QMI-INS-072 · c. 2nd c. AH
Inscription of Bakr ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Azhar, Jibāl ʿAlqān
نقش بكر بن جعفر بن عبد الله بن عبد الرحمن بن أزهر، جبال علقان
Jibāl ʿAlqān, NEOM, Tabūk region, Saudi Arabia
- أنا بكر بن جعفر بن عبد الله بن عبد الر
- حمن بن أزهر أوصي بتقوا (بتقوى) الله وحسن
- مرفقة (مرافقة) الأصحب (الأصحاب)
I am Bakr ibn Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbdallāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ra- ḥmān ibn Azhar. I enjoin the fear of God and good companionship with one’s companions.
Bakr opens with his name and four generations of his descent, and then gives an exhortation: “I enjoin the fear of God and good companionship with one’s companions”. The counsel suits a traveller’s text: it is addressed to those who journey together. The formula ūṣī bi-, “I enjoin”, is the one used in the inscription of Ḥanẓalah (QMI-INS-000) and in that of ʿAmr ibn Ḥakīm of 83 AH (QMI-INS-032a).
Photograph: published by ʿAbd al-Ilāh al-Fāris, 16 September 2021. Reading: Ahmed W. Shaker (QMI).