Hudhud
Hudhud Logo
𐩠𐩵𐩠𐩵
ID: 6039

Text:

Translations:

1Ns²ʾkrb [... ...] Ṯwbn ʾnṭ[... ... of the family Grt, ʾqwl] 
2[of the tribe S¹mhrm, dedicated to ʾlmqh] Ṯhwn, Lord of ʾwm [... ...]
3[Ns²ʾkrb ... ...] ḏ-W[...]bn of the family Grt praised the power of ʾlmqh [... ...] 
4[... ... protected] their lord Krbʾl Byn, king of Sabaʾ and ḏ-Raydān, son of Ḏmrʿly Ḏrḥ, king of [Sabaʾ and] 
5[ḏu-Raydān] from the expedition that undertook, the hostilities that brought about and the army that moved
6Ydʿʾl, king of Ḥaḍramawt, and the tribe of Ḥaḍramawt and the tribes which were with him among the tribes 
7[... ...] and Ydʿʾl and his army marched and arrived in the vicinity of the town of Ḥnn [... ...] 
8and sent to Krbʾl Byn an embassy with peaceful declarations; but Krbʾl [Byn and ... ...] proceeded to return
9a negative answer, rejecting to resume peaceful relations with him,  because of the events that  occurred in the city of Mryb, and 
10the king of Ḥaḍramawt sent to Krbʾl Byn, from the territory of the town of Ḥnn, messengers to persuade him to send
11him some Sabaeans and ʾqwln, for the events that prevented to the king of Ḥaḍramawt  to have diplomatic relations with
12the king of Sabaʾ; and Krbʾl Byn sent his servant Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and with him three 
13hundred soldiers from the tribe S¹mhrm, and then they arrived to the king of Ḥaḍramawt  in the vicinity of Ḥnn, and they
14gave Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, to the king of Ḥaḍramawt, in answer (compensation) for the events reported by him (declared as his responsibility), as he had been charged (to do) 
15by their lord Krbʾl Byn; and then the king of Ḥaḍramawt  saw that they were not his responsability those events 
16reported (or, those events to be blamed) against the persons of the men who had returned from Mryb to the vicinity of Ḥnn; and he allowed to dismiss 
17Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and the men who were with him. And they returned to their lord Krbʾl Byn in 
18the city of Mryb in safety. Yet at that very same time, the king of Ḥaḍramawt  and his 
19army started a campaign into the district of Yṯl, while Krbʾl Byn and his army feared their aggression from the town of Mryb 
20to the region of Ḥnn; (the Ḥaḍramis) penetrated into the territory of the the town of Yṯl, but the officers whom (the Sabaean king) had established 
21within that town of Yṯl made them temporize and the Ḥaḍramis encamped there. And from Yṯl,  the king of the Ḥaḍramawt  and all his army 
22marched towards the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n; but their people, the lords of these towns, and the garrison, that the king 
23of Sabaʾ had ordered to defend those towns, fought them off. Then Krbʾl Byn ordered his servant Ns²ʾkrb, 
24of the family Grt, and, together with him, S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army and the cavalry from the troops of the king of Sabaʾ to go to help 
25into the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n. When the king of Ḥaḍramawt   got news of this relief force, 
26he retired - the king of Ḥaḍramawt and all his army - from the territory of the two towns of Ns²qm and Ns²n. And a spy came to them 
27in Yṯl (with the information that) Krbʾl Byn and the army with him were on the march against them from Mryb, while 
28his servants Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, and S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army with them (were marching) from the town of Ns²qm; so 
29the king of Ḥaḍramawt  feared that the two armies would converge against him in the town of Yṯl; so he abandoned the town of Yṯl and 
30retired into the territory of the town of Ḥnn. And their lord Krbʾl Byn, king of Sabaʾ and du-
31Raydān, and the soldiers who had been summoned with him in the town of Mryb did battle with them; and the king of Ḥaḍramawt  and all his army retired from the territory of
32Ḥnn in defeat and rout, and marched to the temple of Yġrw, and Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt, 
33 and S¹mhyfʿ, of the family Btʿ, and the army with them came back from Ns²qm to the town of Mryb to 
34arrive at a confrontation with the king of Ḥaḍramawt, but the king of Ḥaḍramawt and all his army retired again from the temple of 
35Yġrw into the territory of the town of Ḥnn, and  a pitched battle was fought against them by their lord Krbʾl Byn, 
36king of Sabaʾ and du-Raydān, son of Ḏmrʿly Ḏrḥ, and his servant Ns²ʾkrb, of the family Grt [... ...]

Translation Notes:

Beeston gives the translation of ll. 4-18 (Beeston 1985 a) and ll. 18-36 (1976 b), which - according to him - are followed by the lines of Ja 643 bis.
8-14See Ryckmans 1967: 511, fn. 13, for a French translation of ll. 8-14.
10According to Beeston, ḫlfn is a noun of the pattern fʿln “?magistrates?” (see also Beeston 1980 a: 19) and qnʿm an adverbial form. We prefer a concrete sense: qnʿm as “persuader, messenger who persuades”, probably a collective. As for ḫlf-n (also in l. 31-32), it is the preposition ḫlf plus the ablative suffix -n (cf. Stein 2003 a: 237-238 and fn. 231).

Chronological

Period: C

Physical

Support: Object → Artefact → Base → Of statue with dedicatory inscription
Materials: Stone
Measures: h. 117.7, w. 50.6, th. 45.8
Letter Measure: 2.6

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 275, Sh 14, ZI 67

Spatial

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

Similar Epigraphs

No similar epigraphs found.