reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

100 Robert G. HoylandDate: c. 3rd to 5th century CEScript/Lang.: Nabataean AramaicBib!.: Nehme 2010, fig. 34. 27Text: "May Lal).mu son ofYehiidii be remembered well" (dkyr !bmw br yhwd'b-tb).The Jews of the Hijaz in the Qur 'anuncertain· Script/Lang.: Hebrew/Aramaic 29}3ibl.: Winnet and Reed ARNA, 163 (by J. Milik); Noja 1979, XVill10 lNo. ISPlace: al-Mabiyyat (=ancient Qurl)/Wadd-Qura)Type: Tomb inscriptionDate: 280 CEScript/Lang.: Nabataean AramaicBib!.: Nehme 2010, fig. 8.Text:" ... Peace on the tomb ofR{mn}h his wife, daughterofJoseph, son of'Rr,who is from Qurayyii, who died on the twenty-sixth day of April, year one hundredand seventy-five" ( ... slm '[ q [b ]r r{mn}h 'ntth brt ywsp br 'rr dy mn qry' dy myttywm 's1yn w-sth b'yr8nt m'h w-sb 'yn w-bmS).The stone on which this inscription was incised was found reused in the course of---ui:e second season of excavations at the site of al-Mabiyyat, which is about40 kilometres south of al-Ula. The exact provenance of the stone is unlmown, butif it is originally from al-Mabiyyat, and was not brought there from another location,then al-Mabiyyat is not an early Islamic foundation as had been thought (e.g.D. Whitcomb, "Urbanism in Arabia," Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 7,1996, 40), but much older."Blessing to 'Atur son of Menal).em and rabbi Jeremiah" (brlch 1- 'twr brw-rb yrmyh).Wadi Haggag (E. Sinai)Graffitoc. 2nd to 4th centuries CE:Hebrew.. : B. Rothenberg, "An Archaeological Survey of South Sinai", PalestineExploration Quarterly 1970, VIIIB (20); Noja 1979, XIV(+ X-Xlli) 30·.. Text: "May Samuel son of Hillel be blessed and protected" (brylc w-mntr smw 'I· bn hll)Texts in Hebrew scriptNo.I9Place: al-UlaType: GraffitoDate: uncertain 28Script/Lang.: Hebrew/ Aramaic (note br rather than bn for son of)Bib!.: JS Nab223; Winnet and Reed ARNA, 163 (by J. Milik); Noja 1979, XIXText: "This is Abisalo(m?) son of Susannah" (dh 'byslw[m?] br swsnh).27 As for previous note.28 JS Nab223 (which only transcribes the second line) says the characters "are very close to theHebrew square script and belongs to the Aramaic alphabet of the second century before our era,"but if we take it simply to be Hebrew script then it could be later than this." .. :m and "Blessed be the name of my Lord .. .'' (mbrlc h-sm 'dwny . .. )Note br rather than bn for "son of", though one could argue that brkh with a '-h' rather than '-ii'reflects the Arabic feminine ending. Milik simply states "ces deux inscriptions[= nos. 19 and 20··here] son! en arameen et daten! de l'epoque byzantine" without explanation; R. Contini, "lll;lawran· preislamico - ipotesi di storia linguistica," Felix Ravenna 133-34, 1987, 65 n. 237, agrees· ("aramaico giudaico").Noja 1979, X-XIII, are drawings of candelabras from the same area of Sinai, site 387 of the mapand list of Rothenberg 1970, 8, 28.:3.1• Noja 1979, XXIII, is from much further north, namely eastern Jordan, and is in any case only three·or four letters (sbr[h?]); see F.V. Winnett and G. Lankester Harding, Inscriptions ji-om FiflySafaitic Caims, Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1978, 542 and pl. 71..32 This is just four letters, which Euting does not atteinpt to decipher and for which Noja 1979, 306,· suggests hdyn/"il giudice"; the final two letters could plausibly be 'y' and 'n', but the first two areunclear.