QMI-INS-032a · Rabīʿ I 83 AH
Inscription of ʿAmr ibn Ḥakīm, Darb Ḥismā
نقش عمرو بن حكيم، درب حسمى
Darb Ḥismā, Tabūk region, Saudi Arabia
- أنا عمرو بن حكيم [......] أوصي ببر الله
- والرحم وأشهد [ألا إله إلا] الله وحده لا شريك
- له ويثني على الله [خير] ما أثنى عبد على ربه و
- كتب ليلة الهلل (الهلال) من شهر ربيع الأول من سنة
- ثلث (ثلاث) وثمنين (وثمانين)
I am ʿAmr ibn Ḥakīm […]. I enjoin piety towards God and [the bond of] kinship, and I bear witness [that there is no god but] God alone; He has no partner. And he praises God with [the best] praise with which a servant has praised his Lord. And [this was] written on the night of the new moon of the month of Rabīʿ I of the year eighty-three.
ʿAmr ibn Ḥakīm opens with the formula أوصي ببر الله, “I enjoin piety towards God”, which links his text to the Paleo-Arabic inscription of Ḥanẓalah ibn ʿAbd ʿAmr (QMI-INS-000), and pairs it with the bond of kinship (al-raḥim). The profession of God’s oneness follows, and then a praise of God in the third person, “with the best praise with which a servant has praised his Lord”. The writer dates his text precisely to the night the new moon of Rabīʿ I was sighted, in 83 AH.
Photograph: Ibrāhīm ibn Manṣūr.