Safaitisch

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Safaitisch

Spoken in

Ancient North Arabia
speaker (extinct)
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in (extinct)
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

sem (other Semitic languages)

ISO 639-3

xna

Safaitisch is the name of an old North Arabic dialect that was passed down through inscriptions in South Semitic script . The inscriptions were created by Bedouin and semi-nomadic residents of the Syrian desert . The inscriptions are dated to the period between the 1st century BC. And the 4th century AD The Safaitic dialect was erased from the 7th century AD by the classical Arabic .

distribution

Safaitic inscriptions are named for the area where they were first rediscovered in 1857: Es-Safa , an area of ​​the basalt desert southeast of Damascus in Syria . Since then there have been other extensive finds in southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northwestern Saudi Arabia . There were also isolated finds in Palmyra in Syria, in Lebanon , in Wadi Hauran in western Iraq and in Ha'il in northern Saudi Arabia. The greatest distribution was apparently in the Hauran region, to which a black basalt desert belongs, which extends from Jebel ad-Duruz in the northwest over Jordan to Saudi Arabia. Approximately 30,000 inscriptions have been discovered, although some hundreds or thousands will certainly go undiscovered due to the remoteness and inhospitable environment in which most of the inscriptions were found. Typically, the inscriptions were found on rocks or rubble in the desert or on the stones of barrows. In many cases it is unclear whether the inscriptions on the graves were placed before or after the construction of the tombs.

Language and writing

Safaitisch is a branch of the early South Central Semitic language, Early North Arabic . Within the Arabic language family there are a number of dialects which use the h- instead of the 'al for the definite article; this includes: Safaitic, Dedanitic , Lihyanitic , Thamudic and Hasaitic . The Safaite alphabet contains 28 letters. Three different alphabets have survived, but they are all arranged differently, which suggests that the script was learned only incidentally and not taught systematically.

Several different fonts have been classified, including Safaitic, Square Safaitic, and South Safaitic. The inscriptions were scratched, usually in regular grooves, but sometimes in a zigzag technique, and occasionally they were hacked out in dots. The inscriptions were often written bustrophedon : the direction of writing was from left to right (or vice versa), changing in the following line, etc.

content

Most of the Saifatian inscriptions were self-applied texts ( graffiti ) and dealt with the writer's current concerns - the availability of food for his herd of camels, mourning for recently deceased relatives, or simply a list of the ancestor and the determination of who put the inscription . Others describe raids, praying for large booty, or describing religious rites. A few inscriptions by female authors are known. The inscriptions were partially accompanied by rock paintings depicting hunting scenes or battles, camels and horses and their riders, scenes in the Bedouin camp, or occasionally female figures.

Tools

Aside from the inscriptions and rock paintings that are left behind, very little is known of the tool-making art of the Saifat people. Several factors play a role: there was little need for tools in Bedouin life, and the sedentary lifestyle meant that very little was preserved for archaeological research. The conditions for successful preservation of objects were not good. The lives of the Saifat people have been poorly explored and few excavations have been made.

literature

  • Geraldine King: The Basalt Desert Rescue Survey and some preliminary remarks on the Safaitic inscriptions and rock drawings . In: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies , 20, 1990, pp. 55-78.
  • MCA Macdonald: Inscriptions, Safaitic . In: The Anchor Bible Dictionary , Vol. 3, 1992.
  • MCA Macdonald: Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia. In: Arabian Archeology and Epigraphy , 11, 2000, pp. 28-79.
  • WG Oxtoby: Some Inscriptions of the Safaitic Bedouin. American Oriental Society, Oriental Series 50. New Haven CT 1968.
  • FV Winnett; GL Harding: Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. Toronto 1978.
  • Ali Yunes Khalid Al-Manaser: A corpus of new Safaite inscriptions from Jordan . In: Semitica et Semitohamitica Berolinensia , 10. Shaker Verlag 2008, ISBN 3-8322-7595-9
  • Mohammad I. Ababneh: New Safaite inscriptions and their pictorial representations . In: Semitica et Semitohamitica Berolinensia , 6. Shaker Verlag , 2005, ISBN 3-8322-4702-5

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