Arabian Epigraphic Notes

An Open Access Online Journal on Arabian Epigraphy.

New Epigraphica from Jordan I: a pre-Islamic Arabic inscription in Greek letters and a Greek inscription from north-eastern Jordan

Abstract

This article studies two unique Greek inscriptions from Wadi Salma in north-eastern Jordan. The first contains seven lines of Old Arabic written in Greek letters, and is our first secure example of Arabic prose written in Greek in the pre-Islamic period. The inscription sheds light on several grammatical features otherwise obscured by the consonantal skeletons of the Semitic scripts, such as the presence of case inflection, the realization of III-w suffix-conjugated verbs, and the vowel pattern of the prefix conjugation. The second inscription is written entirely in the Greek language, but contains a long section of prose which is thematically similar to what is typically found in the Safaitic inscriptions.


Keywords

Graeco-Arabica Greek inscriptions Old Arabic Safaitic

New evidence of a conflict between the Nabataeans and the Ḥwlt in a Safaitic inscription from Wadi Ram

Abstract

This article reads and interprets a Safaitic inscription discovered in Wadi Ram that mentions a conflict between the Ḥwlt, a North Arabian tribe, and the Nabataeans.


Keywords

Chronology Nabataeans Safaitic

A selection of Safaitic inscriptions from the Mafraq Antiquities Office and Museum

Abstract

This paper provides the photographs, readings, and interpretations of sixty-one Safaitic inscriptions from the Mafraq Museum’s collection.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Old Arabic Safaitic

Remarks on the etymon trḥ in the Safaitic inscriptions

Abstract

This paper discusses four new Safaitic inscriptions from Jordan. Two of the funerary inscriptions shed light on the enigmatic grieving term trḥ, which could have both a passive meaning “perished” (lit. grieved for) and an active meaning “grieving intensely”.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Funerary Inscriptions Safaitic

New Epigraphica from Jordan II: three Safaitic-Greek partial bilingual inscriptions

Abstract

This paper publishes three new Safaitic-Greek bilingual inscriptions. One of them is the first to contain a translation of the Old Arabic prose into Greek. In addition to their decipherment and translation, the paper offers a few grammatical observations on the Arabic and Greek, and remarks on the growing evidence for Arabic-Greek bilingualism in the Harrah.


Keywords

Bilingual inscriptions Graeco-Arabica Greek inscriptions Literacy Safaitic

A selection of Safaitic inscriptions from the Mafraq Antiquities Office and Museum II

Abstract

This paper edits twenty-one previously unpublished Ancient North Arabian (Safaitic) inscriptions discovered in 2015 in Jordan, one of which mentions the Nabataean Damaṣī.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Damasi Nabataeans Safaitic

Marginal notes on and additions to An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions (SSLL 80; Leiden: Brill, 2015), with a supplement to the dictionary

Abstract

This contribution provides a preliminary update to An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions (ssll 80; Leiden: Brill, 2015) based on new inscriptions and the re-interpretation of previously published texts. New data pertain to phonology, demonstratives, verbal morphology, and syntax. The supplement to the dictionary contains hundreds of new entries, mainly comprising rare words and hapax legomena.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Arabic grammar Safaitic

A new Safaitic square-script inscription with a unique expression of ‘longing’

Abstract

This paper aims to study a new Safaitic inscription documented from the
eastern Jordanian Badiyah. The inscription is written in the square script
by a member of the lineage of ʿmrt and includes a rare expression of longing.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Graffiti Palaeography Safaitic Safaitic square script

The Nabataeans against the Ḥwlt – once again. An edition of new Safaitic inscriptions from the Jordanian Ḥarrah desert

Abstract

This paper examines three Safaitic graffiti recently discovered during a survey of the Wādī Salmā area in the ḥarrah desert, north-eastern Jordan. While one of these texts consists exclusively of onomastica, the other two contain new references to the Ḥwlt tribe, one of which is in a prayer asking Dushara to avenge the Nabataeans against them. This provides further evidence of a conflict that took place between the Nabataeans and the Ḥwlt, a mysterious event that has recently been brought to attention by Sabri Abbadi. The decipherment of the texts is followed by an updated list of the documents referring to this war and by some remarks on its historical context. The question that is asked is whether it could have occurred during the Nabataean takeover of northern Arabia during the first century bc.


Keywords

Ancient North Arabian Nabataean inscriptions Safaitic Northwest Arabia Tribes of Pre-Islamic Arabia