Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām, 46 AH

Photograph: ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-Shahrī⤢ Click to enlarge

24 AH QMI-INS-001

Inscription of Zuhayr

نقش زهير

Site	Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, near al-ʿUlā
Writing surface	Large rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	215 × 50 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Personal name / commemorative record

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله
أنا زهير كتبت زمن توفي عمر سنة أربع
وعشرين

Translation

Bismillāh (In the name of God)
I, Zuhayr, wrote [this] at the time ʿUmar died, the year four
and twenty.

Commentary

The oldest securely dated Islamic inscription known, discovered by Saudi archaeologist Dr. ʿAlī al-Ghabbān in Wādī al-Muʿtadil, northeast of al-ʿUlā, on the Syrian pilgrimage route (Darb al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī). Zuhayr dated his inscription by the death of the second caliph, ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb — the earliest documentary Islamic source to mention him. The text opens with the short basmala ("bismillāh"), a formula also attested on Sasanian-influenced Arab coinage of 31, 43, 65 and 66 AH.

Source: Ghabban, ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm, and Robert Hoyland. "The Inscription of Zuhayr, the Oldest Islamic Inscription (24 AH/AD 644–645), the Rise of the Arabic Script and the Nature of the Early Islamic State." Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 19 (2008): 210–237.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Zuhayr” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-001). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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24 AH QMI-INS-002

Inscription of ʿUthmān's Appointment

نقش تأمير عثمان

Site	Near al-ʿUlyā Palace, Mecca
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	4
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Profession of faith

Original text (Arabic)

أنا زهير آمنت با
لله وكتبت زمن
أمّر بن عفان سنة
أربع وعشرين

Translation

I, Zuhayr, believe in
God, and wrote [this] at the time
ibn ʿAffān was appointed [caliph], year
twenty-four

Commentary

A second inscription by the same Zuhayr (compare no. 1), this time dated by the caliphal appointment of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān rather than his predecessor's death — though the inscription itself names him only by patronymic ("ibn ʿAffān"), without his given name. The scribe again combines two Arab dating conventions — by event ("the appointment of ibn ʿAffān") and by numbered year ("twenty-four") — within a single short text. The inscription was discovered in 2022 by Muḥammad al-Mughadhdhawī and ʿĪd al-Yaḥyā, and later documented by the Saudi Heritage Commission (Hayʾat al-Turāth).

Source: al-Ghabbān, Maysāʾ ʿAlī. "al-Naqsh al-Thālith li-Zuhayr al-Muʾarrakh bi-Sanat 24 Hijrī/644 Mīlādī min Khilāfat ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān Raḍiya Allāh ʿAnhu: Dirāsah Taḥlīlīyah Muqāranah." Majallat al-Muʾarrikh al-ʿArabī, vol. 1, no. 32 (2024): 267–310.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿUthmān's Appointment” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-002). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of Yazīd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Sulūlī

Photograph: Frédéric Imbert⤢ Click to enlarge

29 AH QMI-INS-003

Inscription of Yazīd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Sulūlī

نقش يزيد بن عبد الله السلولي

Site	Wādī al-Khushaybah, Najrān region
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for mercy

Original text (Arabic)

ترحم الله على يزيد بن عبد الله السلولي و
كتب في جمدى (جمادى) من سنه تسع
وعشرين

Translation

May God have mercy upon Yazīd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Sulūlī, and
he wrote [this] in Jumādā of the year nine
and twenty.

Commentary

Found by a survey expedition in February 2002 in Wādī al-Khushaybah, southwest Saudi Arabia. A companion, undated inscription by the same author nearby reads: "Allāhumma ighfir li-Yazīd..." (O God, forgive Yazīd...). The text preserves a rare, archaic orthography — ileh/ilehumma for Allāh/Allāhumma — also attested in a bilingual Greek–Arabic papyrus of 22 AH and in later rock inscriptions of 46 AH and undated material from Wādī al-Khanq.

Source: Kawatoko, Mutsuo. "Masḥ Athārī fī Janūb wa-Gharb al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabīyah al-Saʿūdīyah." Aṭlāl 18 (2005): 146, pl. 12a.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Yazīd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Sulūlī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-003). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Gravestone of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khayr al-Ḥajarī

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31 AH QMI-INS-004

Gravestone of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khayr al-Ḥajarī

شاهد قبر عبد الرحمن بن خير الحجري

Site	Cairo/Aswan cemeteries (findspot); Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo
Writing surface	Limestone slab
Lines	8
Dimensions	38 × 71 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī / early Kūfī
Subject	Funerary prayer

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم هذا القبر
لعبد الرحمن بن خير الحجري اللهم اغفر له
وأدخله في رحمة منك وإننا معه
استغفر له إذا قرأ هذا ا
لكتب (الكتاب) وقل آمين وكتب هذا ا
لكتب (الكتاب) في جمدى (جمادى) الا
خر من سنت إحدى و
ثلثين (ثلاثين)

Translation

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is the grave
of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khayr al-Ḥajarī. O God, forgive him
and admit him into Your mercy. And we, together with him,
ask forgiveness for him, if he reads this
writing and says "āmīn." And this
writing was written in the last part of Jumādā
of the year one and
thirty.

Commentary

The oldest dated Islamic gravestone known, discovered by Ḥasan Muḥammad al-Hawārī in 1929 among a large group of inscribed marble pieces brought from Islamic cemeteries in Cairo and Aswān to the Museum of Arab Antiquities (today the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo). The upper four lines are cut in noticeably smaller letters than the lower four, and the word "year" (sanat) is spelled with an open tāʾ — an orthographic feature inherited from pre-Islamic Nabataean script and also preserved in three places in the Qurʾanic consonantal text.

Source: al-Hawārī, Ḥasan Muḥammad. "Aqdam Athar Islāmī." Majallat al-Hilāl 10 (August 1930): 1179–1191.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Gravestone of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khayr al-Ḥajarī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-004). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ

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40 AH QMI-INS-005

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ

نقش عبد الرحمن بن خالد بن العاص

Site	Wādī al-Shāmiyah (Ṣanq al-Zarqāʾ), ~45 km NE of Mecca
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	5
Dimensions	80 × 100 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

رحمت (رحمة) الله وبر
كته (بركاته) على عبد ا
لرحمن بن خلد (خالد)
بن العاص وكتب
لسنه أربعين

Translation

The mercy of God and His bless-
ings upon ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid
ibn al-ʿĀṣ, and [he] wrote
[this] in the year forty

Commentary

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was a Tābiʿī (a member of the generation after the Prophet's Companions) who transmitted a hadith on wiping over leather socks; some scholars even counted him among the Companions. His father was Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Hishām al-Makhzūmī, who governed Mecca and embraced Islam at its conquest. The word "mercy" (raḥmah) is spelled with an open tāʾ — raḥmat — a spelling influenced by pre-Islamic Nabataean practice and also found in the Dome of the Rock inscriptions (72 AH) and several first-century papyri.

Source: Sharaf al-Dīn, Aḥmad Ḥusayn. "al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah bi-Darb Zubaydah." Aṭlāl 1 (1977): 69–70, pl. 49.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-005). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of Shurayḥ, Mawlā of Banū ʿAdī

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43 AH QMI-INS-006

Inscription of Shurayḥ, Mawlā of Banū ʿAdī

نقش شريح مولى بني عدي

Site	Darb Ḥismā
Writing surface	Sandstone rock, right bank of the road
Lines	4
Dimensions	40 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Exhortation to piety and kinship

Original text (Arabic)

أنا شريح مولى بني عدي بن كعب
أوصي ببر الله والرحم كتب هذا من سنه ثلث وأ
ربعين

Translation

I, Shurayḥ, mawlā of Banū ʿAdī ibn Kaʿb, exhort [reverence for]
God and ties of kinship. This was written in the year three and
forty.

Commentary

Carved on a rock along Darb Ḥismā, a route that linked Syria and Medina in the 1st–2nd centuries AH. Unlike most entries in this corpus, Shurayḥ's text is not a prayer but a brief moral exhortation — reverence for God and the maintenance of family ties — following his self-identification as a mawlā (client/ally) of Banū ʿAdī ibn Kaʿb. First documented by the Al-Sahra desert survey team. The inscription carries no diacritical dots except on the nūn of "sanah" (year).

Source: al-Saʿīd, ʿAbdallāh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, et al. Nuqūsh Ḥismā: Kitābāt min Ṣadr al-Islām Shamāl Gharb al-Mamlaka. Manshūrāt al-Majallah al-ʿArabīyah, 2017, p. 14.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Shurayḥ, Mawlā of Banū ʿAdī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-006). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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46 AH QMI-INS-007

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām

نقش عبد الله بن ديرام

Site	Wādī al-Sabīl
Writing surface	Sandstone rocks
Lines	5
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم
اغفر لعبد اله (الله) بن ديرام
كتب لأربع ليل (ليال) خلون من
محرم من سنة ست وأر
بعين

Translation

O God,
forgive ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām.
Written on the fourth night that had passed of
Muḥarram, in the year six and
forty.

Commentary

Discovered by G. Ryckmans on 17 December 1951 in Wādī al-Sabīl, some 60 km northwest of al-Ḥuṣayniyyah. A later hand deliberately defaced the prayer by inserting the negation "lā," turning "O God, forgive ʿAbdallāh" into "O God, do NOT forgive ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām" — one of at least five known cases of intentional textual sabotage among early Arabic rock inscriptions, apparently driven by personal hostility toward the person prayed for. "Allāh" in line 2 is spelled with a single lām (ileh) — a very rare orthographic feature found in only a handful of inscriptions and papyri.

Source: Ryckmans, Gonzague. Field survey record, Wādī al-Sabīl, 17 December 1951 (unpublished field documentation).

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-007). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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52 AH QMI-INS-008

Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿAlī

نقش حكيم بن علي

Site	Wādī al-Khushanah, on Darb Zubaydah
Writing surface	Unrecorded
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر لحكيم
بن علي بن هبيرة و
كتب لسنة ثنتين وخمسين

Translation

O God, forgive Ḥakīm
ibn ʿAlī ibn Hubayrah, and
it was written in the year fifty-two.

Commentary

Found by a survey expedition at Wādī al-Khushanah on Darb Zubaydah in 1997. Scholars have read the personal names in several different ways — "Ḥakīm" has also been proposed as Ḥudhaym, Judhaym, Ḥadabah or Hadiyyah, and "Hubayrah" as Hunaydah — since letters such as kāf/dāl and rāʾ/dāl are graphically similar in this undotted early hand. The inscription carries no diacritical dots at all.

Source: Sharaf al-Dīn, Aḥmad Ḥusayn. "al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah bi-Darb Zubaydah." Aṭlāl: Annual of Saudi Arabian Archaeology 1 (1977): 73–74.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿAlī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-008). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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58 AH QMI-INS-009

Dam of Ṭāʾif Inscription

نقش سد الطائف

Site	Wādī Saysad, near Ṭāʾif
Writing surface	Large rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	132 × 71 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Foundation / dedicatory text

Original text (Arabic)

هذا السد لعبد الله معو ية (معاو ية)
أمير المؤمنين بنيه (بناه) عبد الله بن صخر
بإذن الله سنة ثمن (ثمان) وخمسين ا
للهم اغفر لعبد الله معو ية (معاو ية) ا
مير المؤمنين وثبته وانصره ومتع ا
لمؤمنين به كتب عمرو بن خباب

Translation

This dam belongs to ʿAbdallāh Muʿāwiyah,
Commander of the Faithful; ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣakhr built it
by God's leave, in the year fifty-eight.
O God, forgive ʿAbdallāh Muʿāwiyah,
Commander of the Faithful — keep him steadfast, aid him, and let
the Believers benefit through him. Written by ʿAmr ibn Khabbāb.

Commentary

Discovered in 1945 by the American mining engineer Karl S. Twitchell while surveying Saudi Arabia's mineral resources, and first read by George C. Miles in 1948. It commemorates a dam built near Ṭāʾif under the caliph Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān (r. 41–60 AH), constructed by ʿAbdallāh ibn Ṣakhr, with the dedicatory text (dībāja) composed by ʿAmr ibn Khabbāb. Miles misread the final line, inserting an extra word he believed the grammar required; the correct sense is simply "let the Believers benefit through him," the pronoun referring back to Muʿāwiyah himself.

Source: Miles, George C. "Early Islamic Inscriptions Near Ṭāʾif in the Ḥijāz." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 7, no. 4 (1948): 236–242.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Dam of Ṭāʾif Inscription” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-009). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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64 AH QMI-INS-010

Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ Inscription

نقش حفنة الأبيض

Site	Wādī al-Abyaḍ, near Karbalāʾ, Iraq
Writing surface	Top of a high cliff
Lines	13
Dimensions	170 cm / 130 cm (two blocks)
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness, opening with taḥmīd/takbīr

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الله وكبر (أكبر) كبيرا وا
لحمد لله كثيرا وسبحن (وسبحان) ا
لله بكرة وأصيلا وليلا
طويلا اللهم رب
جبريل وميكل (وميكال) واسر
فيل اغفر لثبت (لثابت) بن يزيد
الأشعري ما تقدم من
ذنبه وما تأخر ولمن قال
آمين آمين رب العلمين (العالمين)
وكتب هذا الكتب (الكتاب) في
شوال من سنة أربع و
ستين

Translation

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
God is greater, greatly, and
praise be to God abundantly, and glory
to God morning and evening and night
long. O God, Lord of
Gabriel, Michael and Isrāfīl,
forgive Thābit ibn Yazīd
al-Ashʿarī his past and
future sins, and whoever says
'āmīn, āmīn,' Lord of the Worlds.
And this writing was written in
Shawwāl of the year four and
sixty.

Commentary

Discovered in 1949 west of Karbalāʾ, Iraq, by Sayyid ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Ṣundūq, at a spot called Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ. The text is split into two blocks — ten lines and three — because the rock surface was uneven. It opens with the takbīr and taḥmīd formulas and closes with a prayer echoing a hadith invocation the Prophet used to open night prayer ("O God, Lord of Gabriel, Michael and Isrāfīl..."); the phrase "his past and future sins" echoes Qurʾān 48:2. A rectangular mark in line 5 resembles a Qurʾanic verse-end marker. A plaster cast of the inscription is preserved in the Iraq Museum.

Source: al-Ṣundūq, ʿIzz al-Dīn. Ḥajar Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ. 1949, pp. 213–214.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ Inscription” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-010). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

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70 AH QMI-INS-011

Inscription of ʿĀʾishah

نقش عائشة

Site	Umm al-Quṭayn, Jordan
Writing surface	Basalt stone
Lines	5
Dimensions	75.5 × 44 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for mercy (for a woman)

Original text (Arabic)

صلى الله وا
لملائكة و
عباده الصا
لحين على عائشة
سنت (سنة) سبعن (سبعين)

Translation

May God and
His angels, and
His righteous
servants, bless ʿĀʾishah —
[written in the] year seventy.

Commentary

A prayer for a woman named ʿĀʾishah — possibly, though not certainly, ʿĀʾishah bint Abī Bakr, the only Companion recorded under that name. The scribe misspelled "al-malāʾikah" (the angels) by transposing the kāf and yāʾ, and the text is otherwise free of diacritical dots. "Sanah" (year) is spelled with an open tāʾ, and "sabʿīn" (seventy) without its medial yāʾ — orthographic habits shared with several other inscriptions in this corpus.

Source: al-Ḥiṣṣān, ʿAbd al-Qādir Maḥmūd. "Mukhtārāt min al-Nuqūsh wa-al-Kitābāt al-Muktashafah fī al-Mafraq wa-Maʿān." Ḥawliyyat Dāʾirat al-Āthār al-ʿĀmmah 50 (2006): 15–44.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿĀʾishah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-011). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Inner Octagon)

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72 AH QMI-INS-012

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Inner Octagon)

كتابات قبة الصخرة (المثمن الداخلي)

Site	Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
Writing surface	Inner octagonal arcade
Lines	24
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Kūfī
Subject	Qurʾanic verses and devotional formulas

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لا إله الا الله وحده لا
شريك له له الملك وله الحمد يحي ويميت وهو
على كل شي قدير محمد عبد الله ورسوله
ان الله وملئكته يصلون على النبي يايها الذين امنوا
صلوا عليه وسلموا تسليما صلى الله عليه والسلم
عليه ورحمت الله ياهل الكتاب لا تغلوا في دينكم
ولا تقولوا على الله الا الحق انما المسيح عيسى ابن
مريم رسول الله وكلمته القيـها الى مريم وروح
منه فامنوا بالله ورسله ولا تقولوا ثلثة انتهوا
خيرا لكم انما الله اله وحد سبحنه ان يكون له ولد
له ما في السموت وما في الأرض وكفى بالله
وكيلا لن يستنكف المسيح أن يكون
عبد الله ولا الملـكة المقربون ومن يستنكف
عن عبدته ويستكبر فسيحشرهم اليه جميعا
اللهم صلي على رسولك وعبدك عيسى
ابن مريم والسلم عليه يوم ولد ويوم يموت
ويوم يبعث حيا ذلك عيسى ابن مريم قول الحق
الذي فيه تمترون ما كان لله ان يتخذ ولدا سبحنه
اذا قضى امرا انما يقول له كن فيكون ان الله ربي وربكم
فاعبدوه هذا صراط مستقيم شهد الله انه لا اله
الا هو والملئكة والوا العلم قـما بالقسط لا اله الا هو
العزيز الحكيم ان الدين عند الله الاسلم وما اختلف الذين
اوتوا الكتب الا من بعد ما جاهم العلم بغيا بينهم ومن
يكفر باييات الله فان الله سريع الحساب

Commentary

A 24-line mosaic band running around the inner octagonal arcade of the Dome of the Rock, dated 72 AH — among the earliest surviving monumental Qurʾanic inscriptions. The Arabic reading is given in full above, without a translation; in outline, the band opens with the basmalah and the declaration of God's oneness, then quotes portions of Sūrat al-Taghābun (64:10), al-Aḥzāb (33:56), al-Nisāʾ (4:171–172), Maryam (19:15 and 34–36), and Āl ʿImrān (3:18–19), interspersed with blessings on the Prophet Muḥammad and on Jesus son of Mary (ʿĪsā ibn Maryam). The Nisāʾ and Maryam passages explicitly affirm Jesus as a messenger and "word" of God while rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity — a theological statement addressed to Jerusalem's Christian population at the time of the building's construction under the caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān. One word, tamtarūn ("you doubt," in the second person, line 18), preserves a Qurʾanic reading variant transmitted by several Companions and Successors rather than the second-person-absent form (yamtarūn) standard in the Ḥafṣ-ʿan-ʿĀṣim recitation used in most printed Qurʾāns today — arguably the oldest surviving physical evidence for this variant reading in a dated inscription.

Source: Kessler, Christel. "ʿAbd al-Malik's Inscription in the Dome of the Rock: A Reconsideration." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (1970): 2–14.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Dome of the Rock Inscription (Inner Octagon)” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-012). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Outer Octagon)

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72 AH QMI-INS-013

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Outer Octagon)

كتابات قبة الصخرة (المثمن الخارجي)

Site	Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
Writing surface	Outer octagonal arcade
Lines	24
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verses, blessings, and a later political alteration

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لا اله الا لله وحده لا شريك
له قل هو الله احد الله الصمد لم يلد ولم يولد ولم
يكن له كفوا حد محمد رسول الله صلى الله عليه •
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لا اله الا الله
وحده لا شريك له محمد رسول الله
ان الله وملئكته يصلون على النبي
يا يها الذين امنوا صلوا عليه وسلموا
تسليما • بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم لا اله الا اله وحده الحمد
لله الذي لم يتخذ ولدا ولم لكن له
شريك في الملك ولم يكن له ولي
من الذل وكبره تكبيرا محمد رسول الـ
له صلى الله عليه وملئكته ورسله والسلم
عليه ورحمت الله • بسم الله الرحمن
الرحيم لا اله الا الله وحده لا شريك له
له الملك وله الحمد يحي ويميت وهو على
كل شي قدير محمد رسول الله صلى الله
عليه وتقبل شفعته يوم القيمة في امته •
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم لا إله الا الله وحده
لا شريك له محمد رسول الله صلى الله
عليه • بنى هذه القبة عبد
]الله الامام المأمون امير المؤمنين[ في سنة
اثنين وسبعين تقبل الله منه ورضي
عنه امين رب العلمين لله الحمد •

Commentary

The companion 24-line mosaic band on the outer octagonal arcade, also dated 72 AH. The Arabic reading is given in full above, without a translation; in outline, it repeats the basmalah and declaration of God's oneness several times, quotes Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ (112) in full, and portions of al-Aḥzāb (33:56), al-Isrāʾ (17:111) and al-Taghābun (64:1), interspersed four times with the blessing formula on the Prophet Muḥammad ("Muḥammad rasūl Allāh, ṣallā Allāh ʿalayhi..."). The final three lines record the building's founder and date — originally naming the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān, but later physically altered: the Abbasid caliph al-Maʾmūn had ʿAbd al-Malik's name replaced with his own ("al-Imām al-Maʾmūn, Amīr al-Muʾminīn") without changing the original construction date of 72 AH still visible in the text — leaving an inscription that anachronistically credits al-Maʾmūn (who did not become caliph until 198 AH) with a building completed over a century earlier. This is one of the earliest and best-documented cases of an inscription being deliberately altered for political credit in Islamic history.

Source: Kessler, Christel. "ʿAbd al-Malik's Inscription in the Dome of the Rock: A Reconsideration." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (1970): 2–14.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Dome of the Rock Inscription (Outer Octagon)” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-013). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

72 AH QMI-INS-014

Dome of the Rock Copper Inscription

الكتابات النحاسية لقبة الصخرة

Site	Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
Writing surface	Copper strip
Lines	13
Dimensions	170 cm / 130 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

Commentary

A separate copper band from the Dome of the Rock, distinct from the mosaic inscriptions inside the octagon (see the building's main foundation text, 72 AH). The book does not print a full line-by-line transcription of this copper strip — only the accompanying plate, reproduced here — so no reading is given in this entry. Like the mosaic inscriptions, it belongs to the original 72 AH building phase commissioned by the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān.

Source: Van Berchem, Max. Matériaux pour un Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum, part 2, Jerusalem.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Dome of the Rock Copper Inscription” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-014). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

74 AH QMI-INS-015

Inscription of ʿUmar ibn Ṭarīf

نقش عمر بن طريف

Site	Wādī al-Abyaḍ
Writing surface	Top of a high cliff
Lines	4
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness for several named people

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم لك الحمد غفر الله لعمر بن طريف
بن الحرث ولأنس بن سلمة المنبهي ولولديه (ولوالديه)
ولأصحبه (ولأصحابه) ولمغرة (المغيرة؟) بن سعد أمين
وكتب في ذي القعدة من سنة أربع وسبعين

Translation

O God, praise be to You. May God forgive ʿUmar ibn Ṭarīf
ibn al-Ḥārith, and Anas ibn Salamah al-Munabbihī, and his parents,
and his companions, and Mughīrah(?) ibn Saʿd. Āmīn.
And [this] was written in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of the year seventy-four.

Commentary

A collective prayer of forgiveness naming several people at once — ʿUmar ibn Ṭarīf and his companions — rather than a single individual, unusual among the shorter inscriptions in this corpus. The reading of "Mughīrah" is uncertain (marked with a query in the original publication) since the letters could also be construed differently in this undotted hand.

Source: Majallat Aṭlāl 20, no. 1 (2010): pl. 2.3a.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿUmar ibn Ṭarīf” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-015). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh ibn Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

76 AH QMI-INS-016

Inscription of ʿAmr

نقش عمرو

Site	Wādī Malkān
Writing surface	Granite rock
Lines	5
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer of contentment (riḍā)

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم ارض عن عمرو
بن ... وكتب يحيى
بن عمرو في بقية سنة
ست و
سبعين

Translation

O God, be pleased with ʿAmr
ibn ... And Yaḥyā
ibn ʿAmr wrote [this], in the latter part of the year six and
seventy.

Commentary

The continuation of ʿAmr's own patronymic is damaged and illegible ("ibn ..."). More telling is the scribe's own signature: Yaḥyā identifies himself as "ibn ʿAmr" immediately after praying for someone named ʿAmr, which makes it very likely this is a son's prayer for his own father rather than for an unrelated namesake. The prayer uses riḍā ("contentment"/"being pleased with") rather than the more common ghufrān ("forgiveness") formula seen elsewhere in this corpus.

Source: Photograph by ʿAbdallāh ibn Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAmr” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-016). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh al-Numayrī⤢ Click to enlarge

78 AH QMI-INS-017

Inscription of al-Rayyān ibn ʿAbdallāh

نقش الريان بن عبد الله

Site	Ḥimā al-Numūr, Ṭāʾif
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	9
Dimensions	131 × 91 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Declaration of faith, dated by the rebuilding of the Sacred Mosque

Original text (Arabic)

شهد الريان بن عبد الله أنه لا إله إلا الله
وشهد أن محمداً رسول الله
ثم هو يَكفي من أتى أن يشهد على
ذلك رحم الله الريان و
غفر له وأستهدى به إلى صرط (صراط) الجنة
واسله (واسأله) الشهدة (الشهادة) في سبيله ا
مين كتب هذا الكتب (الكتاب)
عام بني المسجد الحرام
لسنة ثمان وسبعين

Translation

Al-Rayyān ibn ʿAbdallāh bore witness that there is no god but God,
and bore witness that Muḥammad is the Messenger of God.
That suffices whoever comes to bear witness to
that. May God have mercy on al-Rayyān and
forgive him, and guide him by it to the path of Paradise,
and I ask Him for martyrdom in His cause. Ā-
mīn. He wrote this writing
in the year the Sacred Mosque was rebuilt,
in the year seventy-eight.

Commentary

A rare inscription that dates itself by a major construction project rather than a caliph or a numbered year alone: "the year the Sacred Mosque was rebuilt." Historical sources record that the Umayyad caliph ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān began rebuilding the Sacred Mosque in 75 AH after damage from al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf's catapults during the siege of ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Zubayr, raising the walls and roofing them in teak, and gilding each column capital with fifty mithqāls of gold. First published by Dr. Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥārithī in 2007, who documented 60 Islamic inscriptions at this site. Several comparable rock inscriptions from Darb Ḥismā use the same double-dating technique, naming both a historical event and a numbered year.

Source: al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī. "Naqsh Kitābī Nādir Yuʾarrikh ʿImārat al-Khalīfah al-Umawī ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān lil-Masjid al-Ḥarām ʿĀm 78 AH." ʿĀlam al-Makhṭūṭāt wa-al-Nawādir 12, no. 2 (2007): 533.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of al-Rayyān ibn ʿAbdallāh” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-017). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: Al-Sahra Desert Survey Team⤢ Click to enlarge

78 AH QMI-INS-018

Inscription of Ibn al-ʿĀṣ

نقش ابن العاص

Site	Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, Darb al-Ḥajj
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	4
Dimensions	74 × 34 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Belief in God

Original text (Arabic)

]بالله آمن[
] ... بن العاص[
وصحبته (وصحابته) من أهل قنسرين
وكتب ثمن (ثمان) وسبعين

Translation

[Believes] in God
...] ibn al-ʿĀṣ
and his companions, from the people of Qinnasrīn,
and it was written [in the year] seventy-eight.

Commentary

The first two lines are badly eroded; the brackets mark reconstructed readings the editor considers most likely rather than certain text. The mention of Qinnasrīn (in northern Syria) ties this otherwise anonymous group of companions to a specific garrison region. Found on the same Syrian pilgrim route (Darb al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī) as the Zuhayr inscriptions (nos. 1–2 in this catalog).

Source: al-Kalbī, Ḥayāt. al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah ʿalā Ṭarīq al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī bi-Shamāl Gharb al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabīyah al-Saʿūdīyah min al-Qarn al-Awwal ilā al-Qarn al-Khāmis al-Hijrī. Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, al-Riyāḍ, 1430 AH/2009, pp. 61–73.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ibn al-ʿĀṣ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-018). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib

Photograph: Muḥammad al-Mughadhdhawī⤢ Click to enlarge

79 AH QMI-INS-019

Inscription of al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib

نقش الحارث بن المطلب

Site	Medina
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Madanī (Medinan)
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness with profession of faith

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر للحرث (للحارث)
ابن المطلب فإ
نه يشهد أنه لا ا
له إلا الله وحد
ك لا شريك
لك وكتب في سنة تسع وسبعين

Translation

O God, forgive al-Ḥārith
ibn al-Muṭṭalib, for
he bears witness that there is no
god but God, alone,
without partner,
and it was written in the year seventy-nine.

Commentary

One of the few inscriptions in this corpus explicitly described as Madanī (Medinan) rather than Ḥijāzī script, and found in Medina itself rather than along a desert route. First published by Muḥammad al-Mughadhdhawī on 22 April 2019, making it one of the more recently documented inscriptions in the catalog.

Source: al-Mughadhdhawī, Muḥammad (@mohammed93athar). Twitter, 22 October 2019.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-019). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-020

Inscription of al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad

نقش الوليد بن معبد

Site	Wādī al-Jalīl
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer asking God's pardon

Original text (Arabic)

عفا الله عن ا
لوليد بن معبد غفر له
الله ذنبه وكتب
لسنة ثمنين (ثمانين) وهو يسل (يسأل) الله ا
لجنة نزلا الملئكة (الملائكة) ر
سلا

Translation

May God pardon
al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad, may God forgive
him his sin, and he wrote [this]
for the year eighty, asking God for
Paradise as a lodging, and the angels
as an escort.

Commentary

Al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad left several other inscriptions documented elsewhere by al-Rāshid, all around Mecca; two words here ("al-Walīd" and "al-jannah") are each split across two lines, a recurring feature of how these scribes handled limited rock space.

Source: al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī. al-Āthār al-Islāmīyah fī Makkah al-Mukarramah. 1st ed. 1430 AH/2009, pp. 568–569.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-020). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-021

Inscription of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb

نقش حبيب بن أبي حبيب

Site	Qārat al-Ṣibgh
Writing surface	North face of the outcrop
Lines	4
Dimensions	190 × 40 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for martyrdom

Original text (Arabic)

أنا حبيب بن أبي حبيب مولى عروة بن الزبير
اسئل (اسأل) الله أن يجعل موتي قتل (كذا) في سبيله
واسئله (اسأله) أن يجعلني من المهتدين رحم الله
من قل (قال) آمين وكتب في سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

I, Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb, client (mawlā) of ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr,
ask God to make my death a killing in His cause,
and I ask Him to make me one of the rightly guided. May God have mercy
on whoever says āmīn. And it was written in the year eighty.

Commentary

Ḥabīb identifies himself as a mawlā (client) of ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr (23–93 AH), a leading Medinan hadith scholar and one of the "Seven Jurists of Medina," who is known to have had many clients — Ḥabīb among them. The scribe consistently omits the alif that marks the accusative case (e.g. writing "qatlā" without its final alif), a common feature of undotted, unvowelled early Ḥijāzī orthography. The inscription shows signs of later tampering by visitors.

Source: al-Ghabbān, Maysāʾ ʿAlī. "al-Kitābāt al-Islāmīyah al-Mubakkirah fī Haḍbat Ḥismā bi-Minṭaqat Tabūk." PhD diss., Jāmiʿat al-Malik Saʿūd, 2017, p. 207.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-021). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of Maymūn, Mawlā of Abū Maryam

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-022

Inscription of Maymūn, Mawlā of Abū Maryam

نقش ميمون مولى أبو مريم

Site	Wādī al-Ṣānī
Writing surface	Large rock
Lines	5
Dimensions	70 × 50 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer asking for Paradise

Original text (Arabic)

أنا ميمون مولى
أبو مريم مولى رباح
اسل (اسأل) الجنة نزلاً
والملئكة (الملائكة) رسلاً
وكتب في سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

I, Maymūn, client (mawlā) of
Abū Maryam, client of Rabāḥ,
ask for Paradise as a lodging
and the angels as an escort,
and it was written in the year eighty.

Commentary

Maymūn names not only his own patron (Abū Maryam) but that patron's own client-relationship to Rabāḥ, a rare three-generation chain of mawlā ties recorded in a single short prayer. The "Paradise as a lodging, angels as an escort" formula echoes the same request seen in the inscription of al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad (no. 20) from the same year.

Source: al-Kalbī, Ḥayāt. al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah ʿalā Ṭarīq al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī bi-Shamāl Gharb al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabīyah al-Saʿūdīyah min al-Qarn al-Awwal ilā al-Qarn al-Khāmis al-Hijrī. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1430 AH / 2009, pp. 61–73.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Maymūn, Mawlā of Abū Maryam” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-022). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-023

Inscription of Bakr ibn Abī Bakrah

نقش بكر بن أبي بكرة

Site	Darb Ḥismā
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for the Prophet's intercession

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم صلي على محمد النبي وتقبل شفعته (شفاعته) في الاخرة
وارحمنا به في الآخرة كما رحمتنا به في الدنيا
وكتب بكر بن أبي بكرة الأسلمي تمام سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

O God, bless Muḥammad the Prophet and accept his intercession in the Hereafter,
and have mercy on us through him in the Hereafter as You had mercy on us through him in this world,
and Bakr ibn Abī Bakrah al-Aslamī wrote [this] at the very end of the year eighty.

Commentary

One of the earliest Islamic inscriptions to invoke the Prophet Muḥammad's intercession (shafāʿah) on the Day of Judgment, echoing the Qurʾanic description of the Prophet as "a mercy to the worlds" (Qurʾān 21:107) and a well-known hadith, "O people, I am but a mercy sent [to you]." It stands on a rock along Darb Ḥismā, the overland route linking Syria and Medina in the 1st–2nd centuries AH, which ran north of Medina through al-Marwah, Suqyā al-Jazl, Badā, Shaghb and al-Kharīṭah before splitting toward Ayla/Egypt on one branch and Wādī Ram/Maʿān/Syria on the other.

Source: al-Saʿīd, ʿAbdallāh, et al. Field documentation, Al-Sahra desert survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Bakr ibn Abī Bakrah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-023). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-024

Inscription of ʿUmayr ibn Abī Muslim

نقش عمير بن أبي مسلم

Site	Wādī Malkān
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	5
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness for a martyr's son

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر لابن
الشهيد عمير
بن أبي مسلم آمين
وكتب سنة
ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

O God, forgive the son of
the martyr, ʿUmayr
ibn Abī Muslim. Āmīn,
and it was written in the year
eighty.

Commentary

ʿUmayr identifies himself specifically as the son of a martyr (ibn al-shahīd) rather than naming his father directly — the prayer is for himself, framed through his father's status. The text carries no diacritical dots at all, consistent with many inscriptions of this early period.

Source: Photograph: Al-Sahra desert survey team.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿUmayr ibn Abī Muslim” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-024). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-025

First Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

نقش عثمان بن وهران الأول

Site	Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
Writing surface	South side of a rock near Jabal al-Waljah al-Ṣaghīr
Lines	7
Dimensions	82 × 79 cm
Script	Makkī (Meccan)
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 4:87)

Original text (Arabic)

الله لا إله إلا هو
ليجمعنكم الى
يوم القيامة لا ر
يب فيه ومن أصد
ق من الله حديثا
وكتب عثمن (عثمان) بن
وهرن (وهران) في سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

“God — there is no god but He. He will surely gather you to
the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt.
And who is more truthful than
God in speech?” [Q 4:87]. And ʿUthmān ibn
Wahrān wrote [this] in the year eighty.

Commentary

The first of three inscriptions at Wādī al-ʿUsaylah left by the same ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān, each quoting a different Qurʾanic passage — this one from Sūrat al-Nisāʾ (4:87). Described in the book as Makkī (Meccan) script, distinguishing it from the more common Ḥijāzī hand elsewhere in this corpus. A previous reader, Dr. Sāmiḥ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Fahmī, misread the final line as "wa-hādhā" ("and this") instead of the correct "Wahrān," the scribe's own name.

Source: al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1995, pp. 26–29, 55–57, 60–66, 160–164; al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī, and ʿĀdil Muḥammad Nūr Ghubāshī. "Nuqūsh Islāmīyah Mubakkirah bi-Wādī al-ʿUsaylah bi-Makkah al-Mukarramah." ʿĀlam al-Makhṭūṭāt wa-al-Nawādir 2, no. 1 (Muḥarram–Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1418 AH / May–October 1997): 12–56.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “First Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-025). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Second Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

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80 AH QMI-INS-026

Second Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

نقش عثمان بن وهران الثاني

Site	Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
Writing surface	Southwest side of a rock near Jabal al-Waljah al-Ṣaghīr
Lines	8
Dimensions	167 × 120 cm
Script	Makkī (Meccan)
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 38:26)

Original text (Arabic)

يداود إنا جعلنك
خليفة في الأرض
لتحكم بين الناس
بالحق ولا تتبع الهوى
فيضلك عن سبيل الله إن الذين يضلون
عن سبيل الله لهم عذاب شديد بما نسوا يوم
الحساب وكتب عثمن (عثمان) بن
وهرن (وهران) في سنة ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

“O David, We have made you
a vicegerent (khalīfah) on the earth,
so judge between the people
with truth, and do not follow desire,
for it will lead you astray from the path of God. Indeed those who stray
from the path of God will have a severe punishment for having forgotten the Day
of Reckoning.” [Q 38:26]. And ʿUthmān ibn
Wahrān wrote [this] in the year eighty.

Commentary

The second of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān's three Qurʾanic inscriptions at this site, quoting Sūrat Ṣād (38:26) — a verse addressed to the Prophet David (Dāwūd) about just rule, notable given the political resonance of "vicegerent on the earth" language in Umayyad-era inscriptions.

Source: al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1995, pp. 26–29, 55–57, 60–66, 160–164; al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī, and ʿĀdil Muḥammad Nūr Ghubāshī. "Nuqūsh Islāmīyah Mubakkirah bi-Wādī al-ʿUsaylah bi-Makkah al-Mukarramah." ʿĀlam al-Makhṭūṭāt wa-al-Nawādir 2, no. 1 (Muḥarram–Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1418 AH / May–October 1997): 12–56.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Second Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-026). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

80 AH QMI-INS-027

Third Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

نقش عثمان بن وهران الثالث

Site	Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
Writing surface	North side of a rock below Jabal al-Waljah al-Kabīr
Lines	9
Dimensions	107 × 80 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 56:28–40, on the people of the right hand)

Original text (Arabic)

سدر مخضود وطلح
منضود وظل ممدود وما
مسكوب وفكهة كثيرة
لامقطوعة ولا ممنوعة و
فرش مرفوعة انا انشئنهن انشاءا
فجعلنهن أبكرا عربا أترابا لا
صحب اليمين ما أصحب اليمين
ثلة من الأولين وثلة من الأخرين
وكتب عثمن (عثمان) بن وهرن (وهران)

Translation

“[Amid] lote trees stripped of thorns,
and banana trees layered [with fruit],
and shade extended, and water
poured out, and fruit
abundant, neither limited nor forbidden, and
couches raised high. Indeed, We have produced them [the women of Paradise] in a special creation
and made them virgins, devoted [to their husbands] and equal in age, for
the companions of the right — a company of the former [believers]
and a company of the later [ones].” [cf. Q 56:28–40]. Written by ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān.

Commentary

The third and longest of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān's three Qurʾanic inscriptions, drawn from Sūrat al-Wāqiʿah's description of Paradise (verses on "the companions of the right hand"). Together, the three inscriptions (nos. 25–27) form a small private epigraphic program by one individual across a single rocky outcrop.

Source: al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1995, pp. 26–29, 55–57, 60–66, 160–164; al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir ibn ʿAlī, and ʿĀdil Muḥammad Nūr Ghubāshī. "Nuqūsh Islāmīyah Mubakkirah bi-Wādī al-ʿUsaylah bi-Makkah al-Mukarramah." ʿĀlam al-Makhṭūṭāt wa-al-Nawādir 2, no. 1 (Muḥarram–Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1418 AH / May–October 1997): 12–56.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Third Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-027). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

81 AH QMI-INS-028

Inscription of Qaṣr al-Burquʿ

نقش قصر البرقع

Site	Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, Darb al-Ḥajj
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Construction of houses by an Umayyad prince

Original text (Arabic)

يا الله بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم هذا ما
بنا الأمير الوليد بن أمير المؤمنين هو
لا (هؤلاء) البيوت سنة احدى وثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

O God. In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This is what
the Amīr al-Walīd, son of the Commander of the Faithful, built —
these houses, in the year eighty-one.

Commentary

Records construction work commissioned by "the Amīr al-Walīd, son of the Commander of the Faithful" — almost certainly the future Umayyad caliph al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (r. 86–96 AH), here still a prince, referred to through his father ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān's caliphal title rather than by his own name alone. A rare inscription documenting an Umayyad ruling family building project outside the major cities.

Source: Gruendler, Beatrice. The Development of the Arabic Scripts: From the Nabatean Era to the First Islamic Century According to the Dated Texts. Harvard Semitic Series No. 43. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1993, pp. 18–19.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Qaṣr al-Burquʿ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-028). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of Sahm, Mawlā of Abū Zurʿah

⤢ Click to enlarge

82 AH QMI-INS-029

Inscription of Sahm, Mawlā of Abū Zurʿah

نقش سهم مولى أبو زرعة

Site	Unrecorded rock face
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness and acceptance of pilgrimage

Original text (Arabic)

غفر الله لسهم مولى أبو زرعة اللهم
وتقبل حجته امين رب العلمين (العالمين)
وغفر الله لمحمود الأبرم
السمان مولى يعمر بن حبيب
وتقبل منه حجته وكتب
في سنة اثنين وثمنين (وثمانين)

Translation

May God forgive Sahm, client (mawlā) of Abū Zurʿah. O God,
accept his pilgrimage (ḥajjah). Āmīn, Lord of the Worlds.
And may God forgive Maḥmūd al-Abram
al-Sammān, client of Yaʿmar ibn Ḥabīb,
and accept his pilgrimage too. And it was written
in the year eighty-two.

Commentary

Like the Ṭāʾif Dam and Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ inscriptions elsewhere in this corpus, this text prays for two people at once — Sahm and Maḥmūd al-Abram al-Sammān, both identified as mawālī (clients) of different patrons — asking specifically that their ḥajj (pilgrimage) be accepted, one of the few inscriptions in the catalog tied explicitly to the pilgrimage rite itself.

Source: al-Ḥawwās, Fahd Ṣāliḥ, et al. "Taqrīr Awwalī ʿan Aʿmāl al-Tanqībāt al-Athariyah li-Madīnat Fayd al-Tārīkhiyah bi-Minṭaqat Ḥāʾil (al-Mawsim al-Awwal 1427/2006)." Aṭlāl 20, p. 35, pls. 2, 3a.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Sahm, Mawlā of Abū Zurʿah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-029). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

83 AH QMI-INS-030

Inscription of ʿUfayr ibn al-Muḍārib

نقش عفير بن المضارب

Site	Wādī al-Aqraʿ
Writing surface	Large rock
Lines	4
Dimensions	100 × 55 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Declaration of belief, echoing Sūrat al-Ḥijr

Original text (Arabic)

آمنت بما كذب به
أصحب (أصحاب) الحجر وكتب عفير
بن المضرب (المضارب) في سنة
ثلث (ثلاث) وثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

I believe in what
the companions of al-Ḥijr denied, and ʿUfayr
ibn al-Muḍārib wrote [this], in the year
three and eighty.

Commentary

The phrase "what the companions of al-Ḥijr denied" echoes the Qurʾanic story of Thamūd, the people of the prophet Ṣāliḥ (cf. Qurʾān 15:80–83). The same formula appears in an inscription from south of al-ʿUlā (1st–2nd century AH) reading "I am Abū ʿAmmār, I believe in what the companions of al-Ḥijr denied the messengers," a more direct quotation of the Qurʾanic verse. Unusually for this corpus, the scribe adds dots to distinguish some letters — eight dotted letters in total (nūn, tāʾ, dhāl, bāʾ, jīm, fāʾ, yāʾ, ḍād) — with tāʾ marked by two dots above and yāʾ by two dots below, an early and inconsistent step toward the fully dotted Arabic script of later centuries.

Source: al-Kalbī, Ḥayāt. al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah ʿalā Ṭarīq al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī bi-Shamāl Gharb al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabīyah al-Saʿūdīyah min al-Qarn al-Awwal ilā al-Qarn al-Khāmis al-Hijrī, pp. 66–68.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿUfayr ibn al-Muḍārib” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-030). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

83 AH QMI-INS-031

Inscription of Ibn Abī ʿArīḍ

نقش ابن أبي عريض

Site	Wādī Abū ʿŪd
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	5
Dimensions	120 × 50 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Seeking refuge in God, with a witnessed endorsement

Original text (Arabic)

عبد الله بن أبي عريض
يعتصم بربه
كتب في سنة ثلث وثمنين (ثمانين)
ومحمد بن إبرهيم (إبراهيم)
وكتب شهادته بيده

Translation

ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī ʿArīḍ
takes refuge in his Lord.
He wrote [this] in the year three and eighty,
and Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm [too].
And he wrote his testimony with his own hand.

Commentary

Lines 4–5 are written in a visibly different hand from lines 1–3, on the same rock along the Syrian pilgrim route. The book's author suggests a second person — a resident or traveler who read the original text and wanted to endorse it — added his own name afterward, appending "and he wrote his testimony with his own hand" specifically to confirm that no one wrote it on his behalf. This kind of secondary endorsement (taṣdīq) appears elsewhere among early Islamic rock inscriptions.

Source: al-Kalbī, Ḥayāt. al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmīyah ʿalā Ṭarīq al-Ḥajj al-Shāmī..., King Fahd National Library, Riyadh, 1430 AH/2009, pp. 68–70.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ibn Abī ʿArīḍ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-031). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Memorial Inscription of Suwayd ibn Samurah

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83 AH QMI-INS-032

Memorial Inscription of Suwayd ibn Samurah

نقش تذكاري (سويد بن سمرة)

Site	Jabal al-Safīnah
Writing surface	Southeast face
Lines	4
Dimensions	120 × 45 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Recording a four-part name

Original text (Arabic)

أنا ]سويد[ بن ]سمرة[ بن
]ذكوان[ بن ]سمرة[ وكتب هذ
ا الكتب (الكتاب) لعشر ليل (ليال) خلت من شهر ر
بيع الآخر من سنة ثلث (ثلاث) وثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

I, [Suwayd] ibn [Samurah] ibn
[Dhakwān] ibn [Samurah], wrote this
writing ten nights into the month of Rabīʿ
al-Ākhir, in the year three and eighty.

Commentary

The opening of the inscription is damaged, so the name in brackets is a proposed reading by Maysāʾ al-Ghabbān (Suwayd ibn Samurah ibn Dhakwān ibn Samurah) rather than a certain one. A second, separate inscription lower on the same rock face reads "O Merciful One, protect the daughter of Judhām" — a short protective prayer for a woman, unrelated to the dated text above it.

Source: al-Ghabbān, Maysāʾ ʿAlī. al-Kitābāt al-Islāmīyah al-Mubakkirah fī Haḍbat Ḥismā bi-Minṭaqat Tabūk. PhD diss., Jāmiʿat al-Malik Saʿūd, 2017, p. 897, inscription no. 234.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Memorial Inscription of Suwayd ibn Samurah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-032). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Qurʾanic Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿImārah

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

84 AH QMI-INS-033

Qurʾanic Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿImārah

نقش عبد الله بن عمارة

Site	Wādī al-Ḥurumān
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	113 × 49 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 2:21)

Original text (Arabic)

يايها الناس اتقوا (كذا) ربكم الذي خلقكم وا
لذين من قبلكم لعلكم تفلحون (كذا) وكتب عبد ا
لله بن عمارة لسنة أربع وثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

“O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and
those before you, that you may become righteous” [cf. Q 2:21]. And ʿAbd-
allāh ibn ʿImārah wrote [this], in the year four and eighty.

Commentary

The scribe's memory of the verse (opening of Sūrat al-Baqarah, 2:21) slips at two points, marked "kadhā" ("sic") by the editor: writing ittaqū ("be mindful of") where the Qurʾanic text has uʿbudū ("worship"), and tuflihūn ("you may prosper") in place of the verse's tattaqūn ("you may become righteous") — small variations that suggest quotation from memory rather than a written exemplar.

Source: Photograph by ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī (@thoomaly11), posted 29 March 2018.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Qurʾanic Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿImārah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-033). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

84 AH QMI-INS-034

Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿImārah

نقش حكيم بن عمارة

Site	Wādī al-Ḥurumān
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	8
Dimensions	98 × 62 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic-phrased prayer (echoing Sūrah Ṭā Hā)

Original text (Arabic)

رب لا تفضح حكيم
بن عمارة بسم الله
فسبح بحمد ربك قبل طلـ
و ع الشمس وقبل غروبها
ومن أنا (أناء) اليل (الليل) فسبحه وأطرف (أطراف)
النهار لعلك ترضى وكتب
حكيم ابن عمارة لسنة أربع و
ثمنين (ثمانين) غفر الله له ذنبه امين

Translation

Lord, do not disgrace Ḥakīm
ibn ʿImārah. In the name of God,
“so glorify your Lord's praise before the ris-
ing of the sun and before its setting,
and in part of the night glorify Him, and at the ends of
the day, that you may be pleased” [cf. Q 20:130]. And
Ḥakīm ibn ʿImārah wrote [this], in the year four and
eighty. May God forgive him his sin. Āmīn.

Commentary

Opens with a personal plea ("Lord, do not disgrace Ḥakīm") before quoting a Qurʾanic verse on glorifying God at set times of day (cf. Ṭā Hā 20:130), then closes with a standard forgiveness formula — combining three distinct registers (personal petition, scripture, prayer) in a single short text.

Source: Photograph by ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī (@thoomaly11), posted 17 February 2019.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿImārah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-034). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAmr

Photograph: Muḥammad al-Mughadhdhawī⤢ Click to enlarge

86 AH QMI-INS-035

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAmr

نقش عبد الرحمن بن سفيان بن عمرو

Site	Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, Darb al-Ḥajj
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	10
Dimensions	74 × 34 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer asking for God's good pleasure

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم أر
ضى عن عبد
الرحمن بن
سفين (سفيان) بن عمر
و آمين رب ا
لعلمين (العالمين) وكتب عبد
الرحمن هذا ا
لكتب (الكتاب) لعشر ليل (ليال)
بقين من جمدى (جمادى) ا
لاخرة

Translation

O God, be
pleased with ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān ibn
Sufyān ibn ʿAmr.
Āmīn, Lord of
the Worlds. And ʿAbd
al-Raḥmān wrote this
writing, ten nights
remaining of Jumādā
al-Ākhirah.

Commentary

Found on the same rock face at Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, along the Syrian pilgrim route, as several other inscriptions in this catalog (e.g. nos. 18, 28). Uses the same riḍā ("being pleased with") prayer formula seen in the inscription of ʿAmr (no. 16) from a decade earlier.

Source: al-Mughadhdhawī, Muḥammad (@mohammed93athar). Twitter, 22 October 2019.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAmr” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-035). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: Muḥammad al-Mughadhdhawī⤢ Click to enlarge

88 AH QMI-INS-036

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd

نقش عبد الله بن سعد

Site	Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil, Darb al-Ḥajj
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	9
Dimensions	74 × 34 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness, dated by an assembly (majlis)

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر
لعبد ]ا[
لله بن سعد بن عبد
الله بن سعد بن أبي
ذباب النمري
امين ر]ب[ العلمين ]العالمين[ و هو
أمر بهذا المجلس في
جمدى (جمادى) لسنة ثمن (ثمان) و
ثمنين (ثمانين)

Translation

O God, forgive
ʿAbd-
allāh ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAbd-
allāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī
Dhubāb al-Namarī.
Āmīn, Lord of the Worlds. And he
commanded this assembly (majlis) in
Jumādā, in the year eight and
eighty.

Commentary

A four-generation genealogy packed into a single prayer (ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd ibn Abī Dhubāb, of the Banū al-Namir), on the same rock face at Qāʿ al-Muʿtadil as several other Darb al-Ḥajj inscriptions in this catalog. The reference to "this assembly" (hādhā al-majlis) is unusual, hinting at some gathering or occasion tied to the inscription's creation that the text does not further explain.

Source: al-Mughadhdhawī, Muḥammad (@mohammed93athar). Twitter, 22 October 2019.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-036). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

90 AH QMI-INS-037

Inscription of Ṣabīḥ, Client of Razīq

نقش صبيح فتى رزيق

Site	Ṭūr al-Qawwās
Writing surface	West face
Lines	2
Dimensions	70 × 15 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Recording a name

Original text (Arabic)

أنا صبيح فتا رزيق بن أمنـ...
سنة تسعين

Translation

I, Ṣabīḥ, client (fatā) of Razīq ibn Amn-...
the year ninety.

Commentary

One of the shortest texts in this catalog, just two lines. The word fatā ("young man") here functions like mawlā elsewhere in the corpus, denoting a client or dependent relationship to a patron, Razīq.

Source: al-Ghabbān, Maysāʾ ʿAlī. al-Kitābāt al-Islāmīyah al-Mubakkirah fī Haḍbat Ḥismā bi-Minṭaqat Tabūk. PhD diss., Jāmiʿat al-Malik Saʿūd, 2017, p. 832, inscription no. 38.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Ṣabīḥ, Client of Razīq” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-037). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

91 AH QMI-INS-038

Inscription of Mukhlid ibn Abī Mukhlid

نقش مخلد بن أبي مخلد

Site	Wādī al-Awjarīyah
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	80 × 55 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness and acceptance of pilgrimage

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر لمخلد بن أبي مخلد
مولى علي وتقبل منه حجته
امين رب العلمين (العالمين) وكتب
في ذي القعدة من سنة إحدى
وتسعين رحم الله من قرا (قرأ)
هذا الكتب (الكتاب) ثم قال امين

Translation

O God, forgive Mukhlid ibn Abī Mukhlid,
client (mawlā) of ʿAlī, and accept his pilgrimage (ḥajjah).
Āmīn, Lord of the Worlds. And he wrote
[this] in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, of the year one
and ninety. May God have mercy on whoever reads
this writing and then says āmīn.

Commentary

Follows the same pattern as several other inscriptions in this corpus asking for a pilgrimage (ḥajjah) to be accepted, and closes with a blessing extended to any future reader who says "āmīn" aloud — effectively inviting every passerby who reads the stone to take part in the prayer.

Source: al-Kalbī, Ḥayāh. al-Nuqūsh al-Islāmiyyah ʿalā ṭarīq al-ḥajj al-Shāmī bi-shamāl gharb al-Mamlakah al-ʿArabiyyah al-Suʿūdiyyah min al-qarn al-awwal ilā al-qarn al-khāmis al-hijrī [Islamic Inscriptions on the Syrian Pilgrimage Road in North-West Saudi Arabia, First to Fifth Centuries AH]. Riyadh: King Fahd National Library, 1430 AH / 2009 CE, pp. 61–73.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Mukhlid ibn Abī Mukhlid” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-038). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī⤢ Click to enlarge

92 AH QMI-INS-039

Inscription of al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUmar

نقش المغيرة بن عمر

Site	Wādī Malkān
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	11
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer asking for Paradise, the Prophet and the believers as companions

Original text (Arabic)

أنا ا
لمغيرة ابن
عمر اسل (اسأل) ا
لله الجنة نز
لا والمئلكة
رسلا والنبي ر
فيقا والمومنين (المؤمنين)
أصحبا (أصحابا) امين رب
العلمين (العالمين) وكتب
لسنة اثنتين و
تسعين

Translation

I, al-
Mughīrah ibn
ʿUmar, ask
God for Paradise as a
lodging, the angels
as an escort, the Prophet as a
companion, and the believers
as companions. Āmīn, Lord of
the Worlds. And it was written
for the year two and
ninety.

Commentary

Previously unpublished in the epigraphic literature until documented by ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī in 2019, in Wādī Malkān south of Mecca, an area rich in early Islamic inscriptions. The phrasing (Paradise as a lodging, angels as an escort) echoes Qurʾanic and hadith language found in several other inscriptions of this corpus. The scribe misspells "al-malāʾikah" (angels) as "al-maʾlikah," transposing the hamzah and lām, and the book's author notes the lettering is unusually well-executed, with even spacing between words and lines and consistently straight vertical strokes.

Source: Documented and photographed by ʿAbdallāh Muṣliḥ al-Thumālī, 29 May 2020.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUmar” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-039). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

92 AH QMI-INS-040

Inscription of Qaṣr al-Kharrānah

نقش قصر الخرّانة

Site	Qaṣr al-Kharrānah, Jordan
Writing surface	Interior wall
Lines	11
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Long personal prayer naming ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmar

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم ارحم عبد الملك بن عمر واغفر له
ذنبه ما تقدم منه وما تأخر من ما أسر وما أعلن
وما أحد كان من نفسه قابل لك ألا تغفر له وترحمه
المنّان وترحم علـ]يّ[ إذ آمن، آمنت بربي فمُنّ عليّ أنت
فإنك أنت الرحمن اللهم إني اسألك أن
تقبل منه ]صـ[لاته وهيابته آمين رب العلمين رب
موسى وهرون رحم الله من قرأه ثم قال آمين آمين رب
العـ]لمـ[ين العزيز الحكيم وكتب عبد الملك بن عمر يوم
الاثنين لثلث بقين من المحرّم من سنة اثنين وتسعين
شـ]هد[ لأم هرون واسرح بنا أن نجتمع بنبي ونبيه في الدنيا
والآخرة

Translation

O God, have mercy on ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmar and forgive him
his sin, what came before and what came after, what he kept secret and what he made known,
and whatever anyone would ever hold against him — do not refuse to forgive and have mercy on him,
O Bestower, and turn toward me, since I have believed. I have believed in my Lord, so bestow Your favor upon
me, for You are the Merciful. O God, I ask You to
accept from him his prayer and reverence [for You] — āmīn, Lord of the Worlds, Lord of
Moses and Aaron. May God have mercy on whoever reads it and then says āmīn, āmīn, Lord of
the Worlds, the Mighty, the Wise. And ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿUmar wrote [this] on
Monday, three [nights] remaining of al-Muḥarram, in the year two and ninety,
...witness for the mother of Hārūn, and I ask that we be gathered with a prophet and his prophethood, in this world
and the next.

Commentary

One of the best-known early Islamic inscriptions outside the Arabian Peninsula, painted in ink on an interior wall of Qaṣr al-Kharrānah, an early Islamic desert building in Jordan often (though not conclusively) linked to the Umayyads. The American scholar Nabia Abbott published the first complete reading in 1950; some words remain uncertain (marked with brackets above), including a phrase the book's author suggests may actually read "wa-hābatahu" ("and His awe") rather than "hayābatahu." Longer and more theologically elaborate than most inscriptions in this catalog, invoking Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's mother by name.

Source: Abbott, Nabia. “The Ḳaṣr Kharāna Inscription of 92 H. (710 A.D.), a New Reading.” Ars Islamica, vol. 11/12, 1946, p. 192.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Qaṣr al-Kharrānah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-040). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

93 AH QMI-INS-041

Inscription of ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdallāh

نقش علي بن عبد الله

Site	Jabal Usays, Syria
Writing surface	Rocks
Lines	4
Dimensions	47 × 25 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 2:255, Āyat al-Kursī, opening)

Original text (Arabic)

الله لا إله إلا هو الحي ا
لقيوم * وكتب علي بن عبد
الله في شوال سنة
ثلث (ثلاث) وتسعين

Translation

“God — there is no god but He, the Ever-Living,
the Self-Subsisting” [Q 2:255, opening]. And ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd-
allāh wrote [this], in Shawwāl of the year
three and ninety.

Commentary

Quotes the opening of Āyat al-Kursī (the "Throne Verse," Qurʾān 2:255), widely considered the greatest verse in the Qurʾān according to a hadith in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, in which the Prophet asks Ubayy ibn Kaʿb which verse he considers greatest and confirms his answer — this same opening line. Undated inscriptions with the same verse have been found at the same site on Jabal Usays in Syria. A small dotted circle after "al-Qayyūm" likely marks the boundary between the Qurʾanic quotation and the scribe's own words, a device also seen in the Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ inscription (no. 10) dated 64 AH.

Source: Abū al-Faraj al-ʿUsh, Muḥammad. "Kitābāt ʿArabīyah Ghayr Manshūrah fī Jabal Usays." Majallat al-Abḥāth 17, no. 3 (September 1964): 241.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdallāh” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-041). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: Mālik al-Sulaymī⤢ Click to enlarge

96 AH QMI-INS-042

Inscription of Farqad ibn Nāfiʿ

نقش فرقد بن نافع

Site	Tabūk
Writing surface	Sandstone rock
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Declaration of the two testimonies of faith

Original text (Arabic)

يشهد فرقد بن نافع أنه لا إله إلا الله وحده
لا شريك له وأن محمد عبده ورسو
له وكتب في شوال سنة ست وتسعين

Translation

Farqad ibn Nāfiʿ bears witness that there is no god but God alone,
without partner, and that Muḥammad is His servant and Messen-
ger, and he wrote [this] in Shawwāl of the year six and ninety.

Commentary

A carefully executed inscription showing visible artistic craftsmanship — curved letter strokes, hooked letterforms and decorative flourishes — that the book's author singles out as more accomplished calligraphically than many plainer texts in this corpus.

Source: Photograph by Mālik al-Sulaymī.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Farqad ibn Nāfiʿ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-042). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

First Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

⤢ Click to enlarge

96 AH QMI-INS-043

First Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

نقش رباح بن حفص بن عاصم (الأول)

Site	Rawāwah, Medina
Writing surface	Rough rock face
Lines	8
Dimensions	48 × 76 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for well-being, with genealogy to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم عا
في رباح بن
حفص بن عاصم
بن عمر بن الخطاب
أوصي ببر الله وا
لرحم وكتب
في سنة ست
وتسعين

Translation

O God, grant
well-being to Rabāḥ ibn
Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim
ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb.
I exhort [reverence for] God and
kinship ties, and he wrote [this]
in the year six
and ninety.

Commentary

"Rabāḥ" identifies himself as a great-grandson of the second caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. The book's author identifies him with ʿĪsā ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar al-ʿAdawī, a hadith narrator known by the kunyah Abū Ziyād and the nickname "Rabāḥ," credited with two hadiths (on shortening prayer while traveling, and on Medina's sacred boundary); historians differ on whether he died in 157 or 159 AH, agreeing only that he lived to about eighty. He left a second, much longer inscription elsewhere in this corpus (no. 54) using the same well-being formula.

Source: Nuqūsh Rawāwah, p. 85.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “First Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-043). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

96 AH QMI-INS-044

Inscription of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdallāh

نقش عمر بن عبد الله

Site	Rawāwah, Medina
Writing surface	Rough rock face
Lines	6
Dimensions	48 × 76 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Belief in God and disavowal of false gods

Original text (Arabic)

آمن عمر بن عبد الله
بن ع ُروة بن الزبير
بالله وشهد أنه لا إله ا
لا الله وكفرت بالطغوت (الطاغوت) حيا
وميتا وكتب عمر في سنة ست
وتسعين

Translation

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdallāh
ibn ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr believed
in God, and bore witness that there is no god
but God, and he disbelieved in false gods, living
and dead. And ʿUmar wrote [this] in the year six
and ninety.

Commentary

ʿUmar identifies himself as a grandson of ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, the Medinan scholar and "Seven Jurists" member also named as a patron in the inscription of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb (no. 21) from sixteen years earlier — the two inscriptions together attest to ʿUrwah's household across a generation. "Ṭāghūt" (false gods/idols) is a specifically Qurʾanic term for whatever is worshipped instead of God.

Source: Field documentation, Rawāwah survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdallāh” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-044). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī

Photograph: ʿAbdallāh al-Balawī⤢ Click to enlarge

97 AH QMI-INS-045

Inscription of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī

نقش محمد بن أبي طيبة الحمصي

Site	North of al-ʿUlā
Writing surface	Large rock face
Lines	4
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Testimony of faith, dated by a caliph's pilgrimage

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم شهدت وآمنت وأيقنت إنه
لا إله إلا أنت وكتب محمد ابن
أبي طيبة الحمصي
حجة سليمن أمير المؤمنين

Translation

O God, I have witnessed, believed and become certain that
there is no god but You. And Muḥammad ibn
Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī wrote [this], during
the pilgrimage (ḥajjah) of Sulaymān, Commander of the Faithful.

Commentary

Dates itself by the pilgrimage of the Umayyad caliph Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, corroborated by Ibn Kathīr's al-Bidāyah wa-al-Nihāyah, which records a scholarly consensus that Sulaymān led the pilgrimage in the year 97 AH while caliph — one of the relatively few inscriptions in this corpus datable by direct cross-reference to a named historical event in the literary sources.

Source: Ibn Kathīr. al-Bidāyah wa-al-Nihāyah, vol. 9.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-045). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

First Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

⤢ Click to enlarge

98 AH QMI-INS-046

First Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

نقش أمية بن عبد الملك (الأول)

Site	Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
Writing surface	South side of a rock below Jabal al-Waljah al-Ṣaghīr
Lines	4
Dimensions	127 × 41 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 65:3)

Original text (Arabic)

ومن يتوكل على الله فالله حسبه والله
بالغ أمره وقد جعل الله لكل شي قدرا
وكتب أمية بن عبد الملك
لسنة ثمان وتسعين وهو يسل (يسأل) الله الجنة

Translation

“And whoever relies upon God — then He is sufficient for him. Indeed, God
will accomplish His purpose. God has already set for everything a measure” [Q 65:3]. And Umayyah
ibn ʿAbd al-Malik wrote [this], for the year eight and ninety, asking
God for Paradise.

Commentary

The first of two Qurʾanic inscriptions left at Wādī al-ʿUsaylah by the same Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik (compare no. 47), quoting Sūrat al-Ṭalāq (65:3) on trust in God. Left at the same site as the three inscriptions of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān (nos. 25–27), eighteen years earlier.

Source: Field documentation, Wādī al-ʿUsaylah survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “First Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-046). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Second Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

⤢ Click to enlarge

98 AH QMI-INS-047

Second Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

نقش أمية بن عبد الملك (الثاني)

Site	Wādī al-ʿUsaylah
Writing surface	Southwest side of a rock below Jabal al-Waljah al-Ṣaghīr
Lines	3
Dimensions	119 × 35 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Qurʾanic verse (Q 5:47)

Original text (Arabic)

من لم يحكم بما أنزل
الله فاولئك هم ا
لفسقون وكتب أمية بن عبد الملك

Translation

“And whoever does not judge by what God has revealed —
those are the defiantly disobedient” [Q 5:47]. And Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik wrote
[this].

Commentary

The second of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik's two Qurʾanic inscriptions at this site, quoting Sūrat al-Māʾidah (5:47) — a verse on just judgment, echoing the same political theme (rightful rule and judgment) seen in ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān's quotation of Sūrat Ṣād (no. 26) at the same location.

Source: al-Ḥārithī, Nāṣir. 1997, pl. 5.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Second Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-047). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

98 AH QMI-INS-048

Inscription of Thābit ibn Abī Tamīm

نقش ثابت بن أبي تميم

Site	Ghayl al-Minḍaj, Ẓahrān al-Janūb
Writing surface	Rock block
Lines	10
Dimensions	55 × 45 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for mercy for a craftsman and his family

Original text (Arabic)

رحمـ]ت[ ]ا[ لله
على ثبت (ثابت) ابن أ
بي تميم صانع
الجرار وعلى أهله
أجمعين آمين رب
العلمين (العالمين) وكتب
ثبت (ثابت) يوم السبت
في عشر ليل (ليال) خلون من
من (كذا) جمدى (جمادى) الأخرة
سنة ثمان وتسعين

Translation

The mercy of God
[be] upon Thābit ibn Abī
Tamīm, maker
of jars, and upon his family
altogether. Āmīn, Lord of
the Worlds. And
Thābit wrote [this] on Saturday,
ten nights having passed of
Jumādā al-Ākhirah,
in the year eight and ninety.

Commentary

One of the few inscriptions in this corpus to record its author's trade: Thābit identifies himself as ṣāniʿ al-jirār, a maker of large storage jars — a rare glimpse of an ordinary craftsman's identity alongside the tribal and genealogical self-descriptions that dominate elsewhere in the corpus.

Source: Field documentation, Ẓahrān al-Janūb survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Thābit ibn Abī Tamīm” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-048). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Poetic Inscription of Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan al-Hāshimī

⤢ Click to enlarge

98 AH QMI-INS-049

Poetic Inscription of Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan al-Hāshimī

نقش شعري

Site	Wādī al-Ḥurumān
Writing surface	Rock block
Lines	7
Dimensions	112 × 52 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Verse on the passage of time

Original text (Arabic)

أفنا (أفنى) الجديد تقلب الشمس
وطلوعها من حيث لا تسمي (لا تمسي)
وطلوعها بيضا (بيضاء) صافية وغروبها
صفرا (صفراء) كالورس
وكتب أبو جعفر بن حسن الهاشمي
سنة ثمان
وتسعين

Translation

Renewal is worn away by the sun's turning
and its rising from where it does not set [each evening],
rising white and clear, and setting
yellow like wars (a yellow dye plant).
And Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan al-Hāshimī wrote [this],
in the year eight
and ninety.

Commentary

A rare poetic (rather than devotional or documentary) inscription in this corpus — four lines of verse reflecting on the sun's daily cycle as a metaphor for the passage of time and the wearing-away of all that is new, signed by a self-identified Hāshimite (a member of the Prophet's clan). Almost nothing else in the catalog resembles it in genre.

Source: Field documentation, Wādī al-Ḥurumān survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Poetic Inscription of Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan al-Hāshimī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-049). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: Murtaḍā Julbākh⤢ Click to enlarge

98 AH QMI-INS-050

Inscription of Taymāʾ

نقش تيماء

Site	Taymāʾ, Tabūk
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	4
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم اغفر لقسم (لقاسم)
وكتب يوم السبت
للثلثين (للثلاثين) خلتا من شعبان من سنة
ثمان وتسعين

Translation

O God, forgive Qāsim,
and he wrote [this] on Saturday,
two nights remaining of Shaʿbān, in the year
eight and ninety.

Commentary

A brief, formulaic prayer of forgiveness for a man named Qāsim, precisely dated to a Saturday two nights before the end of Shaʿbān — one of several inscriptions in this corpus giving a day of the week alongside the Hijri date.

Source: Documented by Murtaḍā Julbākh.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Taymāʾ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-050). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

100 AH QMI-INS-051

Inscription of ʿAnazah al-Azd

نقش عنزة الأزد

Site	Wādī Abū Ṭāqah
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	4
Dimensions	100 × 50 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Collective pilgrimage record and prayer for Paradise

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله
نحن عنزة الأزد
حجنا سنة مائة
نسل (نسأل) الله الجنة نزلا

Translation

In the name of God.
We [of] ʿAnazah of al-Azd
made pilgrimage in the year one hundred,
[and] ask God for Paradise as a lodging.

Commentary

Unusual among this corpus for speaking in the collective "we" rather than a single named individual — a group from the tribal subsection ʿAnazah, part of the larger Azd tribal confederation, recording a shared pilgrimage in the year 100 AH rather than one person's prayer. No plate of this inscription is reproduced in the source text.

Source: Field documentation, Wādī Abū Ṭāqah survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAnazah al-Azd” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-051). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Anṣārī

⤢ Click to enlarge

100 AH QMI-INS-052

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Anṣārī

نقش عبد الله بن أبي سعيد الأنصاري

Site	Thulayth
Writing surface	Southwest side
Lines	5
Dimensions	45 × 30 cm
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Prayer for forgiveness

Original text (Arabic)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
اللهم اغفر لعبد ا
لله بن أبي سعيد بن
سعد الأنصري (الأنصاري)
وكتب في سنت (سنة) مئة

Translation

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
O God, forgive ʿAbd-
allāh ibn Abī Saʿīd ibn
Saʿd al-Anṣārī,
and he wrote [this] in the year one hundred.

Commentary

The scribe records his own given name, his father's kunyah, and his grandfather's name before stating his tribal affiliation (al-Anṣārī, "of the Helpers," the Medinan tribes who supported the Prophet) — the book's author notes that the father's kunyah appears to be derived from the grandfather's actual name, a naming pattern worth flagging for readers tracing early Anṣārī genealogies.

Source: al-Ghabbān, Maysāʾ. 2017, inscription no. 116.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Anṣārī” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-052). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Photograph: Aḥmad Bāṣawṭayn⤢ Click to enlarge

100 AH QMI-INS-053

Inscription of Abū Salamah

نقش أبو سلمة

Site	Rawāwah
Writing surface	Southwest-facing rock
Lines	4
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Belief in God the Almighty

Original text (Arabic)

آمن أبو سلمة بن عبد
الله بن عبد الله بن عمر
بالله العظيم
وكتب سنة مائة

Translation

Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd-
allāh ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar believed
in God the Almighty,
and he wrote [this] [in] the year one hundred.

Commentary

A three-generation genealogy (ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿUmar) recorded alongside a simple declaration of belief, from the same Rawāwah site near Medina as several other inscriptions in this catalog (nos. 43–44).

Source: Photograph by Aḥmad Bāṣawṭayn.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of Abū Salamah” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-053). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Second Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

⤢ Click to enlarge

100 AH QMI-INS-054

Second Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

نقش رباح بن حفص بن عاصم (الثاني)

Site	Wādī al-Furaysh, Shuʿayb ʿUwayr
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	13
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Extended prayer for well-being in this world and the next

Original text (Arabic)

اللهم عافي رباح بن
حفص بن عاصم بن عمر
الفاروق في الدنيا والا
خرة و يوم يموت و يو
م يبعث حيا وعافيه
في دينه وفي جسد
ه وفي أمره واغفر
له ذنبه ما تقدم منه و
ما تأخر آمين رب ا
العلمين رحم الله
من قال آمين وكتب
في سنة
مئة

Translation

O God, grant well-being to Rabāḥ ibn
Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar
al-Fārūq, in this world and the
next, on the day he dies and the day
he is raised alive, and grant him well-being
in his religion, in his body,
and in his affairs, and forgive
him his sin, what came before and
what came after. Āmīn, Lord of
the Worlds. May God have mercy on
whoever says āmīn. And it was written
in the year
one hundred.

Commentary

A much longer, later reprise of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ's first inscription (no. 43, dated 96 AH), naming ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb explicitly by his epithet al-Fārūq ("the one who distinguishes truth from falsehood"). The book's author corrects three earlier readings by Dr. Muḥammad al-Thunayyān, who had read line 1 as ending in "salīm" rather than the name continuing into line 2 as "ibn Ḥafṣ," and had divided a word across lines 2–3 differently. No plate of this second inscription is reproduced in the source text.

Source: Field documentation, Wādī al-Furaysh survey; cf. reading corrections to al-Thunayyān.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Second Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-054). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

⤢ Click to enlarge

100 AH QMI-INS-055

Inscription of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ

نقش عاصم بن عمر بن حفص

Site	Waḥy al-Ḥijārah
Writing surface	Rock face
Lines	3
Dimensions	Unrecorded
Script	Ḥijāzī
Subject	Declaration of trust in God

Original text (Arabic)

ثقة عاصم بن عمر
بن حفص بالحي القيوم
وكتب في سنة مئة

Translation

The trust of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar
ibn Ḥafṣ is in the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting,
and he wrote [this] in the year one hundred.

Commentary

The final dated entry in this catalog (100 AH), closing the corpus on the same divine epithets — al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm, "the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting" — quoted from Āyat al-Kursī that opened the inscription of ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdallāh (no. 41) seven years earlier. ʿĀṣim's own genealogy (ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ) closely echoes the family names seen in both inscriptions of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim (nos. 43 and 54), suggesting these may be members of the same extended family leaving inscriptions across the Ḥijāz over several years.

Source: Field documentation, Waḥy al-Ḥijārah survey.

How to cite

Shaker W. Ahmed. “Inscription of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ” (Cat. No. QMI-INS-055). QMI, quranmss.com, 2026.

Early Islamic Inscriptions

Studies

Why dated inscriptions, and how this catalog reads them

Who wrote these inscriptions — and where

The events behind the inscriptions, 24–100 AH

How the scribes of the first century dated their words

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Reference

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Hijri Months

Write in Early Rasm

Qurʾanic Quotations

A research project of the Quran Manuscripts Initiative

Inscription of Zuhayr

Inscription of ʿUthmān's Appointment

Inscription of Yazīd ibn ʿAbdallāh al-Sulūlī

Gravestone of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khayr al-Ḥajarī

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn al-ʿĀṣ

Inscription of Shurayḥ, Mawlā of Banū ʿAdī

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Dīrām

Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿAlī

Dam of Ṭāʾif Inscription

Ḥafnat al-Abyaḍ Inscription

Inscription of ʿĀʾishah

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Inner Octagon)

Dome of the Rock Inscription (Outer Octagon)

Dome of the Rock Copper Inscription

Inscription of ʿUmar ibn Ṭarīf

Inscription of ʿAmr

Inscription of al-Rayyān ibn ʿAbdallāh

Inscription of Ibn al-ʿĀṣ

Inscription of al-Ḥārith ibn al-Muṭṭalib

Inscription of al-Walīd ibn Maʿbad

Inscription of Ḥabīb ibn Abī Ḥabīb

Inscription of Maymūn, Mawlā of Abū Maryam

Inscription of Bakr ibn Abī Bakrah

Inscription of ʿUmayr ibn Abī Muslim

First Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

Second Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

Third Inscription of ʿUthmān ibn Wahrān

Inscription of Qaṣr al-Burquʿ

Inscription of Sahm, Mawlā of Abū Zurʿah

Inscription of ʿUfayr ibn al-Muḍārib

Inscription of Ibn Abī ʿArīḍ

Memorial Inscription of Suwayd ibn Samurah

Qurʾanic Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿImārah

Inscription of Ḥakīm ibn ʿImārah

Inscription of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sufyān ibn ʿAmr

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Saʿd

Inscription of Ṣabīḥ, Client of Razīq

Inscription of Mukhlid ibn Abī Mukhlid

Inscription of al-Mughīrah ibn ʿUmar

Inscription of Qaṣr al-Kharrānah

Inscription of ʿAlī ibn ʿAbdallāh

Inscription of Farqad ibn Nāfiʿ

First Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

Inscription of ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdallāh

Inscription of Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī

First Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

Second Inscription of Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-Malik

Inscription of Thābit ibn Abī Tamīm

Poetic Inscription of Abū Jaʿfar ibn Ḥasan al-Hāshimī

Inscription of Taymāʾ

Inscription of ʿAnazah al-Azd

Inscription of ʿAbdallāh ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Anṣārī

Inscription of Abū Salamah

Second Inscription of Rabāḥ ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿĀṣim

Inscription of ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ

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Religious & Formulaic Language

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