Aksumite eraMurayghān 3

Abraha’s return from Maʿadd

A royal rock inscription records Abraha’s authority over Maʿadd and other Arabian communities.

Date
c. 552 CE
Place
Murayghān, Saudi Arabia
Language
Late Sabaic
Script
Ancient South Arabian

01 · Original text

Late Sabaic

Ancient South ArabianComplete surviving text

𐩣𐩡𐩫𐩬 𐩱𐩨𐩧𐩠 𐩸𐩺𐩨𐩣𐩬 𐩣𐩡𐩫 𐩪𐩨𐩱 𐩥-𐩹-𐩧𐩺𐩵𐩬 𐩥-𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩 𐩥-𐩺𐩣𐩬𐩩
𐩥-𐩱𐩲𐩧𐩨-𐩠𐩣𐩥 𐩷𐩥𐩵𐩣 𐩥-𐩩𐩠𐩣𐩩 𐩪𐩷𐩧𐩥 𐩹𐩬 𐩪𐩷𐩧𐩬 𐩫-𐩤𐩰𐩡𐩥 𐩨𐩬 𐩱𐩧𐩳 𐩣𐩲𐩵𐩣
𐩫-𐩪𐩩𐩤𐩹𐩥 𐩱𐩲𐩧𐩨 𐩣𐩲𐩵𐩣 𐩲(𐩣)[-𐩬 𐩣]𐩹𐩧𐩬 𐩥-𐩷𐩧𐩵𐩥 𐩲𐩣𐩧𐩣 𐩨𐩬 𐩣𐩹𐩧𐩬 𐩥-𐩪—
𐩩𐩤𐩹𐩥 𐩫𐩡 𐩱𐩲𐩧𐩨 𐩣𐩲𐩵𐩣[ 𐩥-𐩠]𐩴𐩧𐩣 𐩥-𐩭𐩷 𐩥-𐩷𐩺𐩣 𐩥-𐩺𐩻𐩧𐩨 𐩥-𐩴𐩸(𐩣)

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

Scholarly transliteration

mlkn ʾbrh Zybmn mlk S¹bʾ w-ḏ-Rydn w-Ḥḍrmt w-Ymnt w-ʾʿrb-hmw Ṭwdm w-Thmt s¹ṭrw ḏn s¹ṭrn k-qflw bn ʾrḍ Mʿdm k-s¹tqḏw ʾʿrb Mʿdm ʿ(m)[-n M]ḏrn w-ṭrdw ʿmrm bn Mḏrn w-s¹— tqḏw kl ʾʿrb Mʿdm[ w-H]grm w-Ḫṭ w-Ṭym w-Yṯrb w-Gz(m)

02 · Translation

English reading

1–4

The king ʾbrh Zybmn, king of Sabaʾ, ḏu-Raydān, Ḥaḍramawt, Ymnt, of their Arabs of Ṭwdm and Thmt, wrote this inscription when he came back from the country of Mʿdm, when he took possession of the Arabs of Mʿdm, from Mḏrn, he drove out ʿmrm, son of Mḏrn, and he took possession of all the Arabs of Mʿdm, Hgrm, Ḫṭ, Ṭym, Yṯrb and Gzm.

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. Murayghān 3

    Murayghān 3. 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

Greg Fisher (ed.), Arabs and Empires before Islam (2015), p. 12

Greg Fisher (ed.), Arabs and Empires before Islam (2015), p. 169