QMI-INS-014h · c. 65–86 AH
Blessing on the Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik, ʿArafah
الصلاة على أمير المؤمنين عبد الملك، عرفة
ʿArafah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
- صلى الله على عبد الله عبد
- الملك أمير المؤمنين
- آمين
May God bless the servant of God, ʿAbd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful. Amen.
A blessing invoked on the reigning caliph, written on a boulder at ʿArafah, where the pilgrims stand on the ninth day of the pilgrimage. The writer calls him “the servant of God, ʿAbd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful”, the style of the caliph’s own official texts, such as his milestones (QMI-INS-014b) and the Dome of the Rock (QMI-INS-012). The text carries no date and is placed in ʿAbd al-Malik’s reign (65–86 AH) by his name and title. The same formula, ṣallā Allāh ʿalā, invoked on a named person other than the Prophet, appears in the inscription of ʿĀʾishah dated 70 AH (QMI-INS-011).
al-Rāshid, Saʿd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz. Kitābāt Islāmīyah min Makkah al-Mukarramah: Dirāsah wa-Taḥqīq. al-Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Malik Fahd al-Waṭanīyah, 1995, pp. 151–153.