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Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions refer to inscriptions (writings inscribed on stone or other hard surfaces) from pre-Islamic Arabia, or the Arabian Peninsula prior to the origins of Islam in the early seventh century. They include inscriptions in both the Arabic and non-Arabic languages such as Sabaic, Hadramautic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and others.

Pre-Islamic inscriptions can be categorized into one of two types: graffiti, which are "self-authored personal expressions written in a public space", and monumental inscriptions, which are inscriptions commissioned to a professional scribe by a ruler or elite to serve an official role. Both served a public role. Unlike modern graffiti, the graffiti described in the study of pre-Islamic inscriptions are usually signed (as opposed to being anonymous) and were not used for an illicit or subversive purpose. Graffiti are usually just scratchings on the surface of rock, but both graffiti and monumental inscriptions could be produced by painting, or the use of a chisel, charcoal, brush, or the use of other methods. Inscriptions are typically lapidary (as opposed to portable) and engraved (instead of painted).

Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions are an important source for the learning about the history and culture of pre-Islamic Arabia. They also inform the study of the Quran in the field of Quranic studies. Over 65,000 inscriptions have been found on stone, metal, pottery, wood, and more, indicating highly literate nomadic and settled populations. 50,000 of these are from North Arabia and 15,000 from the South. Of the latter, 10,000 have been published and 7,500 digitized into the Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions (CSAI). The most important South Arabian collection of inscriptions are the 800 discovered from the Temple of Awwam. The South Arabian corpus also indicates that this region hosted a sizable literature, but being written on perishable materials, it has not survived.

Scripts and languages

There are three scripts that were used to write down pre-Islamic inscriptions.

1. Ancient South Arabian (ASA): includes Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, and Ḥaḍramitic
2. Ancient North Arabian (ANA): includes all South Semitic scripts not covered by ASA, such as Taymanitic or Thamudic B
3. Nabataean

The ASA script was written in one of two forms, known as the monumental (musnad) and the minuscule (zabūr) form. The monumental form was created on hard surfaces (as proper inscriptions) such as bronze or rock. The minuscule form was created on perishable surfaces like palm-bark or sticks (examples of these were only discovered in recent years from South Arabia). More perishable surfaces were the ones utilized for day-to-day documents. Unlike ASA, ANA is not a homogeneous group. The designation refers to a wide number of scripts representing many languages which have yet to be properly classified and distinguished.

South Arabian languages

Sabaic is the best attested language in South Arabian inscriptions, named after the Kingdom of Saba, and is documented over a millennium. In the linguistic history of this region, there are three main phases of the evolution of the language: Late Sabaic (10th–2nd centuries BC), Middle Sabaic (2nd century BC–mid-4th century AD), and Late Sabaic (mid-4th century AD–eve of Islam). The final Sabaic inscription discovered is from the mid-5th century AD, during the final years of the Himyarite Kingdom. Some Sabaic inscriptions have also been found in Ethiopia, and these are classified as Ethiopic Sabaic. Sabaic and Arabic may have been mutually intelligible.

Hadramitic is attested in hundreds of inscriptions over a millennium, and is known from the region of Hadramaut, or modern eastern Yemen.

Qatabanic is more seldom attested, including on some pottery shards. Inscriptions in this language are found from the Qataban kingdom, principally at its capital Timna and the surrounding necropolis.

Minaic, known from the Ma'in kingdom of the Minaeans, is first documented in the 8th century BC. Although the primary site of attestation is at the kingdom, Minaic inscriptions have also been discovered in northwestern Arabia and Egypt, and this has been linked to a flourishing Minaean trade.

Arabic

Studies and discoveries of Nabataean inscriptions have led to a broad agreement that the Arabic script evolved from the Nabataean script through a Nabataean Arabic intermediary. The latest pre-Islamic phase of the Arabic script is known as Paleo-Arabic, and inscriptions in this script have been discovered across Arabia and the southern Leavant.

The Arabic language has been attested in many pre-Islamic Arabian scripts, beginning in the early first millennium BC (in cuneiform inscriptions). Arabic in the pre-Islamic Arabic can be called Old Arabic. Old Arabic was mainly written down in these scripts: Safaitic, Hismaic, Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean Arabic, and Paleo-Arabic. Several other scripts were also used to write Arabic, but much more occasionally, including: the Greek script, Ancient South Arabian scripts, and Dadanitic.

Poetry

To date, eight pre-Islamic poems are known from inscriptions discovered in Yemen. Summarized by Daum, Abdullah, and Mutahhar ibn al-Iryani:

"Six have been published: ZI 11 from Mārib, the Hymn to the Sun from Qāniya (dated by Stein to the late first century AD), a building text from Wadi Šurjān—so pronounced, not Širjān (van Lessen 24 = Jamme 2353), a cursive text from the Munich collection (X. BSB 187—Stein, 2010, p. 607ss.), an inscription from Ḫawlān al‐ Ṭiyāl (MS‐Šiǧā’ 2), engraved together with other inscriptions that deal with the ritual hunt, and inscription MA 16 from Mārib (Multhoff, 2021, p. 315s.). Two more texts from the Awām temple, discovered in 2004 by the AFSM, numbered MB 2004 I‐95 and MB 2004 SI‐8 (personal communication of Mohammed Maraqten), remain unpublished. The poems span the period from the fifth or third century BC to the third century AD."

One of the earliest is the Hymn of Qāniya, a first century poem addressed to the goddess Shams that is 27 lines long. Every line in the poem ends in the rhyme -hk. Another poem comes from a Middle Sabaic vote inscription ZI 11 from Marib. A rock inscription VL 24 = Ja 2353 from Wadi Shirjān contains a rhymed poem 10 lines long. The first line is introductory, followed by nine lines of text.

Beyond South Arabia, a Safaitic poem has been discovered by Ahmad Al-Jallad. According to Al-Jallad, the poem is six lines long and is a war song. Aside from this text, only one other literary composition is known in Safaitic, which is a fragment of the Baal Cycle.

Limitations

Certain challenges exist in studying pre-Islamic Arabia with inscriptions. First, not all communities expressed themselves through a culture of inscribing their writings on rock. Second, the content of inscriptions is often formulaic. Nevertheless, many formula were used and the phrasings become formula (widely employed) because they help encode the beliefs and attitudes of the authors. Third, inscriptions can be destroyed by weather or human activity. Therefore, inscriptions known today may not be a full representation of those originally created.

See also

• Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry

References

Citations

1. Van Bladel 2018.
2. Al-Jallad 2022, p. 7.
3. MacDonald 2015, p. 3.
4. ^ Grasso, Davitashvili & Abuhussein 2023, p. 3.
5. MacDonald 2015, p. 3–4.
6. Lindstedt 2023, p. 12–14.
7. Al-Jallad 2020b, p. 121–124.
8. Sinai 2023, p. 7–8.
9. Grasso, Davitashvili & Abuhussein 2023, p. 9–13.
10. MacDonald 2015, p. 1.
11. Grasso, Davitashvili & Abuhussein 2023, p. 4.
12. Maraqten 2021, p. 100, 108.
13. Maraqten 2015, p. 107.
14. Van Bladel 2018, p. 125.
15. Donner 2022, p. 1–4.
16. MacDonald 2015, p. 2.
17. Al-Jallad 2020b, p. 112–113.
18. Maraqten 2021, p. 102.
19. Grasso, Davitashvili & Abuhussein 2023, p. 2–3.
20. Robin 2010, p. 123–124.
21. Donner 2022, p. 1–7.
22. Grasso, Davitashvili & Abuhussein 2023, p. 6.
23. Al-Jallad 2020, p. 37–38.
24. Daum, Abdullah & Al-Iryani 2023.
25. Daum, Abdullah & Al-Iryani 2023, p. 140.
26. Stein 2008.
27. Al-Jallad 2017.
28. Lindstedt 2023, p. 11–12.

Sources

• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2017). "Pre-Islamic 'Ḥamāsah' verses from north-eastern Jordan: a new Safaitic poetic text from Marabb al-Shurafāʾ, with further remarks on the ʿĒn ʿAvdat inscription and KRS 2453". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. 47: 117–128. JSTOR 45163454.
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020). "Pre-Islamic Arabic" (PDF). In Lucas, Christopher; Manfredi, Stefano (eds.). Arabic and contact-induced change. Language Science Press. pp. 37–55.
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2020b). "The Linguistic Landscape of pre-Islamic Arabia: Context for the Qur'an". In Shah, Mustafa; Haleem, Muhammad Abdel (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Qur'anic Studies. Language Science Press. pp. 111–127.
• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2022). The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-50427-1.
• Daum, Werner; Abdullah, Muhammad; Al-Iryani, Mutahhar (2023). "A third century AD rhymed hymn from Yemen: The origins of Arabic poetry and literature?". Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. 34 (1): 140–157. doi:10.1111/aae.12230.
• Donner, Fred (2022). "Scripts and Scripture in Late Antique Arabia: An Overview". In Donner, Fred; Hasselbach-Andee, Rebecca (eds.). Scripts and Scripture: Writing and Religion in Arabia circa 500–700 CE. Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. pp. 1–15.
• Grasso, Valentina; Davitashvili, Ana; Abuhussein, Nadja (2023). "Introduction. Epigraphy, the Qurʾān, and the Religious Landscape of Arabia". Millennium. 20 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1515/mill-2023-0002.
• Lindstedt, Ilkka (2023). Muhammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia. Brill.
• MacDonald, Michael C.A. (2015). "On the Uses of Writing in Ancient Arabia and the Role of Palaeography in Studying Them". Arabian Epigraphic Notes. 1: 1–50.
• Maraqten, Mohammed (2015). "The Pilgrimage to the Awām Temple/Maḥram Bilqīs, Ma'rib, Yemen". In Arbach, Mounir; Schiettecatte, Jérémie (eds.). Pre-Islamic South Arabia and its Neighbours: New Developments of Research. Archaeopress. pp. 107–133.
• Maraqten, Mohammed (2021). "Historiography of Pre-Islamic Arabia: Arab Scholars and Their Contributions to the Writing of the History of Ancient Yemen". In Baadj, Amar (ed.). A Handbook of Modern Arabic Historical Scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Periods. Brill. pp. 100–137.
• Robin, Christian Julien (2010). "Langues et écritures". In Al-Ghabban, A. (ed.). Routes d'Arabie. Editions du musée du Louvre. pp. 118–131.
• Sinai, Nicolai (2023). Key Terms of the Qur'an: A Critical Dictionary. Princeton University Press.
• Stein, Peter (2008). "The "Himyaritic" Language in pre-Islamic Yemen. A Critical Re-evaluation". Semitica et Classica. 1: 203–212. doi:10.1484/J.SEC.1.100253.
• Van Bladel, Kevin (2018). "Languages of Arabia". In McGill, Scott; Watts, Edward (eds.). A Companion to Late Antique Literature. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 123–140.

External links

• DASI (Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions)
• DiCoNab (The Digital Corpus of the Nabataean and Developing Arabic Inscriptions)
• OCIANA (Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia)

v t e Pre-Islamic Arabia
Settlements	Eastern Arabia Magan Dilmun Gerrha Awal Tylos Lakhmid Parthia Beth Qatraye Beth Manuzaye South Arabia Saba Kahlan Maʿīn Ḥaḍramawt Awsān Qatabān Himyar Aksum Hejaz Thamud Mecca Yathrib North Arabia Qedar Achaemenid Arabia Lihyan Nabataea Hatra Tanukh Ghassanids Salīḥids Arabia Petraea Central Arabia Kinda Al-Magar
Society and culture	Tribes Calendar Nasi' Marriage Slavery Poetry Women Nabataean culture Nabataean art Nabataean architecture Ancient South Arabian art
Literature	Poetry Inscriptions
Languages	Scripts Arabic alphabet Nabataean Arabic Paleo-Arabic Arabic script Aramaic alphabet Nabataean script South Semitic scripts Ancient North Arabian Dadanitic Dumaitic Hismaic Safaitic Taymanitic Thamudic Ancient South Arabian Hasaitic Geʽez Languages Arabic Old Arabic Dadanitic Hismaic Aramaic Hatran Aramaic Old South Arabian Ḥaḍramautic Minaean Qatabanian Sabaean
Religion	Polytheism Deities Al-Lat Al-‘Uzzá Dushara Hubal Manāt Book of Idols Monotheism Judaism Christianity Samaritanism Mandaeism Manichaeism Zoroastrianism Buddhism
Islamic perspective	Jahiliyyah

• Epigraphy
• Inscriptions by region
• Pre-Islamic Arabia
• Pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions