QMI-INS-050i · Last decade of the 1st c. AH (c. 90–99)
Inscription of ʿAdwān ibn Sammāk, Cnidus
نقش عدوان بن سماك، قندوز
Cnidus (Knidos), south-western Turkey; marble pavement of the nave of the Byzantine church (5th–6th c.), near the choir
- ترحم ربي
- عدوان / غزوان ا
- بن (كذا) سماك
- النجل قرأه (؟)
May my Lord have mercy on ʿAdwān ibn Sammāk / Simāk … who read it (?)
A prayer for mercy for ʿAdwān ibn Sammāk (or Simāk) on the pavement of the church at Cnidus. Imbert notes that ʿAdwān, though rare, is attested in an Umayyad-period graffito from Jordan; Ghazwān or similar names are also possible.
Source: Imbert, Frédéric. “Graffiti arabes de Cnide et de Kos : premières traces épigraphiques de la conquête musulmane en mer Égée.” In Constructing the Seventh Century, ed. Constantin Zuckerman, Travaux et Mémoires 17 (Paris, 2013), 731–758, 741–744, graffito C6, photo 6, fig. 6.