TWO IDENTICAL INSCRIPTIONS
FROM JUND FILASTIN FROM THE
REIGN OF THE �ABB�SID CALIPH,
AL-MUQTADIR
BY
AMIKAM ELAD
A. The Inscriptions
A 1. The First Inscription
The inscription belonged to Baron Plato Von Ustinow's collection of Antiquities. The Baron who lived in Jaffa at the end of the 19th century died at the age of 40 in 1913. His large collection was transferred to Norway. Most of it is now kept in the Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Oslo!). Some Arabic and Hebrew inscriptions from this collection were published by Pedersen in 1928, including the inscription under discussion 2). The inscription consists of 11 lines. The upper part has been destroyed so thatthe first lines are missing. The interpretation of lines 1-6 is erroneous and incomprehensible. In lines 7-11, two persons are mentioned, and also the year (299 H.), which led Pedersen to assert that the inscription is from the time of the ?Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir (reigned 295/908-317/932). In his opinion, the inscription originated in Egypt. He identified one of the persons mentioned, Abu 1-Husayn as one of the famous Madhara'i family. He, and other members of the family, held senior administrative posts under the Tulunids and the?Abbasids in Egypt and Syria. Because the first lines were missing 302 and the middle lines were indecipherable, the meaning and content of the inscription were never actually established.
The inscription was republished in the third volume of Repertoire Chronologique de l'epigraphie Arabe, as an inscription from Egypt, with definite improvement in lines 2-3 and 6. But the main body of the
The First Inscription The Second Inscription