EARLY NORTH ARABIAN HISMAIC A preliminary description based on a new corpus of ...

556 Pages·2011·5.57 MB·English

by  Jennifer Lockie

EARLY NORTH ARABIAN HISMAIC

A preliminary description based on a new corpus of inscriptions from the Ḥismā desert of
southern Jordan and published material
Volume I

Geraldine Margaret Harmsworth King

Submitted for the degree of Ph.D.
School of Oriental and African Studies
1990
ABSTRACT

The basis of the study is an edition of 1337 Hismaic inscriptions which were recorded
from three sites in Wādī Judayyid in southern Jordan in 1986 and 1987. The introductory
chapters in Volume I include a discussion of the study and provenance of Hismaic
inscriptions and the methodology used for recording the texts; a description of the
Hismaic script, an outline for a classification of mixed texts and some remarks about the
relationship between the scripts of the different types of Thamudic, Hismaic and Safaitic;
a description of some points of the phonology, orthography, grammar and content of the
Hismaic inscriptions and a comparison with the content found in other types of
Thamudic, Hismaic and Safaitic; a discussion of the names and genealogies found in the
inscriptions; a description of the rock drawings which occur in association with the
Hismaic texts from Wādī Judayyid, a discussion of the distribution of the epigraphic
material at the sites and some points that can be made about the relationship between
Hismaic and Nabataean. Volume II contains indexes of names, vocabulary and drawings
occurring in the edition. The Index of names lists all the names found in Hismaic as well
as etymological and comparative material taken from Arabic, Nabataean, Palmyrene and
modern Bedouin sources. Appendix 1 lists the provenances of Hismaic inscriptions;
Appendix 2 includes re-readings of many of the published texts and Appendices 3-6 give
the vocabulary in published texts, the deities, elements in theophoric names tribal names
found in the inscriptions. The figures and plates include a map of the distribution of
Hismaic inscriptions, a script table, facsimiles of the texts, plans of the sites and
photographs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME I

PREFACE

1. INTRODUCTION
A. The study of Hismaic
B. ‘Tabuki’ Thamudic and ‘South Safaitic’
C. The provenance of Hismaic texts
D. The Ḥismā and Wādī Judayyid Sites A, B and C
E. The fieldwork
F. The edition of the texts and the published material

2. SCRIPT
A. The forms of the letters
B. Problems with the interpretation of some letters
C. The stance and direction of the letters
D. Letters written in the gaps of the preceding letter and the inversion of letters to
form a symmetry
E. The joining, infilling and embellishment of letters
F. Similarities between the letters
G. The direction of the texts
H. The differences in the letter forms
I. Hismaic and texts with ‘Mixed’ features
J. Hismaic, B, C, D and Safaitic

3. PHONOLOGY, ORTHOGRAPHY AND GRAMMAR
A. Phonology
1. t and ṯ
2. d and ḏ
3. z for /ẓ/ and /ḍ/
4. w, y and ʾ
5. Assimilation and elision
6. The use of m for b
7. The use of n for l
8. Doubling of the liquid letter l
9. Tāʾ Marbūṭah

B. Orthography
1. Vowelling
2. Geminated radicals
3. ʾAlif Maddah
4. Medial ʾ
5. Final ʾ
6. The radicals w and y
7. Suffix w and y
8. Prosthetic ʾalif
9. ʾafʿal
10. Mistakes

C. Grammar
1. Verbs
2. Plurals
3. Adjectives and adverbs
4. Pronouns
5. Prepositions
6. The definite article
7. The particles w and f
8. The vocative particle

4. CONTENT AND STRUCTURE OF THE TEXTS
A. Texts of simple authorship
1. Texts of the form l N
2. Texts of the form w N ḫṭṭ
3. Texts introduced by (a) w l and (b) w
4. Texts with no introductory particle
5. Texts of the form w ʾn N
6. Joint authorship

B. The authorship of drawings
1. Texts of the form l N
2. Texts of the form l N¹ w N² ḫṭṭ and w N ḫṭṭ
3. Texts beginning with (a) w l and (b) w

C. Prayers
1. Invocations using ḏkr
2. Invocations using dʿ
3. Invocations of the form h D.N. l N
4. Invocations using s¹mʿt and s¹mʿ
5. Invocations using zrʿ, s¹b, ʾd and qdr

D. Curses

E. Texts expressing emotions
1. Using rb/rbt
2. Using wdd and nk/nyk
3. Using ʾn ġr b

F. Statements relating to hunting
G. Expression of authorship of complex statements

H. Content of Hismaic texts which is not attested among the Wādī Judayyid
inscriptions

I. Features of content and structure of the texts from the Wādī Judayyid sites and
those of Safaitic, Thamudic B, C and D

5. THE NAMES
A. Compound names
1. Theophoric and Basileophoric compounds
a. The structure
b. The elements

2. Non-theophoric compounds
a. Names with prepositions
b. Names with ʾbn-, bn-, ʾb-, b-, ʾḫ-

B. One-word names
1. Structure of one-word names
2. Explanations of one-word names
3. Non-Semitic names

C. Individual authors and genealogies
1. Individual authors
2. Genealogies

D. Tribal names

6. THE DRAWINGS
A. The inscriptions associated with the drawings and the artists
B. The subjects of the drawings

7. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE TEXTS

8. Hismaic AND NABATAEAN AND THE DATING OF THE TEXTS
A. Hismaic and Nabataean, the writers of Hismaic and the Nabataeans
B. The dating of the texts

9. THE EDITION OF THE TEXTS FROM WĀDĪ JUDAYYID SITES A, B AND C
Site A
Site B
Site C
VOLUME II

INDEXES:

Index of names in Hismaic
Index a: Names and genealogies from the Wādī Judayyid Sites
Vocabulary in the texts from the Wādī Judayyid sites
Index of drawings

APPENDICES:

1. The provenance of the Hismaic texts
2. Published Hismaic texts
3. Vocabulary in the published texts
4. Deities in Hismaic
5a-b Elements in compound names
6. Tribal names in Hismaic

Bibliography
Abbreviations

FIGURES AND PLATES:

Fig.1 Distribution map of Hismaic
2-6 Script table
7-67 Facsimiles of the Wādī Judayyid inscriptions
68-89 Plans of the Wādī Judayyid sites
Pls. 1-15 Photographs of the Wādī Judayyid sites and of a selection of the
inscriptions and drawings
PREFACE

The new corpus of Hismaic inscription contained in this study was recorded in 1986 and
1987 from sites in southern Jordan. I would like to thank the following sponsors who
financed the fieldwork: the British Institute at Amman for Archaeology and History; the
Central Research Fund (University of London); the Palestine Exploration Fund; the
School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London); G.A. Wainwright Fund.
I am extremely grateful to Dr. A. Hadidi, former Director General of the Department of
Antiquities of Jordan, for granting a permit and for his support for the project. Mr Hugh
Barnes did the survey work during both seasons and I am indebted to him for undertaking
the task and for drawing up the plans of the sites.

This new body of material has greatly increased our understanding of this little known
dialect of Early North Arabian, although the ambiguities posed by the brevity and nature
of the texts mean that many of the interpretations offered here will undoubtedly need
revising as further material is recorded. The study concentrates on interpretation and
description of certain aspects of the inscriptions – the script, phonology, orthography,
grammar, content, names, genealogies and associated rock art – and only draws on
material from other sources, mainly, features of other types of Thamudic, Safaitic and
Nabataean inscriptions, to a limited extent, as a more detailed comparative approach
would be the subject of a separate study.

I have not attempted to vocalise any of the names occurring in the inscriptions because of
the many possible vocalisations presented by parallel examples and the uncertainty that
an alternative, in any particular instance, is the correct one. Less well-known Arabic
place names have been transcribed in the Italic type which contains the diacritical marks.
I have kept the transliterations used in the publication when quoting Arabic names from
other sources.

I am greatly indebted to Dr. A. K. Irvine for supervising my thesis and giving me
valuable advice and guidance. I would like to thank Professor A.F.L. Beeston and Dr.
K.A. Knauf for reading an initial draft of Chapter 4. Mr Michael Macdonald introduced
me to Early North Arabian epigraphy ten years ago. His generosity and encouragement
as a teacher inspired me to undertake this study and it would be difficult to express my
gratitude adequately.

Whilst writing this study I have relied heavily on my friends and family for moral
support. I would particularly like to thank my sister Mrs Victoria Jolliffe, who gave me
tremendous encouragement even though her own fields of interest are far removed from
mine. My special thanks go to Miss Phyllis Crawford whose support and understanding
during more frustrating moments gave me the courage and determination to continue.
The study is dedicated to her and to my parents, Michael and Elizabeth King.

Geraldine King
1990
Ch. 1

1. Introduction

A. The study of Hismaic:

Thamudic is the name that has been given to Early North Arabian graffiti, written by
nomads, which are found in large numbers in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the Ḥismā
desert of southern Jordan. At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the
twentieth century, several collections of these texts were made by early travellers to
Saudi Arabia – Doughty (1884, Do), Huber (1884 (a) HuI and 1891 Hu and, after Van
den Branden 1950 (a), HU), Euting (I, 1896, II,1914 (ed. Littmann, E.) Eut1) and Jaussen
and Savignac (I-II 1909, 1914, JS) which enabled scholars to tackle their decipherment.
In the 1930’s a few texts were recorded by Savignac (1934, SSA and 1936, UR) from
Jordan and some occur in the plates of Rhotert 1938 (Rh) from Jordan and Saudi Arabia2.

In 1937 Professor F.V.Winnett edited a new inscription (Meek) and, in the same
publication, distinguished, on the basis of script and content, five types within the
Thamudic texts which he labelled Thamudic A, B, C, D and E (Hismaic). The present
study is concerned with the last type ‘Hismaic’ which, among the early collections, had
largely been found in northwestern Saudi Arabia in the area of Tabūk. In 1950 A. van
den Branden published a corpus of all the known Thamudic texts with his own
classification, in which his type ‘Tebouq’ more or less corresponds to Winnett’s Hismaic
but the first major corpus of Hismaic texts themselves was recorded and published by
G.L.Harding in (Harding and Littmann) 1952 (TIJ) which contains just over 500
inscriptions in this type of script. These texts were largely found in the Ḥismā desert in
Jordan, mainly from the area of Wādī Ramm3.

Despite the relative ease of access to the Ḥismā in Jordan, nobody attempted to record
further large collections of texts until the early 1980’s although, following a brief visit,
Winnett published a few inscriptions in 1971 (WAM) and a small number of Hismaic
texts were published that had been found elsewhere in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the
Negev4.

1 The complete collection of Euting’s copies was not published until 1974. See Jamme
1974(a).
2 See Pls. XX and XXIX.
3 Some of the texts copied by Philby and published by A. van den Branden 1956(a) are
Hismaic but, because of the generally unreliable nature of the copies, I have not included
them in the present analysis except in a very few instances.
4 Ryckmans, G. 1939 (RyGT 2), Harding 1951 (NST 1), Jamme 1959 (JaS 1), Milik 1958
– 1959 (MNM a-c, inscriptions 1-7), Winnett 1959 (WA 10379, 10386, 10682, 11472),
Winnett 1970 (WTI 11), Harding 1972(b) (HE 79), Koenig 1971 (Tdr 9), Clark 1976-
1977 (CSP 2, 3i-ii), Naveh 1978 (Naveh TSB C). Several of these texts were not
classified by the editors as Hismaic.
During 1979-1980 Dr. David Graf conducted a survey and reports having recorded a few
hundred Thamudic texts from the region5 and, at about the same time, Dr William Jobling
started the ʿAqabah-Maʿān survey the objectives of which included recording inscriptions
and rock drawings within the area6. In 1983 Mr David Jacobsen recorded approximately
500 inscriptions at a site below the Raʾs al-Naqb escarpment in the north of the region.
Except for the texts scattered throughout Jobling’s preliminary reports (AMJ)7 none of
these large collections from the Ḥismā have been published yet8, although a small
collection was edited by Dr. E.A. Knauf (1985, KnEG), two texts by Dr. al-Muhaysin
(1988, MuNJ) and quite a large number of unedited texts appear in the plates and figures
of Campetti and Löwenstern 1983 (LAU). Apart from these, from Jordan, several more
small collections and individual texts, including an alphabet (KnA), from areas outside
the Ḥismā were published during the 1980’s9.

In 1986 and 1987 I organized expeditions to southern Jordan during which I recorded
1337 Hismaic inscriptions from three sites, using a systematic approach to the fieldwork.
A large section of this study consists of an edition of these new texts but the work is also
an attempt to draw together the already published Hismaic texts and to lay the
foundations fir a description of this dialect of Early North Arabian.

B. ‘Tabuki’ Thamudic and ‘South Safaitic’:

In 1970 Winnett (Winnett and Reed 1970: 70) renamed the class of texts Hismaic as
‘Tabuki’ Thamudic10. I have not adopted this name because, as several authors have
pointed out11, most of the texts in this collection are in fact Safaitic or mixed
Safaitic/Hismaic12 and the term is therefore somewhat confusing13. Knauf (1980, 1983,

5 Graf n.d.: 2.
6 I am grateful to Dr Jobling for inviting me to visit some of his sites in 1983.
7 See the bibliography under Jobling.
8 Although Mr David Jacobson allowed me to make copies of the slides he took during
his project and I would like to thank him for his generosity. It has been invaluable, whilst
compiling this study, to have access to the texts from his site although naturally, since
they are not published, they have not been included in this discussion.
9 Clark 1980 (CTSS), Macdonald 1980 (SIAM 39a-b, 43-44), Macdonald in Kilick 1983:
115 (MU 1), King n.d. (KU 1-2), Knauf 1085 (KnA), Röllig 1987 (RTI), King 1989
(KWM).
10 He also renamed Thamudic A ‘Taymanite’, Thamudic B ‘Najdi’, and Thamudic C and
D he placed together under the name ‘Hijazi’.
11 Harding 1972(a): 5; Jamme 1972: 524; Macdonald 1980: 188; Winnett [1982]: 37 n.1.
12 See Ch.2. § I below.
13 I have also kept the names Thamudic B, C and D for the other types rather than
adopting the terms, ‘Najdi’ Thamudic and ‘Hijazi’ Thamudic as the use of artificial
names is preferable until we have a more complete description of these dialects.
Furthermore, Winnett’s distinction between Thamudic C and D is an important one (see,
for example, the different graphemes used for /s²/ (Thamudic C JS 129, 159 and
Thamudic D JS 1, 499, for instance), and the texts should not be classed together.
1985: 204 n.3) suggested the texts should be called ‘South Safaitic’. Whilst I would
agree with him that the name Thamudic, for any of the texts generally known by the term,
is inappropriate14, I prefer not to use a new name which suggests a particular relationship
between Hismaic and Safaitic which, in my opinion, is equally misleading15.

C. The Provenance of Hismaic texts:

The provenance of edited Hismaic texts is given in Appendix 1 and an indication of the
distribution in Fig.1. As pointed out above, most of the known texts have come from the
Jordanian Ḥismā and a large proportion of the texts from Saudi Arabia were found
around Tabūk, although we do not know whether similarly high concentrations of the
texts exist in that region as well. Elsewhere, small collections and individual texts have
been found as far west as the Negev and Sinai, in the south around Madāʾ in Ṣāliḥ and
Jabal Mismāʾ to the east and, in the north, around al-Jawf. In Jordan, a number of texts
have been found in the central and eastern deserts as well as at several places in the
western uplands and in areas around Amman.

Evidence from the fieldwork carried out in 1987 clearly indicates that the texts recorded
from the three sites were written by nomads local to the area or, at least, by people who
returned frequently to it16. Many of the isolated finds from other regions were probably

14 The people of Ṯamūd from which the name was derived occur in the Quran, Sūrahs
7:73, 11:61,68 etc. and are believed to have lived in al-Ḥijr (Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ) 15:80-84.
The name is also attested in the Assyrian annals, Pritchard 1955: 286 (120-125); in
Classical sources, for example, Plint, Natural History, VI : 157; in a Nabataean/Greek
bilingual inscription from Rawwāfah, Milik 1972(a) : 23-58, Bowersock 1975: 513-522
and the name ṯmd occurs in two Safaitic inscriptions, WH 3792a s¹nt ḥrb js²m ʾl ṯmd ‘the
year that js²m warred with the people of ṯmd’, and WH 3792c s¹nd js²m ṯmd ‘the year that
js²m warred with ṯmd’. Evidence, however, for a connection between the people in these
references and the writers of the Thamudic inscriptions is very tenuous. The only
possible occurrences of the name in Thamudic are on Thamudic B, Do XXV 48,2, HU
453, JS 280, 300, 339 (Van den Branden 1966: 17). The interpretation of all these texts
is somewhat doubtful. In JS 280 where the nisbah ending has been read by most editors
(see HIn: 148, for example), the y is only a restoration from an incomplete circle. JS 300
l bʾtr h ṯmd, usually interpreted as ‘By bʾtr the Ṯamūd’ (see Winnett 1937: 33, for
example), might equally be translated ‘To bʾtr belongs the water hole’ (cf. Ar. ṯamad ‘a
small cavity or hollow in which rainwater collects’). Furthermore, even if one accepts
the references in Thamudic B to Ṯamūd there is still no evidence to suggest that the
writers of other types of Thamudic also belonged to a tribal group or confederation of
that name. See, Ryckmans, J. 1960.
15 Whilst there are certain features shared by both South Safaitic and Safaitic (cf. Knauf
1985:204 n.3 b), there are several important differences between the script (see Ch.2.J),
style and content of the inscriptions of the two dialects, see Ch. 4.I. If the texts are to be
renamed it would be better to use a neutral term.
16 See Ch.7.