QMI-INS-007a · 41–60 AH
Dam Inscription of Muʿāwiyah, Wādī al-Khunaq
نقش سد معاوية بوادي الخنق
Wādī al-Khunaq, Medina region; on top of the first western mass of the dam, facing north
- بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
- هذا السد لعبد الله
- معويه (معاوية) أمير المؤمنين
- اللهم برك (بارك) له فيه رب
- السموت (السماوات) والأرض
- بنه (بناه) أبو رداد مولى
- عبد الله بن عباس بحو
- ل الله وقوته
- وقام عليه كثير بن ا
- لصلت وأبو موسى
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. This dam is for the servant of God Muʿāwiyah, Commander of the Faithful. O God, bless him in it, Lord of the heavens and the earth. Abū Raddād, client of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās, built it, by the power and strength of God. And Kathīr ibn al-Ṣalt and Abū Mūsā supervised it.
A foundation text of a dam built for the caliph Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān at Wādī al-Khunaq, in the region of Medina. It carries no year. It names him “the servant of God Muʿāwiyah, Commander of the Faithful,” and the editor, Saʿd al-Rāshid, concludes that the dam was built after Muʿāwiyah became caliph; the text is therefore placed in his caliphate, 41–60 AH. It opens with the same words as the inscription of Muʿāwiyah’s dam at Ṭāʾif of 58 AH ( QMI-INS-009 ), “This dam is for the servant of God Muʿāwiyah, Commander of the Faithful,” but its prayer differs: here “O God, bless him in it, Lord of the heavens and the earth,” at Ṭāʾif a prayer for forgiveness, steadfastness and help.
The stone is a dark brown basalt block, with some natural holes and cavities, about 65 × 46 cm and 14 cm thick. It was set above the top of the first western mass of the dam, facing north, fixed between the three upper steps. The ten lines are incised and clear, and well matched in length and letter size (27 to 44 cm). Besides the caliph, the text names three men: Abū Raddād, who built the dam and is the client ( mawlā ) of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbbās (the editor notes that the patron may also be read ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAyyāsh), and Kathīr ibn al-Ṣalt and Abū Mūsā, who supervised the work. The words are divided across the line ends twice ( biḥaw-/l Allāh and ibn al-/Ṣalt ), and several words keep the old spelling without the long alif: Muʿwiyah , al-samwāt , baraka . The editor records that the stone is now in the National Museum in Riyadh. He would have preferred it to stay in place on the dam wall, but antiquities thieves, after hearing of its discovery, climbed to the top of the dam and pulled the stone out; it fell to the ground and they could not carry it away. A mineral-resources team then moved it to the mission headquarters at al-ʿĀqūl in Medina, from where it was deposited in the National Museum.
Source: al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. “Sadd al-Khanaq: An Early Umayyad Dam near Medina, Saudi Arabia.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 38 (2008): 265–276. Also al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Dirāsāt fī al-āthār al-islāmiyyah al-mubakkirah bi-l-Madīnah al-munawwarah . 1st ed. Riyadh, 1421 AH / 2000 CE, pp. 46–60.