The North Arabian "Thamudic E" Inscription from Uraynibah West

Abstract

In 1984, a "Thamudic E" inscription was discovered at Uraynibah West, almost 35 km south of Amman in Jordan. It is of exceptional character in regard to its length, content, style, and language. An analogous rhetorical petition to the god ṣa'b and goddess Lot was also discovered at Madaba in 1996, with similar phraseology and content, which offers important parallels to the Uraynibah text (dealt with in an appendix). What is striking about both texts is that they are written completely in an early form of Old or even Classical Arabic. The date is problematic, but because of the Nabataean cultural elements embedded in the texts, we would date them to around the beginning of our era. The provenance and sophistication of these texts in the heartland of Transjordan also argues against the standard ascription of Old North Arabic "Thamudic E" to "nomads" or "Bedouins."