A Sabaic proverb. The Sabaic minuscule inscription Mon.script.sab. 129 Author(s): Peter Stein Source: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 34, Papers from the thirty- seventh meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 17-19 July 2003 (2004), pp. 331-341 Published by: Archaeopress Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223829 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 19:30 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Archaeopress is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.41 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:30:49 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
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A Sabaic proverb. The Sabaic minuscule inscription Mon.script.sab. 129Author(s): Peter SteinSource: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 34, Papers from the thirty-seventh meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, 17-19 July 2003 (2004),pp. 331-341Published by: ArchaeopressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41223829 .
Accessed: 15/06/2014 19:30
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
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Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 34 (2004): 331-341
A Sabaic proverb. The Sabaic minuscule inscription Mon.script.sab. 129
Peter Stein
Introduction
About six months' intensive work on the minuscule in- scriptions on wood in the collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich has already revealed an un- expectedly large number of different aspects of every- day life in ancient South Arabia (see Stein 2003a). Since most of the epigraphic material of this sort pub- lished so far1 deals with rather "dry" business matters, such as the sending of money or vegetables, lists of proper names, etc., documents of a really private char- acter are all the more remarkable. The present research project, therefore, aims at a complete analysis of all the material in the Munich collection, of whatever genre.
Of course, it has to be admitted that such an ap- proach brings with it a number of difficulties, mainly of a lexical nature. The uncertain identification of several (often weak) roots, combined with our ignorance of the semantic and historical background of numerous pas- sages, often makes it impossible to provide a satisfac- tory interpretation of the contents of particular inscrip- tions. Nevertheless, an estimate of the contents can be given in almost every case. Thus, besides the "dry" business documents mentioned above, we find letters offering comfort (e.g. Mon.script.sab. 9: on the health problems of a nursing mother), the announcement of a satisfactory oracular decision {Mon.script.sab. 85), ref- erences to a pilgrimage {Mon.script.sab. 124), to a great fire {Mon.script.sab. 132), to security for a debt {Mon. script.sab. 563), and so on.
The inscription I want to present here is an example of the variety of content we can expect from these texts. Although it is some kind of business document, the let- ter exhibits some features of a vernacular and familiar character, the most striking of which is the quotation of a proverb. Although some details in some passages in the inscription are still obscure, I believe that the main message is clear.
I will first present the whole text, followed by a brief commentary on the main philological peculiarities of
this letter in order to justify the translation I have given. I will then focus on the proverb itself and discuss the role it plays within the context of the inscription.
Mon.script.sab. 129 (Fig. 1)
Description
A palm leafstalk, 14.90 x 2.60 cms Palaeographic style: Ryckmans Ilia (Ryckmans 2001)
6. and also subsequently. Yet you know 7. that they do not charge to your account anything [?]
of the wealth [?] of their ancestors 8. and 9. their lords. Yet you know all (that)! And it 10. is a parable of the (clan) D-GRFM that saying: Ш
one leaves (unpaid) seventy 1 1 . ¿//(-coins), since for paying a demand you have (al-
ready) spent it [seil, the money?]'. 12. So make sure that you send the money with the
(member) of (the clan) D-QDMM! 13. For he came and (reported that) they refused what
you have claimed and said (it) in order to 14. renew (the transaction) for you. And good luck be
with you!
Commentary Line 2: The clan D-GRFM is well attested in inscrip- tions from the Jawf, see CIH 528/2 from Haram as well as several minuscule texts (e.g. cAbdalläh 1986/4,9, YM 11742/lf, Mon.scriptsab. 12/3 (Weninger 2001), and Mon.script.sab. 108/2 (unpublished), Mon.scriptsab. 132/1 (unpublished), Mon.script.sab. 314/1 (unpub- lished), etc.). Thus, we may conclude that D-GRFM played an important role in the Jawf region in Middle Sabaic times. It is worth noting, in passing, that all per- sonal names of the members of this clan mentioned in the inscription, are derived from a single root, TWB. Line 4: An interjection h "behold!" (cf. Arabic ha) is so far unattested in Ancient South Arabian. On the other hand, in view of the common phenomenon of a pro- nominal subject preceding its sentence in the letter for- mula, a scribal error cannot be excluded. Consequently, we would have to reconstruct the passage wh<°> /hnhr "and as for him [seil, the sender], he has complained". Neither of these alternatives can be excluded at present. Lines 4f.: There is a parallel to the sentence which im- mediately follows this, in cAbdalläh 1996/3: w-hnhrt l- э1ЬЬ-кту,2 which, in the past, has been translated in dif- ferent ways, e.g. cAbdalläh renders it wa-tawajjahat bi- °l-ducã°i min °ajli sudurikumã (1996: 22, see also the commentary on p. 25), while Sima prefers "sie hat fur eure Herzen ein Opfer dargebracht", based on Arabic nahara "to slaughter" (2001: 68 and 69).3 Since both passages contain a complaint (namely the addressees' failure to send a letter in cAbdalläh 1996/2f., and a delay of payment in the present document), it seems very unlikely that the verb here means "to sacrifice" (< "to slaughter") and more probable that it is a semantic vari- ant of the same root, meaning "to oppose". A direct par- allel for this interpretation can be found in Modern South Arabian where we find a causative stem šdnháwr
meaning "to complain; to raise a plaint in court" (Johns- tone 1977: 96, and 1987: 292; cf. already Stein 2003я: 132 no. 243 with note 17). The government of hnhr seems to be "to complain to (Z>-) about (ace)" (see be- low). Line 5: The relative pronoun which follows, dt, should introduce a relative clause. Hence, this clause must be understood as the object of the preceding verb. The let- ters lykmhw are best read as a finite form of a verb me- diae y, LYC,4 which can be compared with Arabic lãca (root LYC) "to have tormenting thoughts, be troubled, worried" etc. (cf. WKAS, ii: 1992a), perhaps also LWC "to suffer, make sick (of love)". In the present context, we have to reconstruct a derived verbal stem O2 of tran- sitive meaning as translated above. This means that we have here the first attestation of a verbal form of the second person plural masculine of the suffix conjuga- tion augmented by a pronominal suffix. Note also the defective writing of the vocalic ending -kmw (=*/- kumü/) before the suffix - a phenomenon which corre- sponds exactly to the orthographic rules we can detect in other features of Sabaic grammar (see Stein 2003 b: 43ff). Line 5f.: This formula can be compared with b-qdmy w- °tr dt mtbtn "before and after this decree"5 in RES 3951/6, understanding qdmm and °trm as nouns in the adverbial accusative. The interpolated w-bn-hw (lit. "and from there") finds close parallels in expressions such as °rbcy °qdrm (12) w-bn-h l-lcl "fourtyfold and more than that" in CIH 80/12 (see also CIH 99/8 and Schm Marib24/10f.).6 Line 6: The verbal form clm can be read as a base-stem 0i analogous to Arabic c alima "to know" (in contrast to the form clm "to make acknowledgment" cited in SD p. 15 which has to be interpreted as a derived stem, O2). Line 7: The verb hts]b (Tin-stem) can be compared to Arabic ihtasaba "to take into account". I have translated it as plural because the following nouns (lines 7-9) show a pronominal suffix of the third person plural, which has no other reference in the text. The subjects of the verb may be either the impersonal "they [seil, any people]", or the business partners of the addressees. Hence, the passage could be understood as follows: the addressees as debtors cannot count on the generosity of their creditors, since the latter are not as wealthy as they seem to be. This could be explained in two different ways: either, owing to certain circumstances, the credi- tors were not able, or allowed, to break into the capital inherited from their ancestors in order to balance their own business; or - to my mind more probably - they simply were not as rich as their ancestors and their lords had been.
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The form hny, which is not attested elsewhere, may perhaps be compared with Arabic han, hanah "thing" (Dozy 1881, ii: 767a: "chose en général"; Freytag 1830-1837, iv: 414f.: hanun pro hanawun; hanatun "res"), of which a derivative haní, "any thing", is found in Yemeni Arabic (Piamenta 1990-1 99 Hi: 513).
The reading of the following s3c, however, is not cer- tain because of the size and shape of the second letter. Thus, a reading s3b or s3m can not be completely ex- cluded. A noun s3c is already attested in MAFRAY- Husn Äl Sälih 1/8,10, translated as "quantité" by Robin (1987: 168f). On analogy with Arabic sacah9 it is quite possible that this could be extended to the more specific meaning of "abundance, wealth". My interpretation of this whole passage is deduced from the wider context of the inscription. Line 9: The second sign of kl is obviously written over a scribal mistake. For syntactical reasons, however, the form can hardly be read other than kl "every, all". Line 10: mil may be interpreted here in two slightly different ways: either as an adjective "similar" (SD p. 88: "similar in status to s.o.", cf. Arabic miti), or as a noun parallel to Arabic matal "proverb". In either case, the sense of this passage seems clear. The following sentence is explicitely related to the clan D-GRFM, i.e. the clan of the addressees is said to have a special rela- tion to the following saying.
The word finn is interpreted here, on analogy with Arabic yaw "mouth", as the determined state of the noun hitherto attested only in the construct state, / which is regularly used in the sense "voice, authority" (SD p. 43, s.v. F II). From this, it is not far to a related meaning, "utterance, saying".
The following passage, beginning with negation °l, is parallelled by a formula frequently used in legal texts: w-°l d-slol (or: V slol) PN "And no one may raise a claim against PN" (for examples, see Stein 2003Z>: 152 nos 316-317; 61 no. 71 with note 110).
As for the verb hdg, the common translation (SD p. 59: "to leave, go out of a place") has to be adapted to the financial context of the present inscription and of another from the Munich collection. In Mon.script.sab. 563/5 (unpublished) we read: w- (5) h* pi yhd(gf)n cl-k Dbdm kl «.» dynm k-(l-?)yfwln (6) w-yfdyn °dn-hw "And as for him, he will never leave any debt unpaid to you, for he will certainly come back and pay the (amount) declared by him". It is obvious that hdg in such context means "leave (a debt) unpaid". Line 11: Here we encounter a syntagma which is so far unattested. While it is common in Sabaic to place the enclitic particle -m(w)1 after the preposition b- (e.g. w-b- mw hwt wrhn "and in the very same month", in Ry
538/27),8 a similar construction with the preposition /- has not yet been found in the monumental inscriptions.9 For syntactical reasons, l-m with a following infinitive can only be interpreted as a preposition, augmented by the enclitic -m. We find the same construction in lines 13f. of our text (l-m hhdtn "in order to renew") as well as in another piece in the Munich collection, Mon.script.sab. 219/6,7 (unpublished). The separation of the augmented preposition from the following word by a word divider is already known from the preposition b- (see the example above), while contracted forms (e.g. b-m-hwt hrfn NNAG 15/12 "in the very same year") are rather rare (Stein 2003&: 229). We may deduce from the contrastive pair b-hwt ywmn "on that day" <-> b-mw hwt ywmn "on the very same day", that the enclitic -mw has a meaning "only, just", which fits the present context perfectly. The preceding conjunction k- (cf. Hebrew kî) has the meaning "because" as in such passages as RES 4176/6,910 and probably also in J 651/36, YM 440/7, Gl 1574/12' etc.11 as well as YM 10703/3.12
The following infinitive of the Tin stem can be inter- preted as a passive stem of the verb fdy 0x (?),13 "pay money, redeem a debt, redeem, release from obliga- tions" (SD p. 43). Thus, the literal translation of the pas- sage would be "in order that a demand will be paid".
The construction of whbkm(w)-hw "you have spent" is not completely clear. Since the pronominal suffix -hw must refer to the object of the action expressed by the verb, it must refer to a more general, masculine, noun (perhaps wrq "money", cf. line 12) rather than to the "seventy bit" specified, since the latter noun is feminine. Line 12: The introduction of an imperative by/-, a con- struction hardly known in monumental inscriptions,14 occurs also in Mon.script.sab. 38/4 (unpublished) and may be explained as an elliptical construction of the common epistolary formula w-Dntf-s3hln "As for you, so take care for (...)!" (YM 1 1742/2) and the like. Since the meaning of the sentence is clear, thanks to the explicit character of the verbal form, the subject, which would normally be placed at the beginning of a clause of the type w-VORANGESTELLTES SUBJEKTE-VERB- FORM (see Nebes 1995: 22-32, and 27 If), may easily be dropped.
A verb °rh is so far attested only in Minaic ("ordon- ner, prescrire", Arbach 1993: 7) and Qatabanic ("to in- struct; to order, command", Ricks 1989: 14f). The trans- lations so far proposed do not, however, completely fit the context of the present inscription. My proposal fol- lows the translation "accomplir" (i.e., "to execute, com- plete") given by Bron (1998: 39) for Ma<Tn 1/3 (= RES 2774/3).15 The relative clause which follows must be the object of the preceding imperative. Thus, the whole
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phrase may be translated literally, "So accomplish what you have to do (in order to) send (in respect of) money!".
The verb fiiw, so far attested only in the H-stem with the meaning "expédier, envoyer" (Ryckmans, Müller & Abdallah 1994: 64), can probably be interpreted as a 02- stem "to send" analogous to Ethiopie fannawa. Line 12f.: d-qdmm may be understood either as repre- sentating a single member of the clan who would have been well-known to both the sender and the address- ees,16 or as a noun "first, previous". The latter interpretation would produce a translation: "(together) with the (money) of previous (claims)". The syntactical relations of the following sentence, however, support the first proposal (as in the translation above). The clan (D-)QDMM may well be the one to which the business partners of the addressees belonged. Line 13: For mr "to pass", cf. Arabic marra and SD p. 87 s.v. *MRR: "occur". The interpretation of krh follows Arabic kariha "to feel disgust; to dislike".
Finally, a noun bhl "speech, oracle" has already been found in the Hadramitic inscription AM 245/4 (Höfher 1977). Moreover, the root is used as an element in per- sonal names (see Hayajneh 1998: 288). The relevant verbal form can easily be ascertained on the basis of Ethiopie bdhla "say, speak".17
A proverb within a business letter
The contents of the letter
The letter presented above duns the addressees to fulfill an outstanding financial demand. We may imagine that this situation arose from circumstances such as the fol- lowing. The addressees, members of the clan D-GRFM, had initiated a transaction with members of another clan, apparently called (D-)QDMM (line 12f.). For rea- sons unknown to us, the deal did not have the satisfac- tory result which the addressees expected. They there- fore made a request to renew the transaction, probably under changed conditions (line 13f). Their business partners, however, were not willing to change the con- tract, but instead insisted on the payment to which they were entitled. The sender of our letter, being in touch with the creditors, now admonishes his relatives to ful- fill their obligations (line 12) after they had delayed payment for a long time (line 5f.).
The proverb as a means of dunning
The most interesting feature in this connection is the
literal quotation of an utterance, which is called both a "saying" (fin) and a "parable" or "proverb" (mil), in lines 10-12:
4 d-hdg s]bcy bltm k-l-mftdyn sl3lm whbkm-hw "No one leaves (unpaid) seventy ¿//(-coins), since for paying a demand you have (already) spent it [seil, the money?]".
As mentioned above, the syntactical construction of this sentence is also found in a well-known formula in Sa- baic legal texts. Moreover, proverbs of the type: "there is no one who ..." are commonplace in Yemeni Arabic, where we find many sayings like the following:18
ma hadd biysallï Ч1Ш wa-rajl magfirah 19
"No one prays unless expecting forgiveness".
The structural similarity between this and the Sabaic proverb is obvious, I think. However, claiming an inter- nal South Arabian continuity of such expressions would be too far reaching a conclusion since similar proverbs are found in the Arabic dialects of other regions as well.20
At the centre of the proverb are the "seventy blt(- coins)" föby bltm) in lines lOf. When we consider the passage as a proverb, two questions arise immediately: firstly, how much money do seventy bit represent? and secondly, why seventy, rather than fifty or a hundred bit? While we can trace the term bit, singular bltt, back to Greek naXkàq, plural naXkaosq, and thus compare the coins with Athenian tetradrachms (see Irvine 1964: 22f, and more recently Ryckmans, Müller & Abdallah 1994: 63),21 their actual value within South Arabia remains uncertain. To estimate the value of the sum mentioned, we have to look for comparative material in the Sabaic inscriptions.22 For this purpose, I have collected all the epigraphic evidence known so far for the coin called bit. This evidence can be divided into four main semantic fields: 1. the value of dedicatory objects (example 1), 2. the amount of penalty fines (examples 2-A), 3. fees for goods and services (examples 5-8), and 4. an unspecific occurrence in the context of financial transactions (ex- ample 9).23
1. RES 4191+J 624/6 records the dedication of a statuette made of silver, the value of which is four hundred bit (slmn (6) d-srfn d-mdlt °[r]bc m°nm bltm). We find the expression "good (coins)" (rdy),24 rather than the explicit term bit, in similar contexts in J 572/4 (three hundred "good" coins), J 609/5f. (one thousand four hun-
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dred "good" coins), and J 608/6 (two thousand "good" coins).
2. Whosoever brings any small cattle to a cistern reserved for the goddess NWS2M will be pun- ished by a fine of five bit (w-d-y&yn b-hw qnfymj (13) ... (14) l-yhnkrn hms1 bltm, Rob Mas 1/14). Cf. hms1 rdym in СШ 380/6, in similar context, but without explicitely mentioning bit.
3. Similarly, whosoever can be proved to have used an area reserved for the god T°LB as pasture ground will be fined fifty 'good' bit (w-mn-my d-l-hw yhyqnn k-ťy h (10>> wt mhgrn f-l ytnkrn l-f (ll) Ib w-s2cbn hmsy bltm d-rdy (12) m, MAFRAY- al-cAdan 10+11+12/11).
4. Moreover, whosoever commits a sacrilege within a certain temple of Dt-BCDNM will pay a penalty of twenty bit (w-mn d-yftqwn w-hrf b-y ̂12) s*t mhrmn ... (13) ... w-lyfdbn cs2ry bl (l4) [tm ... ], N 74/1 3f). In addition to these examples, we find parallels in which bit is omitted and where the complement kfly is used instead of rdy, such as CIH 548/5-7 (ten and five hyly respectively).
5. According to CIH 73/3, one "good" bit in bronze is equated with a tmn (a unit of measurement) of wheat (kw (8) n тут tmn brm d-dhb (9) n b-blttm rdym, for the interpretation see Sima 2000: 200).
6. If MAFY-Hamir 6/3 has been restored correctly, the charge (?) for the use of a burial place was fifteen bit (/"... Jhwt mqbrn l-yhbn hms1 cs2r-hw bltm, see Stein 2003a: 103, note 446).
7. In YMN 19/3 f., a woman pays the sum of one thousand bit to her two husbands and her sons (w-rďt bcly-h ^ s2rhm w-s2cbm w-bny-h bny gldn °lfm bltm) in order to obtain release from the marriage bond (for this interpretation see Bee- ston 1997).
8. Furthermore, the coins which are simply called rdym "good" in Schm Mãrib 24/10,12 should be interpreted as bit (see note 24). This text pre- scribes a fee of at least twenty "good" coins for any enquiry made to the oracle in the temple HRWNM in Mãrib (f (8) I] hs4 >hd mhltn [b- (9)
9. Finally, as items in financial transactions, various amounts of bit are found in legal documents: two (Mon.script.sab 46/1 and YM 11743/1), thirty (F 30/3f.), two hundred (F 30bis3), four hundred (Gl 15332f.), one thousand (CIH 376/3f.), and two thousand eight hundred bit coins (Gar AY 6/2).25
Summing up, we can say that none of the quoted exam-
ples provides reliable evidence for estimating the value of one, or even seventy, ¿//-coins. As we have seen, there is no reliable information on the actual value of the goods or the size of the measures mentioned in the inscriptions concerned. Unfortunately, despite the con- siderable amount of evidence, we are not at present able to reconstruct the real value of the coins named bit.26
Equally, no evidence for the special importance of the number seventy can be deduced from the inscrip- tions. However, from the data presented above, we can work out the following comparisons: the value of sev- enty ¿//-coins is much less than that of a silver statuette dedicated in a temple, but is more than that of the aver- age fine imposed on someone who committed an act of sacrilege against divine property. Looking at the size of the sums transferred in financial transactions, we may conclude that, in business terms, the "seventy blf in question represent a rather average amount of capital - not a fortune, but also not a bagatelle. Hence, the sig- nificance of the number seventy should not be sought in symbolism, but elsewhere. It is even possible that "sev- enty blf actually represented the amount of the debt our letter speaks about, which is, by the way, not mentioned elsewhere in the text. In this case, we would have to assume that the proverb itself did not refer to a specific amount of money but could be adapted to suit any indi- vidual situation.
Another remarkable feature of our proverb is its ex- plicit connection with the clan of the debtors, D-GRFM (line 10, mil d-grfm). The use of the second person plu- ral in this context (lines 1 If.) makes it clear that the proverb is said about the mentioned clan. In other words, the clan D-GRFM in general is said to be well- known for its prompt payment in full of its financial obligations, and its reliability in this respect has even become proverbial. The addressees of our letter, how- ever, do not seem to have behaved in accordance with the reputation of their clan. As we have demonstrated above, they failed to pay an outstanding debt in time. The sender of the letter, apparently a member of the same clan, is concerned about its reputation. Having apparently already sent several dunning letters in vain, he now appeals to the conscience of the debtors by us- ing a proverb to shame them into fulfilling their obliga- tions.
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Helga Rebhan of the Orientabteilung of the Bayerische Staats- bibliothek in Munich for her constant and kind support
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during my visits to Munich. The present research pro- ject owes a great deal to her help. The photographs in this paper are courtesy of the Bayerische Staatsbiblio- thek, München.
Notes
1 For the references for the minuscule inscriptions published so far, see Stein 2003a and note 10. From the photograph pubished m cAbdallãh 1996 it is impossible to determine whether the reading of the preposition /- is correct or whether it should be read b-. In the present text, however, the reading b- is certain.
3 See also UsHnhrn in YM 11738/2, translated "im- mole" by the editors (Ryckmans, Müller & Abdallah 1994: 65). The derivation from a root CKM (cf. ckmw "ils ont entouré" in Bahã3 l/3f, Gajda, Arbach & Bron 1998) is much less convincing, mainly because of the syntactical problems caused by a proclitic parti- cle /- (precative/affirmative?). 5 This is the translation of Müller (1983: 272). 6 This interpretation of these words is much more likely than the, theoretically possible, "QDMM and his son DTRM".
7 The defective form of the enclitic -m occurs (before the word divider!) until the end of the first century AD only, the plene -mw is used after this period (see. Stein 20036: 228f.). 8 For further examples and the semantic interpretation, see Stein (2003Ò: 228ff.). Note the word divider be- tween the preposition (with enclitic) and the follow- ing word!
9 In view of the background outlined above, I never- theless feel urged to interpret at least one example in that way. J 643/8 [w-blt(?)]w b-cbr krb°l byn klm sHmm mz°w w-thb-hmw кгЬэ1 [byn w- ̂ msr-hwj nkfm can easily be translated "[and] they (seil, the Hadramis) [sent] to KRBDL BYN (a message) that they had come only for peace(ful reasons), but KRBDL [BYN and his troops] returned to them a re- jection". The earlier interpretation by Beeston, "but they [sent] to K(RBDL) B(YN) a reassurance of peaceful intentions. K(RBDL) [B(YN) and his troops] proceeded to return in answer a refusal" (1985: 1 lOff.) is not convincing because of its semantic dif- ficulties (the relation between the two quite different verbs m?D and thb) and syntactical problems (Bee- ston needs to add a w- before mzDw, which is not
found in the text as edited). Another example, CIH 546/7, may also be susceptible to such an interpreta- tion, I believe. Thus, the lemma klm "word, speech" etc. in SD d. 77 can be deleted.
10 k-hrmw "because they were prohibited". Müller's translation of the phrase in its full context is as fol- lows, "Und TaDlab hat den Anwohnern von (Wild)reservaten (...) verboten, eine Herde hinaus- zuführen, die Schaden anrichten würde, da (jene Plätze) unverletzlich sind" (1997: 93). 11 w-hmdw mqm Hmqh k-hl-hmw "and they thanked the power of 3LMQH because he saved them".
12 In this penitential inscription, the conjunction k- replaces the Harami conjunction (b-)hn "because" (see SD p. 56) commonly used in texts of this genre. 13 An infinitive form of this verb has not yet been at- tested.
14 The coordination of main clauses by/- , though rare in Sabaic, is not entirely unknown. See the evidence listed by Nebes (1995: 53-60). The examples con- taining precative forms (VORHERGEHENDER SATZ-f-l-yfln, ibid. pp. 58f.) may be compared se- mantically with the imperative in our present phrase. 15 Similarly Bauer & Lundin (1998:1 1 1) for Bauer 5/4 = Gr 303/4.
16 Parallels for such a practice (citing the clan name instead of a single individual) can be found in Ab- dallah 1994/3, 5, 6 and Mon.script.sab. 77/2 (unpub- lished). For the Arabic evidence, see al-Selwi 1987: 46f.
18 Al-Akwac 1984: no. 4198. The proverbs in question are quoted as nos 4198^252 (pp. 997-1007). 19 In Classical Arabic this would be lã yujadu °ahadun yus all! Hllã wa-huwa yarju mina °llãhi Dl-magfirata (cited after al-Akwac 1984: 997). 20 See for example cAbbüd, Thilo & Kampfftneyer 1933: 187, nos 3979-3986. In no. 3980, we find the exact Palestinian equivalent of the Yemeni saying quoted above, mã hdã biysallJ Hllã wa-byutlubi l- gufrãn. 21 See also the overview by Robin, with some exam- ples (1996: 1199-1203). Some different interpreta- tions are summarized by Bron & Lemaire 1995: 54f.
22 The other Ancient South Arabian languages do not provide any reliable evidence for the word bit (the fragmentary f ... J b' sJ blt'f ... J in Minaic Shaqab 13/2 (see Gnoli 1993:29f. and 88) is too vague to al- low anv conclusion about the coin in Questioni. A survey, augmented by observations on provenance and date of the inscriptions concerned, which all be- long to the Middle Sabaic period, is provided by Bron & Lemaire (1995: 53f).
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24 The fact that terms like rdy, hy°ly, etc. all refer to the coins named bit, and thus can be considered equiva- lent to the latter, is clearly evident from passages where the terms are in apposition, e.g. °l (4) fin bltm mscm hvHvtm fCIH 376/3 f.. see alreadv Irvine 1964).
25 Other mentions of bit, in unspecific or fragmentary contexts, are Gl 1200/7, Gl 1361/2, Ghul-Märib 2/5, RES 4765/3', and RES 4772/4.
26 The same conclusion has already been drawn by Bron & Lemaire (1995: 54).
Sigla
AM 245 Inscription in Höfner 1 977. Bahã° 1 Inscription in Gajda, Arbach & Bron
1998. Bauer 5 Inscription in Bauer & Lundin 1УУо:
111. CIH Inscriptions in Corpus Inscriptionum
Semiticarum. Pars IV. Inscriptiones Himyariticas et Sabaeas continens. Paris: Reipublicae Typographeo, 1889-1932.
F Inscription in Fakhry 1952. Gar AY 6 Inscription on pp. 539f. of Garbini
1970. Ghul-Märib Inscription on pp. 7 1 f. of Bron 1 992. Gl 1200 Inscription on pp. 12f. of Höfher
1981. Gl 1361 Inscription on pp. 36ff. of Sola Sole
1964.
Gl 1533 Inscription on pp. 29-35 of Höfner 1973.
Gl 1574 Inscription on pp. 43-52 of Höfher 1973.
Gr 303 Inscription on p. Ill of Bauer & Lundin 1998.
J 572, 608, 609, Inscriptions in Jamme 1962. 624,651 MAFRAY-al- Inscription in Robin 1 985. cAdan 10+11+12 MAFRAY-Husn Inscription on pp. 167-169 of Robin Al Caliti 1987. MAFY-Hamir Inscriptions in Robin 1977. Ma^n Inscriptions in Bron 1998. Mon.script.sab. Siglum of the inscribed sticks in the
collection of the Bayerische Staatsbib- liothek, Munich.
N Inscriptions in Namï 1 943 . NNAG 1 5 Inscription in Namï 1961. RES Inscriptions in Répertoire ďépigraphie
Schm Märib 24 Inscription in Müller 1 986. SD Beestonetfö/. 1982. Shaqab 13 Inscription on pp. 88f. of Gnoli 1993. WKAS Ullmann M. 1 970-. Y M biglum oí items in trie collection or
the National Museum of SancäD. YMN 1 9 Inscription in c Abdallah 1 990.
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Author's address Peter Stein, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Institut fur Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, Löbder- graben 24a, D-07743 Jena, Germany. e-mail [email protected]
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