Aksumite eraCIH 350

A soldier’s dedication to Taʾlab

A damaged dedication recounts campaigns against several opponents, including Ḥabašat.

Date
3rd century CE
Place
Unknown, Unknown
Language
Sabaic
Script
Ancient South Arabian

01 · Original text

Sabaic

Ancient South ArabianComplete surviving text

[... ...]
[... ...]𐩧 (𐩦)𐩲𐩨𐩬 𐩢𐩦𐩵𐩣 𐩨-𐩠𐩴𐩧𐩬 [..]𐩳 𐩨-(𐩦)[𐩲]—
[𐩨𐩬 ] (𐩢)𐩣𐩺𐩧𐩣 𐩥-𐩩𐩤𐩵𐩣 𐩣𐩱𐩩𐩬 𐩱𐩪𐩵𐩣 𐩥-𐩠𐩶𐩧𐩥 𐩲—
[𐩵]𐩺 𐩱𐩧𐩳 𐩢𐩣𐩺𐩧𐩣 𐩥-𐩠𐩧𐩴 𐩨-𐩠𐩥 𐩱𐩪𐩣 𐩥-𐩨-𐩹[𐩩]
[𐩩](𐩤𐩵)𐩣 𐩭𐩣𐩪𐩺 𐩥-𐩣𐩱𐩩 𐩱𐩪𐩵𐩣 𐩲𐩵[𐩺] 𐩣𐩧𐩵[𐩣]
[𐩨-𐩱](𐩧𐩳 )(𐩱)𐩡𐩠𐩬 𐩥-𐩱𐩭𐩹 𐩨-𐩠𐩥 𐩻𐩬𐩺 𐩱(𐩪𐩬) 𐩥-[𐩨]-
[𐩹𐩩 𐩩]𐩤𐩵𐩣𐩥 𐩭𐩣𐩪𐩬 𐩨-𐩭𐩡𐩰 𐩵𐩡𐩴 𐩥-(𐩠𐩧𐩴) 𐩨-(𐩠𐩥) [𐩱]—
[𐩪]𐩣 𐩥-𐩨-𐩹𐩩 𐩩𐩤𐩵𐩣𐩥 𐩨-𐩲𐩣 𐩢𐩨𐩦𐩩 𐩨-𐩭(𐩡𐩰) [..]—
[.] (𐩥)-(𐩠𐩧)𐩴 𐩨-𐩠𐩥 (𐩱)𐩪𐩣 𐩥-𐩨-𐩹𐩩 𐩩𐩤𐩵𐩣 (𐩦𐩧)[𐩢𐩩.]
[.. 𐩲]𐩧𐩨𐩬 [𐩲𐩦𐩧](𐩣) 𐩥-𐩣𐩱𐩩 𐩱𐩪𐩵𐩣 𐩥-(𐩩)[𐩤]𐩵𐩣𐩥 (𐩨)-[𐩲𐩣]
𐩨𐩧(𐩤𐩬) 𐩥-𐩠(𐩧)𐩴 𐩨-𐩠𐩥 𐩱(𐩪)𐩣 𐩥-𐩨-𐩹𐩩 𐩠(𐩬𐩢)𐩡-[𐩠𐩥 𐩱𐩣]—
𐩧𐩱-𐩠𐩥 𐩨[𐩬𐩥] 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬 𐩱𐩰𐩧(𐩪)-𐩠𐩣(𐩥) [... ...-𐩠]—
𐩣𐩥 𐩰-𐩠𐩧𐩴 (𐩻)[𐩬]𐩺 𐩬𐩣𐩧𐩬 𐩥-𐩫𐩡 𐩹-[..](𐩠 𐩨)-(𐩹𐩬 𐩣)[.]—
𐩫𐩢𐩬 (𐩹)-(𐩨)-𐩠𐩥 𐩠𐩻𐩤𐩰 (𐩱)𐩨(𐩫𐩧)𐩨 𐩺(𐩠)𐩪(𐩫𐩧) (𐩳)𐩧𐩲—
[𐩬] 𐩹-𐩭𐩷𐩡𐩣 𐩥-𐩨-𐩹𐩩 𐩭𐩣𐩧-𐩠𐩥 𐩩(𐩱)𐩡𐩨 𐩠𐩥(𐩡)𐩵—
[𐩬 𐩲]𐩪𐩣 (𐩶)𐩡𐩣𐩣 𐩱𐩹(𐩫𐩧)𐩣 𐩥-𐩡-𐩥𐩸𐩱 𐩭𐩣𐩧-𐩠(𐩣𐩥) [𐩩]—
[𐩱𐩡]𐩨 𐩢𐩼𐩺 𐩥-𐩧𐩳𐩥 𐩱𐩣𐩧𐩱-𐩠𐩣𐩥 𐩨𐩬𐩺 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬 |
[𐩥-𐩦𐩲]𐩨-𐩠𐩣𐩥 𐩢𐩦𐩵𐩣 𐩥-(𐩱𐩻)𐩣𐩧 𐩮𐩵𐩤𐩣 𐩲𐩵𐩺 𐩣𐩦[𐩺]—
[𐩣𐩩-𐩠𐩣]𐩥 𐩥-𐩱𐩧𐩳-𐩠𐩣𐩥 𐩥-𐩡-𐩠𐩲𐩬-𐩠𐩣𐩥 (𐩩)𐩱𐩡𐩨
𐩨𐩬 𐩬𐩳𐩲 𐩥-𐩦𐩮𐩺 𐩦𐩬𐩱𐩣 𐩨-𐩩𐩱𐩡𐩨-𐩧(𐩺)[𐩣](𐩣) (𐩨𐩲)—
𐩡 𐩧𐩢𐩨𐩬

Normalized Unicode reading from the cited edition; editorial brackets and uncertain readings are retained.

Scholarly transliteration

[... ...] [... ...]r (s²)ʿbn Ḥs²dm b-hgrn [..]ḍ b-(s²)[ʿ]— [bn ] (Ḥ)myrm w-tqdm mʾtn ʾs¹dm w-hġrw ʿ— [d]y ʾrḍ Ḥmyrm w-hrg b-hw ʾs¹m w-b-ḏ[t] [t](qd)m ḫms¹y w-mʾt ʾs¹dm ʿd[y] Mrd[m] [b-ʾ](rḍ )(ʾ)lhn w-ʾḫḏ b-hw ṯny ʾ(s¹n) w-[b]- [ḏt t]qdmw ḫms¹n b-ḫlf Dlg w-(hrg) b-(hw) [ʾ]— [s¹]m w-b-ḏt tqdmw b-ʿm Ḥbs²t b-ḫ(lf) [..]— [.] (w)-(hr)g b-hw (ʾ)s¹m w-b-ḏt tqdm (s²r)[ḥt.] [.. ʿ]rbn [ʿs²r](m) w-mʾt ʾs¹dm w-(t)[q]dmw (b)-[ʿm] Br(qn) w-h(r)g b-hw ʾ(s¹)m w-b-ḏt h(nḥ)l-[hw ʾm]— rʾ-hw b[nw] Hmdn ʾfr(s¹)-hm(w) [... ...-h]— mw f-hrg (ṯ)[n]y nmrn w-kl ḏ-[..](h b)-(ḏn m)[.]— kḥn (ḏ)-(b)-hw hṯqf (ʾ)b(kr)b Y(h)s¹(kr) (ḍ)rʿ— [n] ḏ-Ḫṭlm w-b-ḏt ḫmr-hw T(ʾ)lb hw(l)d— [n ʿ]s¹m (ġ)lmm ʾḏ(kr)m w-l-wzʾ ḫmr-h(mw) [T]— [ʾl]b ḥẓy w-rḍw ʾmrʾ-hmw bny Hmdn | [w-s²ʿ]b-hmw Ḥs²dm w-(ʾṯ)mr ṣdqm ʿdy ms²[y]— [mt-hm]w w-ʾrḍ-hmw w-l-hʿn-hmw (T)ʾlb bn nḍʿ w-s²ṣy s²nʾm b-Tʾlb-R(y)[m](m) (bʿ)— l Rḥbn

02 · Translation

English reading

–20

[... ...] ... the tribe Ḥšdm in the city [..]ḍ in (the territory of) the tribe Ḥimyar and he led 200 men and they made a raid into the land of Ḥimyar, where he killed one man; and because he led 150 men into Mrdm in the land of ʾlhn, where he captured two men and because they made an expedition, fifty men in the region of Dlg, where he killed one man and because they made an expedition against the Ḥbs²t in the region of [... ...], where he killed one man and because he led and auxiliary column of Arabs, 110 men, and they made an expedition against Brqn, where he killed one man, and because his lords of the banu Hmdn hired out to him their horses [... ...] so he killed two chieftains and all [... ...] the one on which ʾbkrb Yhs¹kr declared the defeat of ḏ-Ḫṭlm; and because Tʾlb granted him to beget many male children; and may Tʾlb continue to grant him the favour and the satisfaction of their lords the banu Hmdn and their tribe Ḥs²dm, and good crops in their fields and their land; and may Tʾlb save them from the harm and the malice of the enemies; by Tʾlb Rymm Lord of Rḥbn.

DASI / CSAI, CSAI; line breaks joined and evident spelling errors corrected. Record data: CC BY 4.0.

Sources

Editions & references

Follow the record back to the edition, catalogue, or image source used here.

  1. CIH 350

    CIH 350. DASI / Corpus of South Arabian Inscriptions; full text, translation, object record, and bibliography.

  2. Aksum and South Arabia

    George Hatke, “Aksum [and South Arabia]”, Ancient Arabia: archaeology & history of pre-islamic Arabia. Source inventory and historical context.

Habesha History corpus

A. Jamme, Sabaean Inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Marib) (1962), p. 64

A. Jamme, Sabaean Inscriptions from Mahram Bilqis (Marib) (1962), p. 72