QMI-INS-009 · 58 AH
Dam of Ṭāʾif Inscription
نقش سد الطائف
Wādī Saysad, near Ṭāʾif
- 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
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.
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.