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New Qatabāni inscriptions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Mahmud 'Ali Ghul
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Extract

Major M. D. Van Lessen, M.C. (Royal Hampshire Regt.), has made available to me, in photographs and hand-made copies, about 30 inscriptions and graffiti which he had either acquired or come across on rocks and buildings during his tour of duty with the Aden Protectorate Levies. These inscriptions, most of which proved to be hitherto unknown or unpublished, will be numbered in a series under the name-of Van Lessen.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 1959 , pp. 1 - 22
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1959

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References

page 3 note 1 Mordtmann, J. H. and Mittwoch, E., Sabäische Inschriften, Hamburg, 1931, 210.Google Scholar

page 3 note 2 Al-Azraqī tells of two occasions when votive suns were presented to al-Ka'ba, along with other things: 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwān gave two ‘suns’ and two crystal cups, and al-Mutawakkil gave one ‘sun’ made of gold and studded with precious stones, with a chain, so that it would be hung on the front of al-Ka'ba during the pilgrimage season; cf. al-Azraqī, , Akhbar Makkah, Leipzig, 1858, 156–7.Google Scholar A ‘sun’ in gold and jewellery, probably the one given by al-Mutawakkil, is mentioned by al-Hamdani, , Ṣifat djazīrat al-'Arab, ed. Muller, D. H., Leiden, 1884, 269.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 See the full explanation given in Lane, Lexicon, article The idea is expressed in a different phrase in the anonymous line quoted by the grammarians:

'All b. Abī Ṭālib is said to be the author of the saying proverbial for having many brothers to give one support. An anonymous line of verse, quoted in connexion with this saying, expresses the idea openly:

Al-Ḥārith b. Sadūs, referred to in the verse, is said to have had 21 sons (cf. Ibn al-Athīr, al-Nihāyah fi al-ḥadīth, article ).

page 3 note 4 op. cit., 210.

page 4 note 1 It should be noted here that in RES, 4189, 3, the text is restored:

It seems that the restoration of t was called for by the name KLBT, taken for a female's name. But KLBT could be the name of a son; cf. CIH, 91, 2, and RES, 3756, 2.

page 4 note 2 I think that the feminine ending in bḥt helps to give it a less offending sense. In the dialect of Yaman, genital male organ, a masculine noun, when used for a boy has a diminutive form In the colloquial usage of the Jerusalem district, is used for the male organ generally, and is avoided in open polite speech; but in reference to a young boy one uses it is never thought to be impolite in open speech, when inevitable.

page 4 note 3 Yaman was famous for its gypsum in early Islamic times, especially in connexion with the building and repair of al-Ka'ba, as the following account shows. ‘Ibn el-Zubeir liess nun von denselben Orten neue Steine herbeischaffen, von wo sie bei dem vorigen Bau geholt waren, und da ihm statt Lehm, womit er anfangs bauen wollte, Gyps als haltbarer vorgeschlagen und der von Çan'a in Jemen als vorzuglich gut empfohlen wurde, machte er einen Contract zu einer Lieferung für 400 Dinare.’ Wustenfeld, F., Geschichte der Stadt Mekka, Leipzig, 1861, 133–4Google Scholar; cf. also, ibid., 135, 198, and cf. Hamdani, , op. cit., 196.Google Scholar

page 5 note 1 Ibn al-Athīr, Nihāydh, art.

page 5 note 2 Tāj al-'arus gives the following under article Cf. also ‘darf, a door with one leaf’; Serjeant, R. B., ‘Building and builders in Hadramawt’, Muséon, LXII, 1949, 284.Google Scholar

page 8 note 1 cf. Rhodokanakis, N., Katabanische Texte, I, 35, n. 1Google Scholar; cf. also Hommel, , op. cit., 99.Google Scholar

page 8 note 2 cf. Ryckmans, J., L'institution monarchique en Arable meridionale avant l'lslam, Louvain, 1951, 53, 73–5.Google Scholar

page 8 note 3 mlkn: the king's banqueting hall; cf. Rhodokanakis, , Stvdien, II, 35Google Scholar, where he approaches the word through Accadian ‘sharp knife’, and ‘to cut, circumcision’ and suggests that it was a place or temple either for slaying sacrificial victims or for performing circumcision. Beeston, A. F. L., ‘The oracle sanctuary’, Museon, LXII, 1949, 215Google Scholar, n. 7, rejects the alternative suggestion, that is, a ‘place of circumcision’. As for the meaning I adopted here, that is ‘banqueting hall’, cf. : the making of a feast … to which people are invited, on account of wedding and of a circumcision’ (Lane, Lexicon). Although this meaning is not basically different from the first one suggested by Rhodokanakis, since a place where sacrificial victims were slain might well have been the place where they were eaten or partaken of by the worshippers, yet it might have been some sort of a hall where the king feasted his people or received his guests; cf. RES, 4635, 4–5, which reads: ywm/nql/lmbny/m'lmt/SMH'LY, where m'lmt is rendered ‘Vorhalle’. I compare it with Arabic walïmah: a banquet, a feast; cf. also 'lm, RES, 4176, 8, where it should be translated ‘banquet’ or ‘feast’, the occasion there being the end of the pilgrimage, which is the subject of all the preceding prohibitions and injunctions, and the breaking of the vows of abstinence; cf. ayyam , which are ‘Tage der Lust, des Essens und des Trinkens, wo man der wieder erlangten Freiheit nach der langen Karenz sich freut’, Wellhausen, J., Reste arabischen Heidentums, Berlin, 1897, 80.Google Scholar It is related that the Prophet used to have a dār ḍiyāfa (guest-house) for entertaining the embassies; cf. Ibn Sa'd, Biographen, Bd. I, Theil II, Leiden, 1917, 43 ff. Sayf b. is also reported to have had one called dār al-ḍiyāfa wa-l-umfūd, in which 'Abdu-1-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet's grandfather, is said to have been entertained; Būlāq, xvi, 76. For the mention of an enclosure where boys were gathered for circumcision and, apparently, communal feasting on the occasion, cf. Hamdani, , Iklil, Cairo, 1948, x, 45.Google Scholar Circumcision was one of the functions performed in the assembly hall, dar al-nadiva, in Makka before Islam; cf. Ya'qūbī, Ta'rīkh, ed. M. Th. Houtsma, Leiden, 1883, 1, 277.

page 9 note 1 cf. nār al-muhaiouril ‘a fire which the Arabs used to kindle, in the time of ignorance, on the occasion of entering into a confederacy: they threw into it some salt, which crackled when the fire burned it: with this they frightened one another in confirmation of the swearing’ (Lane, Lexicon). The parties to the ceremony had to draw as near to the fire as possible, the salt being thrown furtively by the presiding priest, hence called al-muhawwil, the frightening or the aweinspiring one (Lisān, articles nwr and hwl; Jāḥiẓ, al-Ḥ ayawan, Cairo, 1940, iv, 470 ff.).Google ScholarAlmuhawwil is semantically the equivalent of mukarrib, karb in Arabic meaning ‘Grief or distress that affects the breath or respiration, that takes away the breath’ (Lane, Lexicon). Cf. also Arabic karraba al-rajulu: ṭaqṭaqa al-karib (Tāj) explained as ‘He, the man or the baker, made the karib, the wooden peel, or the poker with which he stirs the fire of the oven, crackle’. The function of a mukarrib seems to have been to arrange alliances or confederacies and look into their affairs. In an organized monarchical state this would probably mean supervising and arranging the allegiance of the tribes to the king, as seems to have been the situation in Qatabān. In this capacity a mukarrib would be junior to the sovereign, although holding a post of great importance. He might have been the ‘heir apparent’, next in rank to the sovereign; cf. Arabic waliyy al-'ahd, said to have been so called because he was in charge of the pledges of allegiance given to the Caliph, li'annahu waliyyu al-mithāqi alladhī yu'khadhu 'aiā man bayā'a al-khalīfa (Tāj, art. 'hd); it was an office or a term for an office used early in Islamic days and might have been a survival from pre-lslamic usages. But he would still be senior to the other non-sovereign kings; cf. infra, p. 10. The situation might have been the same in Saba', although it might be possible to say that in Saba' the king himself acted as his own mukarrib vis-a-vis the tribes who did not fall directly under his sovereignty, or who were not, strictly speaking, a part of the territory of Saba'; cf. RES, 3945, 1. Pirenne, J., in Paléographie des inscriptions sud-arabes, Bruxelles, 1956Google Scholar, a work which unfortunately I have not been able to consult, seems, according to the revue of her work in Syria, xxxv, 1958, 140Google Scholar, to hold a somewhat similar opinion about the function of a mukarrib, although she suggests that he was senior to a king and his office could not be identified with that of a high-priest. Strictly speaking, I find myself in agreement with her on the last point.

page 10 note 1 Byckmans, J., op. cit., 42 ff., 96, 151 ff., etc.Google Scholar

page 10 note 2 ibid., 213.

page 10 note 3 cf. ibid., 238.

page 11 note 1 man' is used nowadays in South Arabia for the tribal law which concerns itself with the different kinds of safeguards and the various degrees of protection and responsibility that a man, or a group of men, may get, or are entitled to expect, from a chieftain, a clan, or a tribe. The chieftain or clan who extend such protection are said to have man'a, capacity or ability to protect themselves and others; cf. Rossi, E., Il diritto consuetudinario delle tribù arabe del Yemen, Roma, 1948, 18 ff.Google Scholar Professor R. B. Serjeant, who has kindly drawn my attention to this, has made available to me the fully edited manuscript of Kitāb al-ādāb wa-'l-lawāizim fī aḥkām al-man'a, of Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. al-Faḍl; cf. BS0AS, XIII, 3, 1950, 589 ff.Google Scholar The currently accepted translation of mswd mn'n, ‘holier Ratschluss’, first suggested by Rhodokanakis, , Studien, II, 67, is hardly acceptable or justifiable.Google Scholar

page 11 note 2 nfs in the term ḥfy nfs should be translated ‘contention’, or, ‘litigation’. Cf. and ; nfs, in this case, is the infinitive of form III; cf. Hofner, M., op. cit., 61. An arbitrator or judge is described in a quotation: ‘He presides over the affairs of judgement and decides litigations’ (Lane, Lexicon), nfs has also this meaning in RES, 4176, 10, which reads: wḥzrnh/nfsm/ ‘and that Ta'lib has prohibited RḤBTm from all contending for the superiority of ancestors (on the occasion) of the day of TR'T and prohibited competition’. This must have referred to an undesirable practice indulged in by the tribes at the end of the pilgrimage rites; a parallel practice was the subject of prohibition in Qur'ān II, 200: Competitions in poetry and even in games were common features of the pre-Islamic meetings at market places which were closely associated with the pilgrimages.Google Scholar

page 12 note 1 cf. (al-Qāmūs); cf. also Lane, Lexicon, especially for the meaning of and Tor btln in the inscriptions, cf. RES, 3878, 2; 3566, 1, etc.

page 12 note 2 RES, 3566, 21; 4233, 5; 3879, 1 and 5.

page 12 note 3 RES, 3879, 1 and 5.

page 12 note 4 RES, 3689, 1; cf. also Beeston, A. F. L., ‘The oracle sanctuary’, Muséon, LXII; 1949, 219–20.Google Scholar

page 12 note 5 A. F. L. Beeston restores lz' in line 9 of Istanbul 7608, compares it with Arabic waza'a, and translates lz' bḥrn ‘for the defence of the sea’; ‘Old South Arabian lexicography, IV’, Muséon, LXV, 1952, 139.Google Scholar Ry., 506, 7–8 reads: It is possible to translate the passage: ‘And thereafter 'Amr b. Muddir mediated, arbitrated, between them …’; cf. Smith, Sidney, loc. cit., 435, n. 11Google Scholar, and Ryckmans, G., Muséon, LXVI, 1953, 283.Google Scholar

page 13 note 1 It is known in Arabic that are interchangeable in some of their basic meanings and usages, especially in the sense of ‘to follow’, from which spring the sense of stlwt here and the Arabic cf. for the same sense, .

page 13 note 2 For the different interpretations of this formula see Ryckmans, J., op. cit., 66–8Google Scholar; cf. also, Beeston, A. F. L., ‘Problems of Sabaean chronology’, BSOAS, xvi, 1, 1954, 46, n. 2.Google Scholar

page 13 note 3 In the account of Muslim immigration to Abyssinia the Negus is reported to have said to the Muslims ‘secure, under protection’. It is added that the word is Abyssinian and another variant version gives it with sin; cf. Isḥáq, Muḥammad Ibn, Das Leben Mohammed's, ed. Wüstenfeld, F., Göttingen, 1858. I, 221.Google Scholar This word, which seems to be the very etymological equivalent of šym in the inscriptions, is, otherwise, not known in classical usage wḥere the standard word for it is It should not be unacceptable to suggest the equation of CIH, 462, 1, which has been related etymologically to RES, 3946, 5, which has been related to As for the change of šym from a weak middle to the double second of ‘He blamed him’ (Lane, Lexicon)

page 13 note 4 cf., for the apparent lack of agreement on the precise meaning of Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, Cairo, A.H. 1327, x, 59 f.

page 13 note 5 Rhodokanakis, , Studien, II, 9.Google Scholar

page 14 note 1 This is the basic principle for treating non-Muslims as ; cf. also, Serjeant, R. B., ‘Professor A. Guillaume's translation of the Slrah’, BSOAS, xxi, 1, 1958, 10 ff.Google Scholar

page 14 note 2 cf. Conti Rossini, Glossarium, art. ẖmr.

page 14 note 3 cf. m'rb which is the equivalent of ‘west’, RES, 2975, 18, and of ‘lapis quadratus’, CIH, 540, 77; cf. Conti Rossini, ibid, 212.

page 14 note 4 .

page 14 note 5 Ibn Sa'd, Biographen, ed. E. Mittwoch and E. Sachau, Bd. i, Theil n, Leiden, 1917, 73.

page 14 note 6 J. Wellhausen also edited it and further translated the passage, ‘die Atimur und die Gharb und die Mischlinge und Schutzgenossen’; Skizze und Vorarbeiten, Berlin, 1889, IV, 179.Google Scholar But it is apparently a misreading of cf. Sa'd, Ibn, op. cit., vi, 172Google Scholar, where Hamdan is divided into

page 15 note 1 cf. Landberg, , Glossaire datinois, I, Leiden, 1920, 493.Google Scholar

page 15 note 2 al-Nihayah ft

page 15 note 3 Färis, Aḥmad b., Mu'jam maqāyīs dl-lughah, Cairo, 1946, II, 216.Google Scholar

page 15 note 4 cf. what was said, in the note on sttwt, 1. 9 above, in relation to ytlwn, CIH, 518, 4.

page 15 note 5 Rhodokanakis, , Studien, II, 9.Google Scholar

page 16 note 1 cf. ‘ formule sacramantale = je jure’, Landberg, , op. cit., III, Leiden, 1942, 2902.Google Scholar Cf. in the verse might have meant ‘oaths, or pledges, of allegiance’ not given in the name of, or to, Allah, or should one accept the traditional meaning of ‘idols’ here and consider that the idols, in this case, were symbols of a mutual bond or alliance between those who worshipped them ?

page 16 note 2 cf. Ingrams, Doreen, A survey of social and economic conditions in the Aden Protectorate, Eritrea, 1950.Google Scholar

page 16 note 3 cf. Ryckmans, J., op. cit., 35 f., 90 ff.Google Scholar

page 16 note 4 ibid.

page 16 note 5 al-Qurṭubi, , al-Jāmi' li-aḥkām al-Qur'ān, Cairo, 1937, v, 276.Google Scholar

page 17 note 1 cf. p. 16, n. 1 above.

page 17 note 2 The chapter from which this verse comes belongs to the Madīna period when it would have been natural to identify allegiance to the Prophet with allegiance to the community or state.

page 17 note 3 cf., for an account of the incident, Ṭabarī, , Tafsīr, Cairo, A.H. 1329, xxvinGoogle Scholar, 38 f.; cf. also Guillaume, A. (tr.), The life of Muhammad, O.U.P., 1955, 545.Google Scholar

page 17 note 4 Although wdm in the Qatabāni inscriptions occurs only in decrees given to 'rby yet it should be noticed that these people are described in these inscriptions as the king's 'dm and not mwddt; cf. RES, 3689–93.

page 17 note 5 Ryckmans, J., op. cit., 145, 157.Google Scholar

page 18 note 1 Apparently hitherto unpublished. I think that here is what might be a bḥt. The inscription Iḥrt/ṢDQ means: ‘for the field (or, for the irrigation system) of ṢDQ’. It is an offering closely associated with fertility.

page 18 note 2 Azais, R. B. and Chambard, R., Cinq années de recherches archéologiques en Éthiopie, Paris, 1931, 161 ff., 223–42.Google Scholar Plates of accompanying atlas, XXXXIII-LXXVII. The author wishes here to express his gratitude to Dr. D. S. Rice, who drew his attention to this valuable source of information.

page 18 note 3 Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society, xxix, 1942, 246.Google Scholar

page 19 note 1 of. Arabic where the whole] basic meaning is connected with animal procreation; cf. particularly ‘of a horse or a camel—progeny and offspring’ (Lane, Lexicon).

page 19 note 2 'šq occurs in many contexts: (a) building, where it is placed before bny, or some derivative form of it, and in such a case it is quite easy to interpret it as ‘dug’; cf. RES, 4094, 2; 4162, 2; 3553, 2; 3552, 2; (b) along with other building, or constructional, terms, where it is still easy to maintain its meaning as ‘dug’; cf. RES, 3854, 5, 7; 4328, 10; cf. also the use of Arabic with which I am comparing it, in this account of some structural work in the Mosque in this account ‘ausgraben’; cf. Geschichte der Stadt Mekka, 208. The fourth form, s'šq, with possibly the same basic meaning, occurs in RES, 4326, 2, 4330, 1, and in the interesting case of RES, 3689, 12, where s'šq means ‘cut out’ or ‘cause to cut out’ an inscription; cf., in this connexion, ftẖ used in Qatabāni inscriptions (RES, 3691, 7, etc.) for cutting an inscription. In connexion with land and agriculture the substantivea 'šqt, RES, 4230 C, 1, and 'šq, RES, 4194, 3, could mean levelled land, i.e., land that has been dug up and levelled, and we have in Arabic this interesting usage to compare: (Lisān).

page 19 note 3 cf. p. 4, n. 1 above.

page 19 note 4 cf. RES, 3902, 142; CIH, 423, 1.

page 19 note 5 op. cit., 210.

page 19 note 6 See postscript on p. 22.

page 20 note 1 also has a usage which can be compared with mṣrb, an ‘altar for burnt offerings’; cf. this usage of reported by Schmidt and Kahle: ‘Zarb ist hier der Braten, der in einer kleinen Grube, die eigentlich Zarb heisst, zubereitet wird. Diese Grube, die etwa 20–100 cm. lang, 40 cm. breit und 20–40 cm. tief ist überwölbt man mit Steinen und Erde; innen zündet man ein starkes Feuer an. Auf die niedergebrannte Glut wird das vorher abgezogene, ausgenommene, mit Salz und Pfefier eingeriebene Tier gelegt und daruber alles Luftdicht verschlossen. Nach einer knappen Stunde ist der Braten gar. Er gilt als besonders wohlschmeckend’. Then the authors say further, ‘Vgl. Dalman, im Palestinajahrbuch VIII (1912), S. 135.Google Scholar (D. schreibt Ẓarb (Ẓirb) und kommt bei Beschprechung des samaritanischen Passahfestes darauf zu sprechen)’. Schmidt, and Kahle, , Volkserzdhlungen aus Paldstina, Göttingen, 1918, I, p. 158, Anm. 7.Google Scholar

page 20 note 2 cf. Forbes, R. J., Studies in ancient technology, Leiden, 1955, I, 80.Google Scholar

page 21 note 1 Braunlich, E., The well in ancient Arabia, Leipzig, 1926, 49Google Scholar

page 21 note 2 Tawfik, Mobammed, Les monuments de Ma'īn, Cairo, 1951, 12, 16–17Google Scholar, and Plate IX, Fig. 13; cf., also, ibid., 18, and Plate XV, Fig. 24, for the description and picture of a spout in limestone.

page 22 note 1 Landberg, , Études sur les dialectes de I'Ardbie meridionale. I. Hadramout, Leiden, 1901, 396 f.Google Scholar