QMI-INS-009g · c. 20–62 AH
Inscription of al-Sāʾib ibn Hishām, Tabūk
نقش السائب بن هشام، تبوك
Probably the Tabūk region, Saudi Arabia
- أنا السائب بن هشام
- توكلت على الله
I am al-Sāʾib ibn Hishām. I have put my trust in God.
On a sandstone face, probably in the Tabūk region, al-Sāʾib ibn Hishām wrote two lines: his name in the first person, and a declaration of trust, “I have put my trust in God” (tawakkaltu ʿalā Allāh). The Arabic text is cut below earlier inscriptions in an Ancient North Arabian script and a drawing of a camel, on a rock used by travellers long before Islam.
Photograph: Abū Layyān, published on X, 8 June 2023. On al-Sāʾib ibn Hishām: Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-ghābah, s.v. al-Sāʾib ibn Hishām, citing Ibn Mākūlā, al-Ikmāl.