QMI-INS-037b · 1st c. AH
Inscription of ʿAṭāʾ ibn Mīnāʾ, Tabūk
نقش عطاء بن ميناء، تبوك
Tabūk region
- اللهم اغفر لمحمد
- النبي ولعطاء بن مينا (ميناء)
- آمين
O God, forgive Muḥammad the Prophet, and ʿAṭāʾ ibn Mīnāʾ. Amen.
A three-line prayer from the Tabūk region, cut in broad strokes beneath a carved motif. It asks forgiveness first for “Muḥammad the Prophet” and then for ʿAṭāʾ ibn Mīnāʾ, and closes with “Amen”. A prayer of forgiveness for the Prophet himself, placed before the writer’s own name, is rare in the catalog; elsewhere the Prophet is the object of blessing (ṣalāh) and of hope for his intercession, as in the prayer of Bakr ibn Abī Bakrah, 80 AH (QMI-INS-023). The name Mīnāʾ is written without its final hamzah, as is usual in the period.
Source: Photograph by Saʿd ibn Muḥammad al-Tuwayjirī (@OfNajd), published on X. Biography: al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, s.v. ʿAṭāʾ ibn Mīnāʾ; Ibn Ḥajar, Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb; Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Thiqāt and Mashāhīr ʿulamāʾ al-amṣār; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām (ṭabaqah 91–100 AH).