QMI-INS-034b · 85 AH
Milestone of ʿAbd al-Malik from Fīq, Golan: 53 miles from Damascus
ميل عبد الملك من فيق في الجولان: ثلاثة وخمسون ميلا من دمشق
The village of Fīq, southern Golan; now Golan Archaeological Museum
- بسم الله الرحمن الرحـ[ـيم]
- لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له محـ[ـمد رسول]
- الله أمر بصنعة هذه الأميال عبد الله [عبد ا]
- لملك أمير المؤمنين على يدي مساور مولى أميـ[ـر المؤمنين]
- في شعبان من سنة خمس وثمنين (وثمانين) من دمشق إلى هذا ثلثة (ثلاثة) [وخمسون ميلا]
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compas[sionate]. There is no god but God alone; He has no partner; Muḥ[ammad is the messenger of] God. Has ordered the making of these milestones the servant of God [ʿAbd a]- l-Malik, Commander of the Faithful, at the hands of Musāwir, client of the Comma[nder of the Faithful], in Shaʿbān of the year eighty-five. From Damascus to this (milestone) three [and fifty miles].
The second milestone from Fīq in the Golan, found with its companion in 1968 and kept in the Golan Archaeological Museum; it is the larger of the two, an almost complete basalt slab. Its date is complete: Shaʿbān of the year eighty-five, that is, between 8 August and 5 September 704 CE. It marks fifty-three miles from Damascus, one mile beyond its companion (QMI-INS-034a), and names the same official, Musāwir, client of the Commander of the Faithful.
Source: Elad, Amikam. “The Southern Golan in the Early Muslim Period: The Significance of Two Newly Discovered Milestones of ʿAbd al-Malik.” Der Islam 76 (1999): 33–88, at pp. 36–38 (inscription no. 2, Qazrin Museum no. 876313). See also Sharon, Moshe. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, vol. III (Leiden: Brill), “Fīq”, pp. 220–224.