Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions

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Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions refer to inscriptions (writing s inscribed on stone or other hard surfaces) from pre-Islamic Arabia, or the Arabian Peninsula prior to the origins of Islam in the early seventh century. They include inscriptions in both the Arabic and non-Arabic languages such as Sabaic, Hadramautic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and others. [1]

Contents

Pre-Islamic inscriptions can be categorized into one of two types: graffiti, which are "self-authored personal expressions written in a public space", [2] and monumental inscriptions, which are inscriptions commissioned to a professional scribe by a ruler or elite to serve an official role. [3] [4] Both served a public role. [5] Unlike modern graffiti, the graffiti described in the study of pre-Islamic inscriptions are usually signed (as opposed to being anonymous) and were not used for an illicit or subversive purpose. Graffiti are usually just scratchings on the surface of rock, but both graffiti and monumental inscriptions could be produced by painting, or the use of a chisel, charcoal, brush, or the use of other methods. Inscriptions are typically lapidary (as opposed to portable) and engraved (instead of painted). [6]

Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions are an important source for the learning about the history and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They also inform the study of the Quran in the field of Quranic studies. [7] [8] [9] Over 65,000 inscriptions have been found on stone, metal, pottery, wood, and more, indicating highly literate nomadic and settled populations. [10] 50,000 of these are from North Arabia [11] and 15,000 from the South. Of the latter, 10,000 have been published and 7,500 digitized into the Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions (CSAI). [12] The most important South Arabian collection of inscriptions are the 800 discovered from the Temple of Awwam. [13] The South Arabian corpus also indicates that this region hosted a sizable literature, but being written on perishable materials, it has not survived. [14]

Scripts and languages

There are three scripts that were used to write down pre-Islamic inscriptions. [15]

  1. Ancient South Arabian (ASA): includes Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Ḥaḍramitic
  2. Ancient North Arabian (ANA): includes all South Semitic scripts not covered by ASA, such as Taymanitic or Thamudic B
  3. Nabataean

The ASA script was written in one of two forms, known as the monumental (musnad) and the minuscule (zabūr) form. The monumental form was created on hard surfaces (as proper inscriptions) such as bronze or rock. The minuscule form was created on perishable surfaces like palm-bark or sticks (examples of these were only discovered in recent years from South Arabia [16] ). More perishable surfaces were the ones utilized for day-to-day documents. Unlike ASA, ANA is not a homogeneous group. The designation refers to a wide number of scripts representing many languages which have yet to be properly classified and distinguished. [17]

South Arabian languages

Sabaic is the best attested language in South Arabian inscriptions, named after the Kingdom of Saba, and is documented over a millennium. [4] In the linguistic history of this region, there are three main phases of the evolution of the language: Late Sabaic (10th–2nd centuries BC), Middle Sabaic (2nd century BC–mid-4th century AD), and Late Sabaic (mid-4th century AD–eve of Islam). [18] The final Sabaic inscription discovered is from the mid-5th century AD, during the final years of the Himyarite Kingdom. Some Sabaic inscriptions have also been found in Ethiopia, and these are classified as Ethiopic Sabaic. [19] Sabaic and Arabic may have been mutually intelligible. [20]

Hadramitic is attested in hundreds of inscriptions over a millennium, and is known from the region of Hadramaut, or modern eastern Yemen. [4]

Qatabanic is more seldom attested, including on some pottery shards. Inscriptions in this language are found from the Qataban kingdom, principally at its capital Timna and the surrounding necropolis. [4]

Minaic, known from the Ma'in kingdom of the Minaeans, is first documented in the 8th century BC. Although the primary site of attestation is at the kingdom, Minaic inscriptions have also been discovered in northwestern Arabia and Egypt, and this has been linked to a flourishing Minaean trade. [4]

Arabic

Studies and discoveries of Nabataean inscriptions have led to a broad agreement that the Arabic script evolved from the Nabataean script through a Nabataean Arabic intermediary. [21] The latest pre-Islamic phase of the Arabic script is known as Paleo-Arabic, and inscriptions in this script have been discovered across Arabia and the southern Leavant. [22]

The Arabic language has been attested in many pre-Islamic Arabian scripts, beginning in the early first millennium BC (in cuneiform inscriptions). Arabic in the pre-Islamic Arabic can be called Old Arabic. Old Arabic was mainly written down in these scripts: Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean Arabic, and Paleo-Arabic. Several other scripts were also used to write Arabic, but much more occasionally, including: the Greek script, Ancient South Arabian scripts, and Dadanitic. [23]

Poetry

To date, eight pre-Islamic poems are known from inscriptions discovered in Yemen. [24] Summarized by Daum, Abdullah, and Mutahhar ibn al-Iryani: [25]

"Six have been published: ZI 11 from Mārib, the Hymn to the Sun from Qāniya (dated by Stein to the late first century AD), a building text from Wadi Šurjān—so pronounced, not Širjān (van Lessen 24 = Jamme 2353), a cursive text from the Munich collection (X. BSB 187—Stein, 2010, p. 607ss.), an inscription from Ḫawlān al‐ Ṭiyāl (MS‐Šiǧā’ 2), engraved together with other inscriptions that deal with the ritual hunt, and inscription MA 16 from Mārib (Multhoff, 2021, p. 315s.). Two more texts from the Awām temple, discovered in 2004 by the AFSM, numbered MB 2004 I‐95 and MB 2004 SI‐8 (personal communication of Mohammed Maraqten), remain unpublished. The poems span the period from the fifth or third century BC to the third century AD."

One of the earliest is the Hymn of Qāniya, a first century poem addressed to the goddess Shams that is 27 lines long. Every line in the poem ends in the rhyme -hk. Another poem comes from a Middle Sabaic vote inscription ZI 11 from Marib. A rock inscription VL 24 = Ja 2353 from Wadi Shirjān contains a rhymed poem 10 lines long. The first line is introductory, followed by nine lines of text. [26]

Beyond South Arabia, a Safaitic poem has been discovered by Ahmad Al-Jallad. According to Al-Jallad, the poem is six lines long and is a war song. Aside from this text, only one other literary composition is known in Safaitic, which is a fragment of the Baal Cycle. [27]

Limitations

Certain challenges exist in studying pre-Islamic Arabia with inscriptions. First, not all communities expressed themselves through a culture of inscribing their writings on rock. Second, the content of inscriptions is often formulaic. Nevertheless, many formula were used and the phrasings become formula (widely employed) because they help encode the beliefs and attitudes of the authors. Third, inscriptions can be destroyed by weather or human activity. Therefore, inscriptions known today may not be a full representation of those originally created. [28]

See also

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