Namara inscription

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Namara inscription
Louvre Museum, Paris, France
LanguageOld Arabic (Nabataean dialect)

The Namara inscription (

Louvre Museum
in France.

Differences from Arabic

The inscription is written in the

Qur'an
in the 7th century.

Discovery

The inscription was found on 4 April 1901 by two French archaeologists, René Dussaud and Frédéric Macler, at al-Namara (also Namārah; modern Nimreh) near Shahba and Jabal al-Druze in southern Syria, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Damascus and 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast Bosra, and 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the Sea of Galilee. The location was near the boundary of the Roman Empire at the date it was carved, the Limes Arabicus of the province of Arabia Petraea. Al-Namara was later the site of a Roman fort.

History

The inscription is carved in five lines on a block of

Hisham Ibn Al-Kalbi, an early ninth century scholar, but Irfan Shahîd notes "there is not a single Christian formula or symbol in the inscription."[3] While Theodor Nöldeke argued against a Christian affiliation of Imru' al Qays bin 'Amr,[4] Shahid noted that his Christian belief could be "heretical or of the Manichaean type".[5]

The first tracing and reading of the Namara inscription was published in the beginning of the twentieth century by René Dussaud. According to his reading, the text starts by informing the reader that this inscription was the burial monument of the king, then it introduces him and lists his achievements, and finally announces the date of his death. Many other scholars have re-read and analyzed the language of the inscription over the last century but, despite their slight differences, they all agreed with Dussaud's central viewpoint that the Namara stone was the burial monument of King Imru' al-Qays. In 1985, James A. Bellamy offered the first significantly different tracing of the inscription since Dussaud, including a breakthrough tracing correction of two highly contested words in the beginning of the third line (pointed out on Dussaud's original tracing figure as words 4 and 5). However, despite Bellamy's new important re-tracings, his Arabic reading fully agreed with the general theme of Dussaud's original reading. Bellamy's widely accepted new translation of the inscription reads:[6]

The original tracing and reading of the Namara inscription that was published by René Dussaudin 1905 (numbers added to facilitate discussion in this article)

This is the funerary monument of

Nizar
.
And he subdued the Asadis and they were overwhelmed together with their kings, and he put to flight
Madhhij
thereafter, and came
driving them to the gates of
Ma'add
, and he dealt gently with the nobles
of the tribes, and appointed them viceroys, and they became phylarchs for the Romans. And no king has equalled his achievements.
Thereafter he died in the year 223 on the 7th day of Kaslul. Oh the good fortune of those who were his friends!

Below is Bellamy's modern Arabic translation of the Namara inscription, with brief added explanations between parenthesis:

تي (هذه) نَفسُ (شاهدة قبر) امرؤ القيس بن عَمرو مَلِكُ العرب كله، ولقبهُ ذو أسَد ومذحج.

ومَلَكَ الأسديين ونزار وملوكهمْ وهَرَّبَ مذحج عَكدي (كلمة عامية تدمج الكلمتين "عن قضى"، بمعنى بعد ذلك) وجاء (اي امرؤ القيس) يزجها (يقاتلها بضراوة) في رُتِجِ (ابواب) نَجران، مدينة شمّر، ومَلَكَ معد (بنو مَعَدْ في اليمن) ونَبَلَ بنَبه الشعوب (عامل نبلاءهم باحترام ولطف) ووكلهن (اي عين نبلاءهم شيوخا للقبائل) فرأسو لروم (فاعترفو بسيادة روم عليهم) فلم يبلغ ملك مَبلَغَه.

عكدي (بعد ذلك) هلك سَنَة 223، يوم 7 بكسلول (كانون الأول)، يالِسَعْدِ ذو (الذي) والاهُ (بايعه او جعله وليا له).

The mention of the date – the 7th of

era of Bostra
– securely dates his death to the 7th day of December in AD 328.

Ambiguities in translation

Parts of the translation are uncertain. For example, early translations suggested that Imru' al-Qays was king of all the Arabs, which seems unlikely after he moved to Syria. It is also not clear whether he campaigned towards Najran while he was based at al-Hirah or after his move to Syria and, in either case, whether he did so alone or with assistance from the Sassanids or the Romans.

The inscription is now held by the

Louvre Museum
in Paris.

See also

References

  1. ^ Irfan Shahîd, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, (Dumbarton Oaks, 2006), 31.
  2. ^ Kees Versteegh and C. H. M. Versteegh, The Arabic Language, (Columbia University Press, 1997), 31.
  3. ^ Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Irfan Shahîd. p. 32. Although Imru' al-Qays was considered Christian [...] there is not a single Christian formula or symbol in the (Namarah) inscription.
  4. ^ Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, Theodor Nöldeke. p. 47.
  5. ^ Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century, Irfan Shahid. pp. 33–34. Perhaps Imru' al-Qays Christianity was of the manichaean type, completely unacceptable to those in Byzantium. His father 'Amr was the protector of Manichaeism in Hira, that followed the crucifixion of Mani, as the Coptic papyri have shown.
  6. ^ James A. Bellamy, A New Reading of the Namara Inscription, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 105.1 (1985), pp. 31–48.

References

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