QMI-INS-055al · c. 105–125 AH
Inscription of Bayt Jibrīn: Prayer for Hilāl and the Lord of the House
نقش بيت جبرين: دعاء لهلال ولرب هذا المنزل
Bayt Jibrīn, Palestine, in a cave house
- اللهم اغفر لهلل (لهلال) ولرب هذا المنزل
- ولي [؟] ولمن قرأ هذا الكتب (الكتاب) ثم قال آمين ثم آمين رب العالمين
- ابن ربعية الخثعمية
O God, forgive Hilāl and the lord of this dwelling, and … (?), and whoever reads this writing and then says āmīn, then āmīn, Lord of the Worlds. Ibn Rabʿiyyah al-Khathʿamiyyah.
A prayer cut into the plastered wall of one of the cave houses of Bayt Jibrīn, the ancient Eleutheropolis, in the hills west of Hebron. It asks forgiveness for Hilāl, for “the lord of this dwelling” (rabb hādhā al-manzil), that is, the owner of the house, and for anyone who reads the writing and says āmīn. The writer signs at the end as Ibn Rabʿiyyah al-Khathʿamiyyah. The feminine nisbah appears to belong to the woman named, so that he is known by his mother, a woman of Khathʿam. Two words are written without the long alif, hll for Hilāl and al-ktb for al-kitāb, as often in early texts.
Source: Published on Twitter (X) by Taysīr Khalaf, 8 June 2022, with the caption Naqsh maḥfūr fī aḥad al-manāzil al-kahfiyyah fī Bayt Jibrīn, Filasṭīn (“An inscription carved in one of the cave houses of Bayt Jibrīn, Palestine”). Reading by Ahmed W. Shaker. We have not found the inscription published in the scholarly literature.