QMI-INS-009a · 1st c. AH
Inscription of Saʿīd ibn Dhakwān, Client of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān
نقش سعيد بن ذكوان مولى معاوية بن أبي سفيان
Northwestern Arabia (site as published by the Desert Team)
- اللهم صلي على محمد عبدك ورسولك وأعظم أجره
- وأكرم نزله وكتب سعيد بن ذكوان مولى معاوية
- ابن أبي سفيان وهو يسل (يسأل) الله بأفضل ما سله (سأله) عبد من الأولين
- والآخرين أن يرزقه شرف القتل (القتال) في سبيله
O God, bless Muḥammad, Your servant and Your messenger, and make great his reward and honour his abode. Saʿīd ibn Dhakwān, client of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, wrote [this], and he asks God for the best that any servant has asked of Him, of the first and the last: that He grant him the honour of fighting in His path.
A four-line prayer cut across the upper face of a sandstone boulder. The writer first calls down blessing on the Prophet, “Your servant and Your messenger”, asking God to make his reward great and to honour his abode (nuzul). He then names himself, Saʿīd ibn Dhakwān, client (mawlā) of Muʿāwiyah ibn Abī Sufyān, and asks for “the best that any servant has asked of Him, of the first and the last”: the honour of fighting in God’s path. Below the prayer, a framed panel and a short graffito on the left are separate texts by other hands.
Source: Photograph and reading published by the Desert Team (Farīq al-Ṣaḥrāʾ), alsahra.org (no. 8a). Reading checked against the photograph by Ahmed W. Shaker.