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An Arabic Inscription From The Time Of The Caliph 'Abd Al-Malik

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Moshe Sharon
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Extract

The very hard, grey basalt stone on which this inscription is cut was discovered in 1961 by Mr. Shalom Kotzer (of the kibbutz Shā'ar ha-Golān) in shallow water off the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, near the modern amphitheatre ofTsēmaḥ (Samakh). In 1962 it was moved from the water to the kibbutz by Mr. Kotzer and his son Moshe. A preliminary note on the inscription in Hebrew by the present writer appeared in 'Al ha-Mishmār of 11 January 1963. The inscription consists of eight readable lines insimple Kūfī script, incised on afairly smooth surface. The back of the stone is not worked.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 1966 , pp. 367 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1966

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References

1 I wish to express my deep gratitude to my teacher and friend Dr. M. J. Kister, who helpedme in deciphering the seventh line of the inscription, to Mr. Israel Shen, who read the manuscriptof this note, and furnished valuable comments, and to Dr. A. D. H. Bivar, who read the final version and made valuable criticisms.

2 Berchem, M. van, Matériaux pour un corpus inscriptionum arabicarurn. II. Syriedu sud. 1(Jérusalem ‘ville’), Le Caire, 1922, pp. 17–21.Google Scholar

3 See Wiet, G., ‘Une inscription du Sultan Djakmak’, Bulletin de l'lnstitute d'Égypte, XXI, 1939, 80.Google Scholar

4 Répertoire, no. 9.

5 G. Wiet, op. cit. Professor Wiet kindly drew my attention to this article.

6 ibid., and cf. Lane, Arabic-English lexicon, s.v. where he says under (II): ‘He rendered it smooth or soft, plain or level or smooth and soft; namely a place, etc.’.

7 Lane, op. cit., s.v. ‘aqaba: 'A difficult place of ascent in the mountains …’ etc.

8 Yāqūt, III, 692; Mas‘udī, al-Tanbīh wa’l-ishraf, Leiden, 1893, 58, 385, 390; Ibn Rustah in Bibliotheca Geographorum, ed. de Goeje, vu, Leiden, 1892, 184, 185; and Ya'qūbī, Kitāb albuldān, in the same volume, 311, 314, 325.

9 Strange, G. Le, Palestine under the Moslems, London, 1890, 385; Yāqūt, I, pp. 332, 1. 22–333, 1. 12; Ya'qūbī, op. cit., 327.Google Scholar

10 The Biblical Afeq, see 1 Kings XX, 26; 2 Kings XIII, 17. Cf. Abu'1-Fidā', , Géographie d' Aboulfeda, tr. Reinaud, M., Paris, 1848, II, 2, p. 15 and n. 3.Google Scholar

11 On the value of the Arab mile see M. van Berchem, op. cit., pp. 27–9.

12 Yāqūt, loc. cit., and also III, p. 932, 1. 21–933, 1. 3, where he says: ‘Aqabat Fīq yunḥadar minhā ilā al-ghawr ghawr al-Urdunn wa minhā yushraf 'alā Ṭabariyya wa buḥayratihā wa qad ra'aytuhā mirāran 'One may descend from 'Aqabat Fīq down to the ghawr, the Jordan Valley. It overlooks Ṭabariyya (Tiberias) and its lake, andI have seen it many times’. See also, ibid., II, p. 684, 11. 6–12, where almost the same words are repeated. A convent (dayr) was built near the 'aqaba ‘between the pass and the lake on the mountain slope above the pass. The place is cut out of the rock and is still (thirteenth century) inhabited by monks.It is frequented by travellers and is held in much veneration bythe Christians’. Le Strange, op. cit., 429. See also 'Umarī, Masālik al-abṣār, Cairo, 1924, I, 336–7; Ya'qūbī, op. cit., p. 327, 1. 11.

13 Ibn Khurdādhbah, , Kitāb al-masālik wa 'I mamālik, Leiden, 1889, p. 78Google Scholar, 11. 1–6.

14 Maqdisī, , Aḥsan al-taqāsīm fī ma'rifat al-aqālīm, Leiden, 1906, pp. 190Google Scholar, 1. 14–191, 1. 1.

15 Ya'qūbī, op. cit., p. 327, 11. 12–14; Ya'qūbī, , Le pays, Wiet, tr. G., Le Caire, 1937, p. 178Google Scholar, and the notes there. See also Abū 'Ubayd al-Bakrī, Mu'jam mā ista'jam, Cairo, 1945, p. 178, 11. 7–9; IṣṬakhrī, Kitāb masālik al-mamālik, Leiden, 1927, p. 66, 11. 16–17; Demombynes, Gaudefroy-, La Syrie à l'epoque des Mamelouks, Paris, 1923, p. 119, n. 1.Google Scholar

16 Lane-Poole, S., Saladin, London, 1926, 204–5Google Scholar; Prawer, J., A history of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1963, 531.Google Scholar

17 al-Athir, Ibn, al-Kāmil, Leiden, 1853, XII, p. 39, 11. 24–5Google Scholar; Wāṣil, Ibn, Mufrij al-kurūb fiakhbār Banī Ayyūb, Cairo, 1953–1957, III, 255Google Scholar; Taghrī, Ibn Birdī, al-Nujum al-zahira, ed. Popper, VI, p. 126, 1. 19.Google Scholar

18 Aharoni, Y., The land of Israel in Biblical times: a geographical history (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1962, 41–2. For detailed discussion on the Via Maris, see pp. 33–44, and consult also maps 6 and 7.Google Scholar

19 Avi-Yonah, M., Historical geography of Palestine from the end of the Babylonian exile to the Arab conquest, third ed. (in Hebrew), Jerusalem, 1962, 82, 88.Google Scholar

20 Yāqūt, III, 419: ‘al-ṣinnabra, mawḍi', bi 'l-Urdunn muqābilli 'Aqabat Afiq…kāna Mu'āwiya yashtu bihā’. Baladhuri, , Anonyme arabische Chronik, ed. Ahlwardt, , Greifswald, 1883, p. 200Google Scholar, 11. 11–16. Cf. Strange, Le, op. cit., 531. Mayer, L. A., ‘Aṣ-ṣinnabra’ (in Hebrew), in Eretz-lsrael (Israel Exploration Society), I, 1951, 169–70.Google Scholar

21 Yāqūt, loc. cit.

22 Ya'qūbī, , Ta'rīkh, ed. Houtsma, T., Leiden, 1883, II, p. 311, 11. 6–16; Maqdisī, op. cit., 159.Google Scholar

23 cf. Caetani, L., Chronographia Islamica, Paris, n.d., I, 965Google Scholar, no. 113; Dhahabī, , Ta'rīkh al-Islām, Cairo, 1949–1950, III, 213.Google Scholar

24 Balādhurī, , Ansāb al-ashrāf, ed. Goitein, S. D., Jerusalem, 1936, v, p. 160, 11. 11–13.Google Scholar

25 TṬabarī, , ‘Annals’, ed. Goeje, de, I, p. 3219, 11. 11–19.Google Scholar

26 ibid., II, 376; p. 382, 11. 3–10.

27 Balādhurī, Anāb al-ashrāf, p. 186, 11.15–16.

28 Ṭabarī, op. cit., II, p. 863, 11. 8–9; p. 873, 11. 3–6; p. 1085, 11. 7–8; Balādhurī, , Ansāb al-ashrāf, pp. 162, 1. 21–163, 1. 10, and also p.160, 1. 11; p. 374, 1. 12. Balādhurī, ed. Ahlwardt, 69, 188, 189.Google Scholar

29 Ṭabarī, op. cit., II, p. 940, 11. 5–6.

30 ibid., p. 1035, 11. 15–16.

31 Balādhurī, Ansāb al-ashràf, p. 163, 1. 10.

32 See p. 368, n. 2, above.

33 op. cit., pp. 22–3.

34 See p. 370, n. 22, above.

35 Van Berchem, op. cit., p. 21 (plates).

36 Dealing with the route which connected Damascus with Palestine van Berchem says (op. cit., p. 27): ‘Quant à celle de Damas, on ne connait même pas son parcours; pour le fixer, il faudrait retrouver plus au nord une serie de millairespareilles à ceux-ci’. No more milestones have been found but the 'aqaba inscription at all events indicates the route followed by the road.