A First Century BC Arabic Inscription In Musnad Script At Qaryat
Al-Faw
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Inscriptions/faw.html[12/11/2014
12:55:13 AM]
A First Century BC Arabic Inscription In Musnad Script At Qaryat
Al-Faw
Islamic Awareness
Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
First Composed: 23rd June 2005
Last Modified: 23rd June 2005
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Assalamu alaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
The Qaryat al-Faw Inscription: It is written in Arabic using the
Musnad script.
Date
c. 1st century BC.
Script
A First Century BC Arabic Inscription In Musnad Script At Qaryat
Al-Faw
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Inscriptions/faw.html[12/11/2014
12:55:13 AM]
It is written in the musnad script. Musnad is an Arabic term
denoting the ancient South Arabian script (i.e., Sabaic, Qatabanic,
Hadaramitic, Minaic and Himyaritic).
Comments
At Qaryat al-Faw, the capital of Kinda and other Arab tribes, a
certain Igl son of Hafam wrote the dedicatory text for his
brother's tomb in Arabic using the script of the nearby Sabaean
kingdom. Although the inscription is in "Old Arabic" (i.e.,
pre-Islamic Arabic), it was written in the musnad script. This is
the earliest known Arabic inscription written in the musnad script.
The text uses the article l-, the *ban, rather than *banaya, the fl
form of the causative stem, and the preposition mn rather than
bn.
Other scripts such as the Nabataean script was used to write
Arabic, as seen in the En Avdat and the Namarah inscriptions.
Contents
The inscription reads (after Beeston):
Igl son of Hafam constructed for his brother Rabibil son of
Hafam the tomb: both for him and for his child and his wife, and
his children and their children's children and womenfolk, free
members of the folk Ghalwan. And he has placed it under the
protection of (the gods) Kahl and Lah and Athtar al-Shariq from
anyone strong or weak, and anyone who would attempt to sell or
pledge it, for all time without any derogation, so long as the sky
produces rain or the earth herbage.
Location
Qaryat al-Faw, Saudi Arabia.
References
[1] A. R. Al-Ansary, Qaryat Al-Fau: A Portrait Of Pre-Islamic
Civilisation In Saudi Arabia, 1982, University of Riyadh (Saudi
Arabia), p. 146.
[2] A. F. L. Beeston, "Nemara And Faw", Bulletin Of The School
Of Oriental And African Studies, 1979, Volume 42, pp. 1-6.
[3] M. C. A. Macdonald, "Reflections On The Linguistic Map Of
Pre-Islamic Arabia", Arabian Archaeology And Epigraphy, 2000,
Volume 11, p. 50 and 61.
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