QMI-INS-055h · 125 AH
Inscription of Wādī ash-Shuwayṭī
نقش وادي الشويطي
Wādī ash-Shuwayṭī, Ḥarrah (Black Desert), north-eastern Jordan
- اللهم
- اغفر
- لجابر
- بن
- أبي
- الخطاب
- الخرجي
- آمين
- آمين
- رب
- العلمين (العالمين)
- رب
- موسى
- وهرون (وهارون)
- وكتب
- سنة
- مات
- هشام
O God, forgive Jābir ibn Abī al-Khaṭṭāb al-Kharajī. Amen, amen, Lord of the worlds, Lord of Moses and Aaron. And [this] was written in the year Hishām died.
A prayer for forgiveness from the basalt desert of north-eastern Jordan, laid out in an unusual vertical form: each line holds a single word, so that the eighteen words of the text run down the rock as eighteen short lines. The writer, Jābir ibn Abī al-Khaṭṭāb al-Kharajī, asks forgiveness for himself, repeats “Amen” twice, and calls on God as “Lord of the worlds” and “Lord of Moses and Aaron”.
Source: Alhatlani, Abdullah Saad, and Ali Al-Manaser. “The Ḥarrah’s epigraphic heritage: Arabic graffito from the Black Desert in north-eastern Jordan referring to the Umayyad caliph Hishām b. ʿAbd al-Malik.” Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy (published online August 2022).