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ARBACH, M. — Les Noms Propres Du Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum

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ARBACH, M. — Les Noms Propres Du Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum 177 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — ZUID-SEMITISCH 178 a list of clan names and gentilicia; on 455, the names of tribes and ethnic groups; on 455-456 toponyms; on 457-458 the names of constructions (buildings, canals, dikes, graves, cisterns, etc.); on 458 names of palmtree gardens; on 458- 459 names of gods and their epithets; 459-461 names of rulers; 461 names of months; and finally (461) names attested in monograms. ZUID-SEMITISCH Together with the Beleg-Wörterbuch zum CIH1) published in 1980 by Maria Höfner e.a., the book by Arbach represents undoubtedly one of the most important keys to the ARBACH, M. — Les noms propres du Corpus Inscriptionum CIH inscriptions. His book is an extremely important tool for the Semiticarum, Pars IV, Inscriptiones Îimyariticas et onomastics of almost a thousand South Arabian inscriptions. Sabaeas Continens. (IIS 7). Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Paris, 2002. (23 cm, 463). ISBN 2-87754- Leiden University, Harry STROOMER 126-6. October 2004 The Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Pars IV, Inscrip- ** Î , begun in 1889 and tiones imyariticas et Sabaeas Continens * finished in 1932, is still one of the pivotal collections in the field of South Arabian Epigraphy, containing the texts, the NAYEEM, Muhammed Abdul — Origin of Ancient Writing transcriptions, the translations and commentaries of 986 in Arabia and New Scripts from Oman. An Introduction inscriptions, representing all types of Sabaean (from the to South Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography. Hyder- eighth century B.C. until the fourth century A.D.), Raydan- abad Publishers, Hyderabad, 2001 (24 cm, XIX, 186). ite (from the first to the third century A.D.) and Îimyaritic ISBN 81-85492-09-3. £25/$35. (from the fourth to the sixth century A.D.) inscriptions. One finds this work cited as CIH or C in almost every article on Dr Nayeem is well known for his monumental publication South Arabian epigraphy. The Rock Art of Arabia — Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, the The author of the book under review has undertaken the Emirates and the Yemen (2000), the first comprehensive arduous task to list and analyze exhaustively all proper names study on the rock art of the entire Arabian Peninsula. In the found in this important collection, i.e. personal names, epi- book under review the author devotes his attention to intri- thets of persons, names of clans and tribes, names of build- cate questions related to the origin of the various forms of ings and constructions, names of fields and properties, names writing that existed in pre-Islamic Arabia. Where the major- of gods and their epithets. And he accomplished this task very ity of scholars think that writing has migrated into Arabia, well indeed. the present author takes a different stand and proposes to look In his introduction the author gives precise information seriously at the possibility of the origin of writing in Arabia about his methods of transliteration (11), about the CIH itself itself. As the title indicates, the volume under review is (11-13), about the ordering of the proper names (13-14), divided into two independent parts. about the contexts (15), and about his lists of proper names arranged according to category (15). Part One (1-104): Ancient Arabian Scripts: Immediately after the introduction there is a section In the chapter (1-8) N. underlines the relation between “Concordance et Bibliographie des Inscriptions du ” first CIH petroglyphs and alphabet: “The rock drawings of Arabia (23-88). This section is extremely useful, because here the which date to the Epi-Palaeolithic period 10,000-6,000 B.C, author lists the relevant literature for each individual CIH depicting human and animal figures in various forms and inscription. In this way he makes it easy for the student to walks of life are engraved writing, communicating the cul- retrieve the articles containing the corrected readings and ture of the ancient people” (1). While classifying South corrected interpretations of inscriptions, an activity that CIH Semitic scripts into three main groups: North Arabian, South used to be time consuming. Arabian and Ethiopic the author seems to be unnecessarily From 89-92 there is a list of place-names where the CIH cautious about the origin of Ethiopic writing in South Arabia inscriptions have been found or excavated. This list is impor- (“while the Ethiopic might have derived from either the tant for everyone interested in dialect features in these South or the North Arabian, cursive writing” (5)). He ends inscriptions. This list is followed (93-113) by a bibliography. the first chapter with the statement: “That is, the origin of The central part of the book is the section “Les noms pro- Arabic/Arabian scripts have to be shown to have evolved pres du ” (115-436). Note that the author does not clas- CIH independently within Arabia” (8). sify the proper names under the morphological root, but In the chapter N. presents arguments and evidence under the first letter of the actual form in which they appear second for the independent origin of writing in Arabia. He studies the in the texts. So the name is listed under the , rather mrtdm m earliest precursors of writing which includes, according to the than under the root as Semitists might expect. In the case rtd author's view, all forms of rock art, tribal signs or symbols of homographs the proper names are listed in the order: names of persons, names of clans, names of tribes, etc. With each proper name the author not only gives the number of 1) Maria Höfner (e.a), Beleg-Wörterbuch zum Corpus Inscriptionum the CIH inscription, he gives the full context as well, which Semiticarum, Pars IV, Inscriptiones Ìimyariticas et Sabaeas Continens is extremely useful. (CIH) (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-his- An analysis of personal names according to morphologi- torische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte, 363. Band; Veröffentlichungen der ara- bischen Kommission, Band 2), Wien (Verlag der Österreichischen cal patterns is given in a list on 437-453. On 453-455, we see Akademie der Wissenschaften), 1980. 179 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXII N° 1-2, januari-april 2005 180 (wusum) and the inscribed signs on objects such as pottery nor migrated from North to the South or vice versa, but it sherds, arrow heads etc. originated independently at two centers, North and South. Of In the third chapter the Bedouin tribal signs are studied course, later on, there was mingling, resulting in some resem- that originated from body marks of animals and date back “to blances or common features.” the Neolithic period in Saudi Arabia” (18). The German scholar Enno Littmann was one of the first to point out the Part Two: New Scripts from Oman. similarity of wusum to the letters of the South Arabic alpha- While the first part of the book is based on languages and bet and suggested that there must be a link between them. inscriptions more or less known to us, part two of N.'s book Nayeem is sure that tribal signs precede the Arabian script embarks on an hitherto unknown epigraphy: “New scripts of and the alphabet and must therefore be seen as intermediary Dhofar” (chapter eight). N. proposes the label Sa'kalhanic in the development of Arabia's Semitic alphabet and scripts for these epigraphic documents, since this is the ancient name (32). “Thus, the wusum tend to establish a relationship for Dhofar in the inscription Jamme 892. These epigraphic between the rock art and ancient Arabian scripts” (34). documents were brought to light for the first time in 1989 by The fourth chapter treats the various designations for the cAli AÌmad MaÌash al-ShaÌri from Dhofar, who published Ancient Arabian dialects and writing systems, as given by a book about them in 1994. Archeologist-South Semitist Pro- scholars in this field. The author's suggestion to use words fessor Geraldine M.H. King (Oxford) recorded approximately ending in -ic, such as Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, Thamudic, 800 inscriptions during her expedition in 1992-1993 and pre- Safaitic, as language labels, and Sabaean, Minaean, Qata- sented an analysis of two types of writing systems in an banian etc. as labels of the respective cultures is a practical unpublished work of almost 500 pages. She was unable to one. Nayeem is probably right in calling Beeston's label establish the actual phonemic values of the individual carac- ∑ayhadic a misnomer, since the South Arabian culture cov- ters. According to Professor Michael Macdonald “the script ers a much wider territory than the rim of the ∑ayhad desert is clearly related to that of the Ancient South Arabian mus- area in Yemen. nad inscriptions (…), but it is sufficiently different to render In the fifth chapter the linguistic variety of pre-Islamic Ara- the text unintelligible at present” (111). bia is discussed. Two groups are distinguished: Ancient The author, who used the work of Geraldine King, thinks North Arabian and Ancient South Arabian. N. discusses the that it is not appropriate to compare the cursive letters of the origin and the formal differences of the letters of these two Dhofar inscriptions with those of the standardized forms of groups (49-54) and pays attention to the inscriptions con- the monumental South Arabian letters, as has been done by taining alphabets, found in various epigraphic King. N. approached the problem differently by comparing languages/dialects (54-66), the interaction of dialects (66-69) all letters with their counterparts in North Arabian and South and chronology, based on new epigraphical evidence dated Arabian cursive scripts and claims to have deciphered them to the second millennium B.C. (69-74). in the process. He concludes: “Comparative study of the two In pre-Islamic Arabia cursive and monumental types of scripts reveals that they (i.e.
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