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Ja 616 Jamme 1962 a: pl. 12 Image free from copyright

Ja 616 Jamme 1962 a: pl. 12 Image free from copyright

Text:

Translations:

1Whbʾwm Yʾḏf and his brother Ydm Ydrm and his sons
2Ḥmʿṯt ʾzʾd and ʾbkrb ʾs¹ʿd and S¹ḫymm Yzʾn,
3of the family S¹ḫymm, owners of the house Rymn, ʾqwl of the tribe Yrs¹m of
4S¹mʿy, the third of Hgrm, mqtt of Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of
5Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn, kings of
6Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, dedicated to their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm,
7this statue in bronze in praise because he fulfilled His servants Ḥmʿṯt
8ʾzʾd and ʾbkrb ʾs¹ʿd, of the family S¹ḫymm, in all the favours and requests
9and oracles they sought and requested and asked for from Him when
10their lord Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of Sabaʾ
11and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn, kings of Sabaʾ
12and ḏu-Raydān, ordered them to go on an expedition and save the tribes and the nomads of Ḫwln Gddm and they
13praised the might and the power of their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because
14all the tribes and the nomads of Ḫwln Gddm assembled and submitted (?) and they brought back all
15their free men as hostages (?) and rounded them up (?) and all those whom their lord 
16Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb, king of king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, ordered them (to round up?) towards 
17Ṣnʿw and in that very rescue operation they sent their scouts to enter for them into
18S¹hrtn and their scouts reported to them in the town of  Rḥbmm of
19the land of Ḫwln that indeed the tribes of Dwʾt were well-disposed towards them, and in the very
20day in which their scouts made the reports to them, (the tribes of Dwʾt) came to grips with their contingent and wiped out
21their foraging party (?) and their contingent regrouped (numbering) twenty-six horsemen and three
22hundred men from their tribe Yrs¹m and from the guard of the king
23and those from  Ḫwln and they conducted a raid in the morning and waged war on the nomads of Dwʾt,
24namely the nomad group of ʾbʾs¹,ʾydʿn, Ḥkmm, Ḥdlnt (or, Ḥdgnt), Ġmdm,
25Khlm, ʾhlny, Gdlt, S¹bs¹m, Ḥrmm, Ḥgr Lmd,
26ʾwmm and Rḍḥtn from Ḥrt and they waged war in the plain of the valleys
27 of Bʾrn, Ḫlb and Tdḥn, and they praised the might and the power of their lord
28ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, because He granted them that they and 
29their horsemen and their contingent returned in safety and glory and success and with spoils
30and civil prisoners and killings and war prisoners and booty and loot in abundance
31and that satisfy them; may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn,
32Lord of ʾwm, continue to fulfill and protect His servants, the family S¹ḫymm, in all
33the favours and requests  and oracles they will continue to seek and request and ask for from Him and may their lord ʾlmqh Ṯhwn,
34Lord of ʾwm, grant them the goodwill and the satisfaction of their lord Ns²ʾkrb Yʾmn Yhrḥb,
35king of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, son of ʾls²rḥ Yḥḍb and Yʾzl Byn,
36kings of Sabaʾ and ḏu-Raydān, and soundness of faculties and material resources and abundance of
37crops, and may ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm, deliver them from any evil
38and mischief and from the malice and the maleficence and the slander and the subjection of any enemy, the one far
39or near, the one they are aware of and the one they are not aware of. By ʾlmqh Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm.

Translation Notes:

Translation in French by Robin 2014: 192-194.
14-16Beeston 1976 b: 29: "because in their military service [conjecturing tʾ[d]mw] they reduced to submission the communes and nomad tribes of the Greater Khawlān and brought back all their free men as hostages and rounded these up into Ṣanʿā along with all such others as were included in the king's orders". In this translation, Beeston accepts Ryckmans's suggestion (1974: 248, fn. 2) of interpreting qtḍn on the basis of "Ar. qāḍa 'défaire, démanteler', qui signifie à la 5° forme 'mettre en déroute' et à la 7° 'être mis en déroute'". Before, he had interpreted the sentence with a positive meaning (Beeston 1972 a: 453): "Ar. iqtaḍā 'require, demand': the Ḫawlān 'assembled and were called up for military duty'". This is the sense that Jamme had proposed (1962 a: 115: "because have joined and settled down all the tribes and groups of Ḫawlān Gaddum, and they brought back all their freemen [as] firm pledges and their fullers and all those [whom] has ordered them their lord ..."). He later defended this sense in Jamme 1988: 301-307: the Ḫwln Gddm were not enemies but allies. Stein 2003 a: 192: "dafür, daß sie (sc. die Stifter) zusammenkamen und alle Stämme und Abteilungen von ḪWLN GDDM unterwarfen". Robin 2014: 193: "parce qu'ils ont réuni et contraint à se soumettre toutes les communes et les tribus de Khawlān Gudādum et ont ramené tous leurs hommes libres comme garants et ils les ont retenus, ainsi que tous ceux que leur avait ordonné (de retenir) leur seigneur".
18ṯhb: Beeston 1976 a: 413-414: "in all the occurrences the verb has a direct personal object [...] the sense in all contexts is "to return an answer to (someone) [...] hṯb also has the general sense of "return" [...] I would not be so categorical as Jamme is in rejecting the possibility of a metathesis".
20nzʿw gys²-hmw: "hatte ihren Truppe Feindberührung" (Nebes 1995: 228).
22nẓr: Beeston 1975 a: 195-196: "some kind of royal official(s)" (cf. nṣr in Ja 647), probably "palace official".He discusses the meaning also in Beeston 1981: 69-71. Robin 2014: 193: "de la garde du roi".

Chronological

Period: D

Physical

Support: Object → Artefact → Base → Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Materials: Stone
Measures: h. 1.26, w. 45.5, th. 32.8

Linguistic

Language: Ancient South Arabian → Sabaic → Central Middle Sabaic
Alphabet: Ancient South Arabian
Script Typology: Monumental writing
Textual Typology: Dedicatory text
Writing Techniques: Incision
Concordances: MaMB 154+MaMB 199

Spatial

Site: Maḥram Bilqīs, Maʾrib, Yemen
Ancient Name: ʾwm
Type of Site: Religious area with a necropolis

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