An Inscription Commemorating The Ḥajj Of The Umayyad Caliph Sulaymān Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, 97 AH / 715-716 CE
Islamic Awareness
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First Composed: 27th June 2021
Last Modified: 8th July 2021
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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:
(a)
(b)
Figure (a) photograph of original inscription, and (b) its transcription.
Date
97 AH / 715-716 CE.
Accession Number
Not available.
Size
Not known.
Script
Kufic. This inscription was first brought to notice by the Twitter handle @AB_M_ALBALAWI.
Contents
The translation of the inscription is given below:
- O Lord, I testify and believe and know for certain that
- there is no god but You. So wrote Muḥammad ibn
- Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī the year seven and ninety
- the Ḥajj of Sulaymān the Commander of the Believers.
Comments
This inscription lies on the Syrian pilgrimage route near al-ʿUla. On the pilgrimage route from Syria, there are two inscriptions dated 91 AH / 710 CE and 100 AH / 718-719 CE that mention the Ḥajj. However, the earliest mention of the Ḥajj comes from an inscription dated 82 AH / 701-702 CE on the Darb Zubayda pilgrimage route and comes close to the time when al-Masjid al-Ḥarām was reconstructed. There is also 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
Al-ʿUla, Saudi Arabia
References
[1] See the thread here.
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