Two Inscriptions Containing The Shahadah And Blessings Upon Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, Late 1st Century AH

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First Composed: 27th April 2020

Last Modified: 27th April 2020

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)
(b)

Figure: Inscriptions by Yazīd b. ʿUmayr al-Anṣārī. (a) Full shahadah. (b) Sending blessing upon Prophet Muhammad.

Date

Second half of 1st century AH.

Accession Number

–

Size

Inscription A: 120 cm x 100 cm.

Inscription B: 50 cm x 40 cm.

Script

Kufic.

Contents

The translations of the inscriptions are given below:

Inscription A

  1. This is what is testified over by Yazīd
  2. bin ʿUmayr al-Anṣārī thereafter al-Khaṭmī that
  3. verily there is no deity except God alone,
  4. Him without any partner, and that Muḥammad
  5. is slave of God and His messenger. Lord,
  6. forgive him.

Inscription B

  1. God bless
  2. Muḥammad messenger
  3. of God and written by
  4. Yazīd bin ʿUmayr
  5. al-Anṣārī

Comments

These two inscriptions were discovered by Maysa bint ʿAlī Ibrāhīm al-Ghabbān who published them in her Ph.D. thesis. She dates these two inscriptions towards the end of the 1st century AH.[1] On the issue of the name Yazīd bin ʿUmayr al-Anṣārī, Anthony comments that Yazīd bin ʿUmayr's father was a contemporary of Prophet Muḥammad and Yazīd's son was known as a reliable transmitter of prophetic traditions in the 2nd century AH.[2] Dated inscriptions from 1st century AH that contain the full shahadah or the Islamic testament of faith are the tombstone of ʿAbāssa bint Juraij (71 AH), inscriptions from the Dome of the Rock (72 AH), reconstruction of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām (78 AH), and one written by Farqad bin Nāfiʿ(96 AH).

As for dated inscriptions from 1st century AH that invoke of blessings (taṣliyyah) upon Prophet Muḥammad, they are the tombstone of ʿAbāssa bint Juraij (71 AH), inscriptions from the Dome of the Rock (72 AH), and inscribed copper plaques at the eastern entrance and the northern portal of the Dome of the Rock (72 AH).

Location

Ḥismā region, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

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References

[1] Maysa bint ʿAlī Ibrāhīm al-Ghabbān, Early Islamic Inscriptions In Hisma Plateau-Tabouk Region - Archaeological And Linguistic Analytic Study (Ph.D. Thesis), 2016, King Saud University: Riyadh, pp. 212-213, 868 (Inscription No. 147); pp. 230-231, 876 (Inscription No. 170).

[2] S. W. Anthony, Muhammad And The Empires Of Faith - The Making Of The Prophet Of Islam, 2020, University of California Press: Oakland (CA), p. 29.

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