Inscription On A Bridge In Fustat By The Governor ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Ibn Marwān, 69 AH / 688-89 CE

Islamic Awareness

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First Composed: 12th January 2007

Last Modified:12th January 2007

69 AH / 688-89 CE.

Script

Not known.

Contents

The translation of the inscription is:

This bridge was commissioned by the governor ‘Abd al-‘Azīz ibn Marwān. O God, bless him in his affairs, strengthen his rule as You see fit and cheer him himself and his entourage, amīn. Sa‘d Abu ‘Uthmān undertook the building of it, and ‘Abd al-Rahmān wrote [this] in Safar of the year sixty-nine.

Comments

This inscription was first attested by Maqrīzī (d. 845 AH / 1442 CE). Hoyland says:

The absence of any religious element, not even a Hijri date, make it likely that this inscription has been accurately transmitted.

Location

Fustat, Egypt.

References

[1] Taqi al-dīn Ahmad Ibn ‘Alī Maqrīzī, Kitāb al-mawā‘iz wa-l-i‘tibār bi-dhikr al-khitat wa-l-āthār, 1853, Volume II, Bulaq, p. 146.

[2] Ét. Combe, J. Sauvaget and G. Wiet, Répertoire Chronologique D'Épigraphie Arabe, 1931, Volume I, Imprimerie De L'Institut Français D'Archéologie Orientale: Le Caire, pp. 7-8, No. 8.

[3] R. Hoyland, Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey And Evaluation Of Christian, Jewish And Zoroastrian Writings On Early Islam, 1997, Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam - 13, The Darwin Press, Inc.: Princeton (NJ), p. 694, note 27.

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