An Inscription Asking For Forgiveness, 74 AH / 693 CE

Islamic Awareness

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First Composed: 22nd August 2015

Last Modified: 11th September 2015

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)

(b)

(b)

Figure: (a) Original inscription, (b) its trace, and (c) transcription.

Date

74 AH / 693 CE.

Size

None.

Script

Ḥijāzī script.

Contents

The translation of the inscription is given below. The Arabic part is in italics:

  1. O God! For you is all praise. God, forgive ʿUmar b. Ṭarīf
  2. b. al-Ḥarth and Anas b. Salama al-Munabbahī and his two children (or ‘and his two parents’)
  3. and his companions and Magharra (Sa'ara) b. Sʿad. Amen!
  4. And it was written in Dhul-Qʿadah of the year four and seventy.

Comments

This unique inscription has a supplication for forgiveness of a person, his friends, his two children (or parents, given the reading of scriptio defectiva). It lies on top of the rock face with the inscription from 82 AH mentioning the Ḥajj inscribed at the bottom.

Location

Near Hāʾil, Saudi Arabia.

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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. 63-64, Plate 6(b).

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