An Inscription Mentioning Acceptance Of The Ḥajj And Supplication For Forgiveness, 82 AH / 701-702 CE
Islamic Awareness
© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
First Composed: 20th August 2015
Last Modified: 5th July 2021
| Tweet |
|
|
|
Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure: (a) Original inscription, (b) its trace, and (b) transcription.
Date
82 AH / 701-702 CE.
Size
Not available.
Script
Ḥijāzī script.
Contents
The translation of the inscription is given below:
- God forgive Sahm, client of Abū Zurʿah al-Hakamī,
- and accept his Ḥajj. Amen! Lord of the worlds.
- And God forgive Maḥmūd al-Abram
- al-Sammān, client of Yaʿmur b. Habīb
- and accept from him his Ḥajj and it was written
- in the year two and eighty.
Comments
This inscription lies at the bottom of the rock face with the inscription from 74 AH written on the top.
Lying on the Darb Zubayda pilgrimage route, this inscription has the earliest mention of the Ḥajj in a dated text. This is also the earliest mention of the Ḥajj on this route and comes close to the time when al-Masjid al-Ḥarām was reconstructed. On the pilgrimage route from Syria, there are three inscriptions dated 91 AH / 710 CE, 97 AH / 715-716 CE, and 100 AH / 718-719 CE that mention the Ḥajj. Near contemporaneous to these two inscriptions is a papyrus dated 86-99 AH / 705-717 CE which also mentions the Ḥajj and as an exhortation from the amīr al-muʾminīn to the people encouraging its performance.
Location
Near Hāʾil, Saudi Arabia.
References
[1] Fahd b. Salih al-Hawas, Al-Sayid Anīs Hashim, ʿAbdullāh al-Shamrī, Muḥammad al-Utaibī, Khalīfah al-Mūsā, Saʿd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ruisan, ʿAbdullāh ʿAbdul Muḥsin al-Khalīl, "Taqrir Ula ʿAn Aʿmāl al-Tanqibāt al-Athariyyah bi Madīnah Fayd al-Tarīkhīyya bi-Mintaqa Hāʾil (Al-Mawsam Al-Awwal 1427 AH - 2006 CE)", Aṭlāl: Journal Of Saudi Arabian Archaeology, 2010, Volume 20, No. 1, p. 35, Plate 2.3(a).
[2] Muḥammad b.ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Rāshad al-Thenyian, Nuqūsh Al-Qarn Al-Hijrī Al-Awwal Al-Muʾrakhat Fī Al-Mamlakah Al-ʿArabiyyah Al-Saudia, 2015, Riyaḍ, pp. 77-78, Plate 10(a).
The images above are reproduced from the stated sources under the provisions of the copyright law. This allows for the reproduction of portions of copyrighted material for non-commercial, educational purposes.
With the exception for those images which have passed into the public domain, the use of these images for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited without the consent of the copyright holder.