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Early Versions of the shahāda 63
El-Hawary’s article focused on epigraphy and how the script fit with what was
known 80 years ago of early Kufic. This Egyptian scholar also noted that ^Abbasa,
the woman named on the stele, was the daughter of Jurayj [Little George] son
of Sanad, and that both names were associated with Copts [lines 5–6]. Therefore,
he concluded that she must have converted to Islam. From the data on the tombstone
he also determined that the date of her death was 14 Dhu l-Qa^da 71 or
21 April 691 C.E. [lines 8–10]. 4 Based upon his knowledge of the material remains
from early Islam this tombstone was the second oldest known Muslim tombstone
and, to the best of our knowledge, it still is.
The only other scholar we know who has dealt with this tombstone is Yeor
Halevi who studied it in the context of his 2007 book on funerals and the afterlife
in early Islam. 5 Halevi noted how the tombstone’s language reflected a very
clear Muslim identity unlike earlier evidence from the one earlier Aswan tombstone
dated 31 A.H. which El-Hawary had published in 1930. 6 As Halevi argued,
the tombstone’s language reflected ^Abbasa’s sense of belonging to the
“People of Islam” (ahl al-islam) [lines 2–3], a phrase which would continue to
be used on tombstones from Aswan into the third/tenth centuries. 7 His other important
point was that this old tombstone lacked any Qur’anic verse. Therefore
one of the opportunities raised by creating a corpus of the Aswan tombstones
is not only the opportunity to identify specific Qur’anic verses used on tomb-
4 El-Harawy’s calculation is, however, wrong. 21 April 691 was a Friday. If we take Monday as
the unmistaken date, it is probably Monday 17 April 71 which is closer to 12 Dhu l-Qa^da.
5 Yeor Halevi, Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2007. Published in Egypt as Rites for the Dead and the Afterlife in
Early Islam. Cairo: AUC Press, 2008.
6 Hassan Mohammed El-Hawary, “The Most Ancient Islamic Monument Known Dated A.H. 31
(A.D. 652), from the Time of the Third Calif ^Uthman,” JRAS 1930 (no.2), 121–33.
7 Halevi, Muhammad’s Grave, 20–21. Cf. also G. Wiet (references given above note 1), ‘Abd al-
Rahman M. ^Abd al-Tawab (Stèles islamiques de la nécropole d’Assouan, 3 vol., Le Caire:
Imprimerie de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1977–1982), and a more recent publication
of Ahmed bin Umar al-Zayla’i, Tombstones in the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.
Kuwait: Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, 1989/1409.