiomatic version would be 'The funeral monument of ʿbds¹mn son of Zdḫrg which S¹lmh daughter of {ʾs¹ʾrs²n}'. built.

Walter W Müller was the first to recognize that this text was not Dadanitic in language but in Old Arabic, since it contains the Arabic feminine relative pronoun ʾlt (compare Arabic allatī) in line 2.

Note that in this dialect, final [-at] had become [-ah] or [-ā] thus bnh (= *banah or *banā) instead of the bnt (*banat, "she built") which we find elsewhere in Ancient North Arabian, and the name s¹lmh (*s¹ulaymah or *s¹ālimā), which elsewhere in Ancient North Arabian would be s¹lmt (*s¹ulaylmat, *s¹ālimat). This change has not, of course, taken place in the word bnt (daughter of) because the final [-t] is not preceded by [a]. [Ahmad Al-Jallad personal communication and see Overlaet, Macdonald & Stein 2016: 137, n. 23].

Subjects
Funerary Building Relatives Women Structure

Country: Saudi Arabia
Region: Al-Madīnah
Site: Oasis of al-ʿUlā
Latitude: 26.616667
Longitude: 37.916667
Present Location: In situ (Inventory number: O.715)
Find date: 1909–1910
Field collector: Jaussen & Savignac
Survey: Mission archéologique en Arabie
Notes: Al-Ḫuraybah

References:
Al-Qudrah, Ḥ.M. Dirāsah muʿǧamiyyah li-ʾlfāẓ al-nuqūš al-liḥyāniyyah fī iṭār al-luġāt al-sāmiyyah al-ǧanūbiyyah. Unpublished MA Thesis, Epigraphy Section, Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Yarmouk University, Irbid. 1993. Pages: 45 Number: 129

[CLL] Caskel, W. Lihyan und Lihyanisch. (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, 4). Köln: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1954. Pages: 124–125

Déroche, F. Recherches sur l'oasis de Dedan / al-Ula. Thèse de Doctorat: Études arabo-islamiques, Paris IV, 1987. [Unpublished], 1987. Pages: 104, 126–127

[D] Farès-Drappeau, S. Dédan et Liḥyān. Histoire des Arabes aux confins des pouvoirs perse et hellénistique (IVe–IIe s. avant l'ère chrétienne). (Travaux de la maison de l'Orient, 42). Lyon: Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée — Jean Pouilloux, 2005. Pages: 225 Plates: XXX

Grimme, H. Neubearbeitung der Wichtigeren Dedanischen und Liḥjanischen Inschriften. Le Muséon 50, 1937: 269-322. Pages: 319

Jamme, A. Minaean Inscriptions Published as Liḥyanite. [privately printed]. Washington, DC, 1968. Pages: 124

[JSLih] Jaussen, A. & Savignac, M.R. Mission archéologique en Arabie. I. (Mars-Mai 1907) De Jérusalem au Hedjaz, Médain Saleh. II. El-ʿEla, d'Hégra à Teima Harrah de Tebouk. Texte et Atlas. III. Les châteaux arabes de Quṣeir ʿAmra, Ḫarâneh, et Tûba. (5 volumes). (Publications de la Société Française des Fouilles Archéologiques, 2). [Reprinted Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1997]. Paris: Leroux/Geuthner, 1909–1920. Volume: II Pages: 532–533 Plates: CXIV

Macdonald, M.C.A. Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia. Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 11, 2000: 28-79. [Reprinted with the same pagination, plus addenda and corrigenda, as Article III in Macdonald, M.C.A., Literacy and Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia. (Variorum Collected Studies, 906). Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.] Pages: 50

Müller, W.W. Das Altarabische der Inschriften aus vorislamischer Zeit. Pages 30-36 in W. Fischer (ed.), Grundriß der Arabischen Philologie. Band I: Sprachwissenschaft. 1. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1982. Pages: 32–33

Overlaet, B., Macdonald, M.C.A. & Stein, P. An Aramaic–Hasaitic bilingual inscription from a monumental tomb at Mleiha, Sharjah, UAE. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 27, 2016: 127-142. Pages: 137, note 23

Winnett, F.V. A Study of the Liḥyanite and Thamudic Inscriptions. (University of Toronto Studies - Oriental Series, 3). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1937. Pages: 15 Plates: II

URL of this record (for citation): http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0035802.html