Harran Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscription From 568 CE
Islamic Awareness
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First Composed: 8th March 2005
Last Modified: 29th January 2008
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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
(a)
(b)
Harran Inscription: (a) Full text of the inscription and (b) only the Arabic part of the text is shown here.
Date
568 CE.
Script
It is a Greek-Arabic bilingual inscription on the martyrium of St. John.
Contents & Comments
Arabic: [I] Sharaḥīl, son of Talimu built this martyrium in the year 463 after the destruction of Khaybar by a year.
Greek: I, Sharahil, son of Talimu (Gr. Saraēlos Talemou) built this martyrium of the holy John in the year 463, may the writer [of this] be remembered.
The date is equivalent to 568 CE, i.e., 463 plus 105, the Bosra era.
Location
Harran in Leija district, south of Damascus, Syria.
References
[1] P. Schroeder, "Epigraphisches aus Syrien", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 1884, pp. 530-534 and Pl. I.
[2] A. Grohmann, Arabische Paläographie II: Das Schriftwesen. Die Lapidarschrift, 1971, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch - Historische Klasse: Denkschriften 94/2. Hermann Böhlaus Nachf.: Wein, p. 14 and p. 17.
[3] J. A. Bellamy, "The Arabic Alphabet", in W. M. Senner (Ed.), The Origins Of Writing, 1989, University of Nebraska Press, pp. 98-99.
[4] B. Gruendler, The Development Of The Arabic Scripts: From The Nabatean Era To The First Islamic Century According To The Dated Texts, 1993, Harvard Semitic Series No. 43, Scholars Press: Atlanta (GA), p. 14.
[6] R. Hoyland, "Epigraphy And The Linguistic Background Of The Qur'ān" in G. S. Reynolds (Ed.), The Qur'ān In Its Historical Context, 2008, Routledge Studies in the Qur'an, Routledge: London & New York, pp. 55-56 and p. 66 note 14.
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