An Inscription Commemorating The Ḥajj Of The Umayyad Caliph Sulaymān Ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, 97 AH / 715-716 CE

Islamic Awareness

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First Composed: 27th June 2021

Last Modified: 8th July 2021

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Assalamu ʿalaykum wa rahamatullahi wa barakatuhu:

(a)

(b)

Figure (a) photograph of original inscription, and (b) its transcription.

Date

97 AH / 715-716 CE.

Accession Number

Not available.

Size

Not known.

Script

Kufic. This inscription was first brought to notice by the Twitter handle @AB_M_ALBALAWI.

Contents

The translation of the inscription is given below:

  1. O Lord, I testify and believe and know for certain that
  2. there is no god but You. So wrote Muḥammad ibn
  3. Abī Ṭaybah al-Ḥimṣī the year seven and ninety
  4. the Ḥajj of Sulaymān the Commander of the Believers.

Comments

This inscription lies on the Syrian pilgrimage route near al-ʿUla. On the pilgrimage route from Syria, there are two inscriptions dated 91 AH / 710 CE and 100 AH / 718-719 CE that mention the Ḥajj. However, the earliest mention of the Ḥajj comes from an inscription dated 82 AH / 701-702 CE on the Darb Zubayda pilgrimage route and comes close to the time when al-Masjid al-Ḥarām was reconstructed. There is also a papyrus dated 86-99 AH / 705-717 CE which also mentions the Ḥajj and as an exhortation from the amīr al-muʾminīn to the people encouraging its performance.

Location

Al-ʿUla, Saudi Arabia

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References

[1] See the thread here.

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