0021-1818_islam_98-1-2-i-259

Early Versions of the shahāda 61
Figure 1: The tombstone of ^Abbasa b. Jurayj dated 71 H.
Reproduced from Hassan M. El-Hawary, JRAS 1932: 290.
ing its original meaning, that is, it becomes formulaic. If we wish to understand
the possible reasons for the inclusion of these words on a tombstone we must try
to ascertain when the specific phrasing first appeared. Bauden’s example was related
to where exactly on the Aswan stelae texts references to the Prophet were
made. He found that in the early stelae from the first and second/seventh and
eighth centuries, they appeared in the middle or near the end of the inscribed text
but by the forth/tenth century references to the Prophet and his family appeared
near the beginning. He did not offer an explanation for this shift but challenged
us to think about this change as an example of the type of question which can
arise from studying a significant database of stelae inscriptions.