QMI-INS-010a · c. 65 AH
Inscription of Ḥakīm, Client of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr
نقش حكيم مولى عبد الله بن عمرو بن العاص
Ruḥeibe (Ruheibe), Northern Church, south-western atrium (Loc. 523), the Negev
- يرحمك الله يا حكيم
- ابن أبي أسماء مولى
- عبد الله ابن
- عمرو بن العاص آ
- مين رب موسى
May God have mercy on you, Ḥakīm, son of Abū Asmāʾ, client (mawlā) of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. Amen, Lord of Moses.
A prayer of mercy for a man named Ḥakīm ibn Abī Asmāʾ, who describes himself as the client ( mawlā ) of ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. It was found by Yehuda Nevo at Ruḥeibe in the Negev, on a flagstone still in place in the south-western part of the atrium of the Northern Church (Loc. 523); the letters are carefully and clearly cut. The slab also carries the outline of a foot, and the text ends with āmīn rabb Mūsā (“Amen, Lord of Moses”), followed by an illegible trace; compare the Negev prayers of Ward ibn Sālim, which asks “the Lord of Moses and Aaron” ( QMI-INS-055ka ), and of Ḥasan ibn Maysarah ( QMI-INS-055va ).
The inscription carries no date. It is placed here by the lifetime of the patron, as the catalog dates a text by the person it names. ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, the Companion and scholar, son of the conqueror of Palestine and Egypt, is presumed to be the man meant (Lecker 1989); the sources disagree on the year of his death, giving 63, 65 and 69 AH (the dates also reported run to the early 70s), and 65 AH is the year used for the placement. This is a terminus for the life of the patron, not for the writing: a client could name his patron after the patron’s death, so the true date may be somewhat later. Lecker notes that no other literary or archaeological source mentions this Ḥakīm, and that the family had strong ties with Palestine: ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ held an estate ( qaṣr ) there, and ʿAbdallāh was present in Palestine in the years after the Battle of the Camel.
Source: Nevo, Yehuda D. “A New Negev Arabic Inscription.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52, no. 1 (1989): 18–23. Lecker, Michael. “The Estates of ʿAmr b. al-ʿĀṣ in Palestine: Notes on a New Negev Arabic Inscription.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52, no. 1 (1989): 24–37.