QMI-INS-055ka · 119 AH
Inscription of Ward ibn Sālim, al-Naqab
نقش ورد بن سالم
al-Naqab
- اللهم اغفر لورد بن سالم ما تقدم من ذنبه وما تأخر
- واتم نعمتك عليه واهده صرطا مستقيما أمين رب
- العلمين رب موسى وهرون ولمن قرى(!) ولمن قا[ل] آمين كتب في
- سنة تسع عشرة ومئة على خلفة هشام
O Allah, forgive Ward ibn Sālim his earlier and later sins, and complete your grace to him and guide him in the right path (cf. Q 48:2). Āmīn, Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Moses and Aaron; and [forgive] whoever reads [this writing] and says “Āmīn!” It was written in the year one hundred and nineteen during the caliphate of Hishām.
A prayer for forgiveness dated 119 AH (737 CE), in the caliphate of Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. The writer asks God to forgive Ward ibn Sālim his sins and to complete His grace upon him, a phrase that echoes Qurʾān 48:2. The inscription is one of the few dated early Islamic texts recorded from al-Naqab. The reading follows the published text in Sharon’s corpus, which gives the line divisions and the translation used here. The photograph is reproduced from the published plate at low resolution; it has been adjusted for contrast only, without retouching the carved letters.
Source: Sharon, Moshe. Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae, vol. 3: D–F. Handbuch der Orientalistik. Pl. 53.