Journal of Smite Srdie Xi WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA. MoHamMen MARAQTEN PHILIPPS UNIVERSTTAT MARBURG From the second half of the nineteenth century thousands of South Arabian and other early Arabian inscriptions have been found all over Arabia, most of them written on stone, but some on bronze or other materials. The widespread use of stone for writing is character- istic of pre-Islamic inscriptions and gives the impression that the South and the North Arabs wrote only on these materials: however, the discovery of wood-sticks in the Yemen in recent years has focused our attention not only on the script in which they were written, but also on the materials upon which they are inscribed. This discovery has made it necessary to investigate the writing materials in pred lamic Arabi Archaeological and epigraphical discoveries have provided us with good information about the writing materials which were used by the North and the South Arabs. This supplements references to the same subject in Arab authors, in books of hadith,! in the Qur’an,? in commentaries on the Qur'an and in the South Arabian inscriptions. In these sources many terms are attested for these materials which were used by the Arabs before Islam. This paper will analyse this data, give a general view of the relation of writing to the writing materials and discuss some North and South Arabic terms referring to written materials. "This article is a slighty revised version ofa paper delivered at the Seminar for ‘Arabian Studies in London 1993. I wish to express my thanks to Professor W. W. Miller for eading the daft ofthis rile, See: A.J. Wensinck, Concordance et indi- ces de la tradition musulmane: Les Six Livres, le musmad dal-Dérimi, le Muwatt’ de Milit, le musnad de Almad lon Henbat (Leiden 1936-88); A. 1. Hebbo, Die Fromdwérer in der arabischen Prophetenbiegraphie des Ion Hischam (gest. 218/834) (Heidelberg 1970) 2 Jalil al-Din al-Suyay, Kis al-teqdn fi ‘ulm al-Qur‘an, 2 vols, ed. Mubam- ‘mad Abd al-Fadl Ibrahim (Caio 1974), 1, 202-11; N. Abbot, The Rise of the North Arabic Serpe and its Kur'anic Development, with a Full Description of the Kur aie Manuscrips in the Oriental Institue (Universiy of Chicago Oriental Insti- ‘ute Publications 50, Chicago 1939), 51-4; A. Grohmann, Arabische Paliographie (L. Tei, Osereichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phlesophisch-Historsche Klasse, Denkschrifen, 94, Band I. Abhandlung, Vienna 1967), 66-117; E. Haeupt- 287[WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA 1 The Materials Used for Writing Skin ‘Two kinds of writing materials, prepared from skins of goats, cows and gazelles, are artested. These are leather and parchment; while leather was tanned, parchment was not. 1 Parchment Parchment (ragg, warag) can be defined as treated skin of certain animals, produced by specific methods. In particular, parchment was made from the hide of goat, lamb, sheep, gazelle and asses. The word rag@ is defined by Arab authors as a thin fine leather. Moreover, some of these authors describe this material as a ‘white document’ (al-sabifah al-bayda’) Parchment (ragq) however, is untanned skin, whereas red leather (al-adim) and white leather (al-gadim) are tanned skins. This is a basic difference between leather and parchment.’ The word ragg derives from the common Semitic root 19g, ‘be soft, be thin’: Parchment is mentioned in the Quran,’ in hadith and by several Arab authors. Moreover, it is mentioned several times in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry:* Gazelle skin (ragg ghazal) was considered to be one of the best kinds of parchment and is referred to in the sources as writing material for the Qur'an and for other documents in carly Is- lamic times. A Qur'an fragment written on ostrich hide has been net, ‘Koranische Hinweise auf die matrielle Kultur der alten Arabee (Ph.D. dis, Tubingen 1966), 97-101 5S" Fraenkel, Die aramdischen Fremdwirter im Arabschen (Leiden 1886), 246 + Muhammad Murda al-Zabidi, Tj a-'aris min jasothir alga, 10 vols (Cairo n.d), article rgg A. Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary ofthe Qur'én (Gackwad's Oriental Series 79, Barods 1938), 143, considered the posibilcy that the word agg i of Eshiopian origin . (On the manufacraring of parchment and leather, sce R.'T: Forbes, Stier in Ancient Technology V (Leiden 1957), 36-52 and M. L. Rydet, "The Biology and History of Parchment, in R Rick (ed), Pergament: Geschichte, Sirukr, Retaurierang, Hertellang(Sigmatingen 1991), 25-33 ©W. Leslau, Comparative Ditionary of Ge'x (Clasical Ethiopic) (Wiesbaden 19912), 473, 7 Qur'an 52: 2-3; Jeffers, The Foreign Vocabulary ofthe Qur'an, 143. "ON. abShiyi’, Mujam alfts al-ayah abijtind yah fi dawiwin shu'ard’ al- rw’ allgae al-‘asbr Beirut 1991), 117; Nasi al-Din al-Asad, Masédiral-shir al- Jabili wa-ginatihéal-sarithinyah (Caio 1978), 77. Aba al-Rihin Muhammad b. Ahmad alBirini, Kitsb md lcl-Hind min 288 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL uswWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA, found." Al-ragg al-gashib, ‘white or new parchment’, is mentioned by the poet Hassin Ibn Thabic."" In English the word ‘parchment’ derives from the name of the city of Pergamum in Asia Minor, which was famous for this product.'? Parchment had been used in Egypt as early as the Old Kingdom, and in the first millennium BC apparently spread all over the Near East.! In Mesopotamia, parchment-scribes are represented in Assyrian art, side by side with papyrus-scribes and cuneiform- scribes." Parchment was a suitable material for the Phoenician, He- brew and the Aramaic alphabetical scripts." In the Persian and Hel- lenistic periods parchment was the most widespread writing material for correspondence all over the Near East. This has been confirmed not only by classical authors like Diodorus," but also by archaeo- logical excavation and by epigraphical discoveries. According to Herodotus, the Ionian Greeks used to write on hides of goats and sheep before papyrus was used.'? The letters of the Persian official ‘Aséam, which have been found in Egypt, and which were sent from South Mesopotamia or Persia, are written on parchment.!# Arabic sources record that Persians also used tanned leathers for their ‘magia magbidah ft al-agl aw mardhidah (Hyderabad 1958), 133: Abs: Bakr ‘Muhammad b.al-Hasan Ibn Durayd, Kizdb alibi, ed. ‘A. M. Hardin (Bagh- dad 1979), 377; H.-C Graf von Bothmer, “Meisterwerke islamischer Buchkunst: Koranische Kallgraphie und llumination im Handschriftenfund aus der Groen ‘Moschce in Sanna’, in Jemen. 3000 Jabre Kunst und Kulture des glcklchen Anabien, ed. W. Daum (Frankfurt aM. 1987), 177-80: cf. also U. Dreibhol, ‘Der Fund von Sanna, in P. Rick, Pergament, 299-313. "0, Spies, ‘Die Bibliotheken des Hidschas’, ZOMG 90 (1936), 102. " Diwan of Hassén Ibn Thabie, 2 vols, ed. Walid N. ‘Arafat (E. J. W. Gibb ‘Memorial New Series 25, London 1971), I, p. 82, 10/1: "= RR Johason, “The Role of Parchment in Greco-Roman Antiquity’ (Ph.D. dis., University of California, Los Angeles 1968), 22-52 "3 G. van der Kooi ‘Early North-West Semitic Script Traditions: An Archaco- logical Seudy of the linear Alphabetic Seripts up t0€. 500 B.C. Ink and Argilary’ (Leiden, diss, 1986), 77-88. "RR Dougherry, “Writing upon Parchment and Papyrus among. the Babylonian and che Assyrians, JAOS 48 (1928), 109-35. "K, Galling, “Tafel, Buch and Blac’, in Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William FacwellAlbrigh, ed. H. Goedicke (London 1971), 207-23. "© Diodorus Siculus, tans. C. H, Oldfather (Loeb Classical Library, London. 1935), Book 2, 32/4 7 Herodotus, Horie, tans. A. D. Godley (Loeb Classical Library, London 1921), Book 5, 58. 8G. R. Driver, Aramaic Document of the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford 1954, re- print Osnabrick 1968), 1-3. 289 7 z t ? i t i‘WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA, writings." The texts discovered at Dura Europos”® and at Qumran”! are mainly written on parchment. Throughout the classical world parchment was a very important and common writing material.2? ‘We do not know when it was first used in Arabia but it seems to have been well known among the Arabs before Islam and it contin- ued in use in the Islamic period.” Apparently parchment was manu- factured in Arabia; thus it must have been cheaper than papyrus. Arabic sources mention that the Yemen and the Hijéz. were famous centres of parchment production. 2 Leather The literary evidence for the use of leather in pre-Islamic Arabia is abundant. However, there were different kinds of leather which were used for writing — red leather, white leather and other types. Ac- cording to Arabic sources itis sometimes difficult to make a distinc- tion between them. The production of the different kinds of leather, for example, white and red, is dependent on the methods of tan- ning and preparation. Vegetable tanning produces a leather varying from pale cream to dark reddish-brown." Arabic sources give us lit tle information about the making and preparing of leather in the pre-Islamic period, but we have good information about this in the Islamic era. Nevertheless, these sources have informed us that Arabs used more than ten different kinds of trees for tanning, for example, al-garg, which was employed especially in the Yemen, and al-sirf, which was used for tanning al-adim and which gives it its red col- 3 Ie is difficule to trace the origin and evolution of the use of leather in Arabia, although it was common in the ancient Near East from. the earliest periods. We do not have information about the use of parchment or leather in the South Arabian inscriptions. The climate is favourable for the survival of leather over a long period of time. " Aba. al’Abbis Ahmad b. “All al-Qalaashandi, Subb aba'shé, 14 vol, ed. Wisirat al-thaqifah wical-ishad al-qawmt (Cairo 1920, reprine, Cairo, n.d), Tl 486; Mubammad b. Ishi al-Nadim, Kiudb al-Fibris, 2 vols, ed. G, Fligel (Leipaig 1871-2), 21 2% Johnson, The Role of Prchmene in Greco-Roman Antiguity, 12-19. 2A. Lemaire, ‘Vom Ostrakon zur Schrftoll’, ZDMG Supplement VI, XXII Deutscher Orientalstentag (Wiesbaden 1985), 110-23. 2 Johnson, The Role of Parchment in Greco-Roman Antiquity, 52-88. ® Grohmano, Arabische Paldographic I, 108-11 2 Forbes, Studies in Ancient Tecnology, 36-52. 25 “All b. Ismail Ibn Sidah, Kitdb a’ Mubhasas f al-lughah, 17 vols (Bilig 1316-21 AFD, IV, 105-11, 290‘WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA The discovery of leather coffins at Shibam al-Ghiras* shows that leather was produced in the Yemen. Moreover, leather coffins are re- ported co have been used by the people of Thamud.”” Houses? and sanctuaries were buile from the material; for example, the ka‘bah of Najran was a dome made of three hundred pieces of leather (qubbab ‘min adam min thalath mi'atjild).° In addition, leather was used for other purposes, such as making wine- and water-vessels. Thus leather was widespread in pre-Islamic Arabia. ‘A common and simple kind of leather was possibly what is re- ferred to as jild. This is mentioned in the sources as a writing mate- rial. The prophet Muhammad is said to have sent a letter written on jild to the tribe of Banat Harithah b. ‘Amr b. Qurayz.>® They took it, washed it and patched their leather bucket with it. It was a custom in North Arabia to write on sandals if other writing material was not available." (@) Red leather (adim, pl. adam): for adim the Arabic lexicons give the meaning ‘red leather’, and describe it asa tanned leather. Ibn Sidah wrote that al-adim was tanned ared material called al- * Al-adim was a precious material and was used for writing the Quer’. We have information from Arabic sources that when the written texts of the Qur’an were gathered, some were on al-adim.™ Al-adim was used also for correspondence, agreements and contracts Red leather (adim ahmar) was employed by the prophet Muhammad in his correspondence.» Ic is referred to several times in pre-Islamic poetry, for example by al-Muraqgish the elder. In addition, al-adim 2% Y, “Abdallah, Aung ft srith al-Yaman wa-dthar-hi (Beitut 1990), 173-81 2 Muhammad b. Jat al-Tabar, Ta'fth al-rusul wid-ab-mdi, ed, Mubarnmad ‘Aba I-Fadl Ibrahim, 10 vols (Cairo, 1960), 1,230. % Quran 16: 82. ® Yagut b. ‘Abdallah al-Hamawi, Mu‘jam al-buldan, ed. F. Wiistenfeld, 6 vols (Leipuig 1866, reprint Tehran 1965), 1V, 756: for other examples see H. Lammens, LArabie ocidentale avant Uhégire (Beirut 1928), 128-36. P. Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam (Oxford 1987), 98-101 30). Als ab Mufisal ft rith al'arch qabla al-llé, 10 vols (Beirut 1980), itt, 303, id, 272-3 2 bn Sidah, Kitdb al-Mubhassas LV, 105-11 % al Suyii, Kit al-Igan I, 207. & Muhammad b, Jari al-Tabasi, Jami abbaydn ft tir al-Qur'dn, 30 vols (Cairo 1305/1905), 1, 20. % Wensinck, Concordance et indices de le tradition musulmane |, 38; al- Qalgashand, Subh abe, 486, Aba al-Faraj al-lefahint, Kitdb al-Aghini, 24 vols (Cairo, 1927-74), vi127. 291 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL uswWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA was used for writing treaties, agreements and promissory notes. Ac- cording to the sources this kind of leather was popular in Mecca. Al- adim was certainly produced locally in Arabia, especially in the Yemen; al-adim al-kbawlani, ‘red leather from Khaulan’ is men- tioned in a hadith” In the library of the caliph al-Ma’miin there was 2 promissory note written on adim for ‘Abd al-Mustalib, the grandfa- ther of the prophet Muhammad. The debtors lived in the distriets around San‘a’ (‘wzal San‘d’)28 If this story is correct, it is an indica- tion that al-adim was used for writing in this period. (b) White leather (gadim; pl. qudum): the Arabic lexicons define this word as ‘white leather’ co write on,” or a ‘white leaf’; moreover, They were employed especially for . jaridah (pl. jarid, jard’id): this has the same meaning, ‘palm leaves’, as sa‘af. Ibn Sidah stares that sa‘af' means jarid in the Hijaa.>® Al- Hamdani mentions jaridah as writing material in the Yemen. The use of jard’id for writing the Qur'an is attested in a hadith. There is no evidence that palm leaves were employed for writing in the an- cient Near East. However, inscriptions recorded on palm leaves were found in India. The word kharis (pl. akbrds, khursdn),°* which has thsin ‘Abbis, Sharh Diutn Labid 6, Rabi'aal‘Amiré (Kuwait 1962), 138)3. Abii Bakr Muhammad 6. alHasan b. Durayd, Jemherar al-lughah, 4 vols (Cairo 1970), 1, 254 “© Muhammad b. Mukarram b. Mangi, Lis al-‘anth, 15 vols (Beirut 1955~ (6), art. gdm. © al. Zabidi, Taj lars, art sb;al-Suyt, Kita al-tegin I, 203, 205, 207 * Ditwin Im al-Qays, ed. Dir Sadir (Beitut, n.d), 170. ‘Abbas, Sharh Divan Labi, 13813. % Grohmann, Antbische Pelaographie |, 93-4. 5 al-Firdzabii, a- Qa al-mubit art. sf bm Mang, Lisin al-areb, are. 6 al-Zabidh, Tj al‘ars, ae. sf 5 Ibn Sidah, Kitdh al- Muthasas XI, 106, % Abi Muhammad al-Hasan b. Abmad alHamdant, Kitab al-fkit! VII, ed ‘Muhammad b. ‘Alt al-Akwa" al-Hiwalt (Damascus 1979), 221 Male Zabidi, Taj alas, are. Bhs. 293WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA the same meaning as jarid, is mentioned in Arabic sources as a writ- ing material.°° The modern Arabic word jaridah, ‘newspaper’, comes from the word jarid. karanif (sg, kurnitfah): this is defined as the palm crunk, or the stalk of the palm-leaf which remains on the trunk or leaf-stalk.5§ The use of kardnif as writing material is associated with the Qur'an.” arab (pl. akrabikirdb): defined by Arabic authors as stumps, lower tends of palm-branches which are thick and broad, it is also defined as small pieces of karanif: Karab is recorded as a writing material for the Qur’an.# bin, ‘ben-trce, Moringa’: this is atcested by the pre-Islamic poet Labid as a writing material used in the Yemen, and it is mentioned together with ‘aib. Ic could be that some of the newly discovered wood-sticks were made from this kind of tree, but this has yet to be verified. Labid speaks of a young Yemeni, who writes in zabir-script con ban and ‘asib with a pen (qalam).°° The ban-tree is mentioned to- gether with the ‘ilb-tree in Sabaean inscriptions.® “ilo (og, ilbab, pl. “ubab),* ilb-tree’ or Zieyphus spina christ: archaeo- logical discoveries from the Yemen have brought to light small ob- jects of wood on which writing appears. These are amulets or pen- dants. It has been suggested that these objects were made from the ‘ilb-cree." “lb is a Yemeni word, explained by the Arabic sidr.® Sidr is mentioned in a hadith as being used for writing. ‘ar‘ar, ‘juniper’: some Arabic sources mention this tree as being used as writing material. Apparently wooden tablets were made from ‘aan 2 ‘Als al-Mufalfearithal'arab gabla al-[m VIM 132. 5 M, Ullmann, Worserbuch der Klaszchen Arabichen Sprache | (Wiesbaden 1970), 150-51 2 Ibid, 1515 al Tabac, Jama al bayn fair al-Qur'é I, 21 58 al-Firinabid, a Qari al-mubit, ar. hb Lane, Arabie-Engli Lexicon, 2602 ‘Abbas, Sharh Dit Labid, 138 ® A. FL. Beeson, M. A. Ghul, W. W. Miller and J. Ryekmans, Szbaic Dic sionary (English-French~Arabic) (Louvain-la-Newve-Beirut 1982), 33. 41 Grohmann, Arabiche Plaograpie |, 94. 8 al Selwi,femeniache Warer, 160-61 © al Qalaachandi, Subh alah I, 484 & ‘According to al-Asma, Arabs used to write on ala, abbn and alarar cf. “Abbis, Sharh Diwan Labi, 138. 294 rN ane 05WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA ‘Wood was used for writing in both North and South Arabia. It was prepared from the different kinds of trees discussed above. In ad- dition, a kind of wood called rawsam was used for writing. The use cof wood for writing has been confirmed through archaeological and epigraphical discoveries, particularly the wood-sticks found in South Arabia. Arabic sources give us some information about this subject in North Arabia. Tablets (alwih) of wood were employed as a writing material; the North Arabs also used camel saddles (rabl, ikaf)® and small saddle boards called agtab,” (5g. gatab) for writing, as well as divining arrows (sihdm al-istiqsam; agdah)® and walking, sticks (sg. “asa). This practice is recorded for North Arabia, and by al-Hamdani for South Arabia. Arrows are mentioned in Arabic sources as being used for writing in the Yemen.” Papyrus Qintas (also qurtds, pl. garats) is defined as paper, a sheet of paper, or as parchment, papyrus or a document. Arabic sources do not give a specific meaning for it; it signifies sheets for writing, which could be of parchment or papyri. Papyrus was used not only asa sheet for writing, bue also in the form of a scroll. Papyrus as a writing mate- rial was already used in Egypr in the third millennium BC.” From the beginning of the first millennium BC ic was used for writing al- phabetical scripts such as Aramaic, Phoenician and Hebrew. Ara- maic papyri have been found in several places such as Wadi al- Diliyah, in the Jordan valley, and in Egypt. Papyrus was used for writing Aramaic in Mesopotamia from the. beginning of the ninth century BC.” © al-Zabidh, Ta lars, ae. nm. al-Mufaddal b. Muhammad al-Dabbr, Diwan al-mufaddaliyy, ed. C.J. Lyall (Oxford 1921, reprine Baghdad 1965), 460. © ab Zabids, Taj lars, are. tb; al-Suytsh, Kit al-ligén 1, 207. © Tha Hishim, a-Sirah al-nabawiyyah, 4 vols, ed. Mustafa al-Saqaa ec al. (Bei- rut nd) Te 152, © l-Hamdans, Kieab al-iktil VII, 221 - 7 Zakariyyi’ b. Muhammad b. Mahmid al-Qurwini, Kitdb Athar al-bilid wa- abtbar al ibid, 2 vols, ed. F. Wistenfeld (Goringen 1848-5), 1, 32 "A, Schlot, Schrift und Schreiber im Alien Agypten (Munich 1991), 62-85; M. A. Hussein, Vom Papyrus zum Codex: Der Beitrag Agptens zur Buchkultur (Leip- 2g 1970), 16-22. 7A. Lemaire, “Weiting and Writing Material, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. D. N. Freedman, 6 vols (New York 1992), VI, 999-1008. 295 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL uswWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA ‘Aramaic scribes writing on papyrus are represented in Assyrian re- liefs and frescos, but unfortunately written papyri have not yet been found in Mesopotamia. Later on, papyrus was an important material for writing throughout the entire classical world’? Many of the Dead Sea texts were written on papyri. Nabatacan papyri were also found south-west of the Dead Sea. Palmyrene papyti from the first century AD have been discovered recently in a tomb in Palmyra.” Qirtds is a Greek word introduced into Arabic through Aramaic.”> ‘The Arabs used not only this word for paper, but other terms as well: firs, haghid, kaghidh, kaghid; the word girtas is defined as sawémir. The meaning of the word warag is not quite clear. It does not have the exact meaning of paper in this period; it is likely to have had the same meaning as qireds. In particular warag at that time were sheets ‘of parchment or papyrus.” In pre-Islamic Arabia girtds seems to have been popular. It is men- tioned in the Qur'an,” and the Qu’ran is said to have been written on it Ic is also attested several times in poetry” and in the hadith ® Later it continued to be used in the Islamic period unt placed by paper.®" Apparently girtas was imported from Syti tine and from Egypt, most likely through Gaza. The pre-Islamic poet ‘Tarafa mentions qirtds shami, ‘Syrian papyrus’.® Cloth ‘The Arabs used cloth as a writing material. This is evident from the hadith and from pre-Islamic poetry. The terms employed are mahirig (sg. mubrag), ‘silk (for writing)’, and karabis (sg, kirbds), ‘cotton-ma- terial. Kirbds is defined as a coarse garment or a piece of cloth to 72H Blanck, Das Buch in der Antike (Munich 1990, 56-62: H. Hunger, Schreiben und Lesen in Byzana. (Munich 1989), 17-23. 4 ‘These small pieces are exhibited in the Palmyra Museum ° Fraenkel, Die arumaihen Fremdurer im Arabizchen, 245. 76 al-Qalgashandli, Subh a-asha Il, 487-88; Grohmann, Arabische Paléographie 1, 66-93, 7 Jeflery, The Foreign Vocabulary ofthe Que’ iba, 485. uy, Kish al-iegan, 1, 207 ® al-Shiyi’, Mu'jam alls al-hayah ab-ijrimanyah, 202. % Hebbo, ‘Die Fremduorter im der arabivchn Propbeenbiographie des lbn Hischam, 291 "Grohmann, Arabische Palingraphie 1, 98-105; Hussein, Vom Papyrus ex Coder, 1-6, © Shiyi', Mucjam allt a-bayah al-jtinaiyah, 252. , 235; al-Qalqashandi, Subh al- 296WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA write on. Linen (cloth), kaszén, was employed for writing in the ancient Near East, especially in Egypt, and continued in use for this purpose in late antiquity and in the Islamic period. The word is of Aramaic origin. Arabic sources maintain that the Indians wrote on white silk.® Mubrag is explained as a white silk, polished with gum and used for writing.* Mubrag was employed by the adviser of the Himyarite king Qaran Mazin b. Aad, for writing a letter to the population of al-Shihr and Oman.” The Arabic tradition says that Arabs learned writing on thi kind of material from Persia and Byzantium; the term mubrag is by Classical Arabic authors to be of Persian origin.** This Persian word came into Arabic through Aramaic. Ibn al-Nadim mentions that silk (4arir) was employed in India for writing.® Ir is well known chat silk was used for writing in China in the second part of the first millennium BC. In the Islamic period maharig is attested as a writing material. Arabic tradition maintains that the famous seven odes, the mu‘allagat, were written on or embroidered on byssus and were hung in the Ka’bah. Other Arabic traditions claim chat these seven odes were called mudhahhabat ‘golden’, because they were written in gold on Coptic cloth. Copies of the Qur’an were written with gold in the early Islamic period.” Metal ‘Metal was used as a writing material in che ancient Near East from the earliest period. Writing on silver tablets is mentioned in pre-Is- lamic times and small inscribed silver objects were discovered in the Yemen, Weitten bronze tablets were found in several places in the Yemen. The bronze tablets of ‘Amin are good examples. Such tab- 8 Hebbo, Die Fremdwireer in der arabischen Prophetenbiographie des Ibn Higham, 319: Grohmann, Arabische Palaegraphi 1, 97, 105-6. 'Hebbo, Die Fremdusireer in der arabischen Prophetnbiographie des Ibn Hischar, 318: Fraenkel, Die aramaischen Fremduéiter im Arabischen, 425 a-Asad, Masai ashi al abil, 65. a. Qalqashandi, Subh al-a'shd Il, 485-6. % Grohmann, Arabische Paldegraphie I, 105. © Ibid, 105 1% Asad, Mayédiral-shi' al-ahil, 80-81. © hn al-Nadim, Kitab al-Fibris, 21 % Jalal al-Din al-Suyatt, al-Muhir fi ‘ulim a-lughah wa-anwa‘-hi, 2 vos, ed Jie al- Maw l-Bsjawi and Muhammad Abi al-Fad Ibrahim (Cairo, n.d), 1,480. 9 al-Qalqashandt, Subb ala'shd I, 477 297 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL uswWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA lets have also been found in Qaryat al-Faw. It seems that this method of writing was popular in South Arabia and the technology of bronze tablets was well developed in ancient Yemen.” The tablet of gold (lewh min dbahab), which is mentioned by al-Hamdin? and oth- 1s, was apparently a tablet made not of gold bur of bronze, and may be of the same type as the bronze tablets which have been dis- covered. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that the Southern Arabs ‘wrote on gold, as texts engraved on gold have been discovered in the ancient Near East, such as the engraved amulet found in the cem- tery of Timna’.® Coins have also been found in numerous places in Arabia. Moreover, bronze vessels with inscriptions have been un- earthed in excavations in Arabia, and inscribed bronze weights and other objects have been discovered at Qaryat al-Faw.°6 Bones ‘The Arabs used different kinds of bones for writing material. Ibn al- Nadim and others mention that Arabs used co write on the shoulder blades of camels (akedf ibil) and of sheep. They also wrote on ribs (adla’, sg. dil"),” and shoulder blades are also recorded in a hadith as being used for writing ® Camel bones with inscriptions in red were found in Qaryat al-Faw.” It is to be noted that shoulder blades of camels and sheep were used for writing in Iran! “The bones, when inscribed, were usually gathered and put in a jar or box, a practice which continued in the Islamic period. Al-Imam_ al-Shaifi' said that ‘we used ro write on bones, put them in a jar until it was full, then we took it away’. Bone tablets (alwh ‘zzm) for writing are also attested.! ® J, Ryckmans and I. Vandevivere, ‘Some Technical Aspects of the Inscribed South Arabian Bronze Inscriptions Cast in Relief, Procedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 8 (1978), 53-65. al-Hamdani, Kitab al-Iail VIL, 220. * Tha So'tdal-Magheibi, Kizdb Nashuasaltanab faith jahiliasal‘arab, ed. Nasrat ‘Abd al-Rahman, 2 vols (Amman 1982), I, 105. % W Phillips, Quaten and Sheba: Exploring Ancient Kingdoms on the Biblical Spice Route of Arabia (London 1955), 114 and the picture opposite, 116. 5° ALR. alAnsary, Qaryatal-Fau: A Portrais of Pre-lamie Civilisation in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh 1982), 87-51 57 Ibn al Nadim, Kitab al Fire, 21; alSuyii, Kit ab- Iga, 207 % al-Tabari, Tarith aru wa-al-mul IL, 193, % al-Ansary, Qua al-Fau, 99. 18 a.-Qalgashandi, Subh aba‘shd I, 486 "0 alAsad, Masidir al al abil, 86 Tid, 86. 298 Z1oz "+1 way wo zHEW An w io sPuINofpIO}Osf SN HHO FOREOLUNOCLWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA ‘Arabic through Aramaic, as has been noted by Classical Arabic au- thors. For instance, al-Suydri writes that gift is a Nabatacan word, and modern scholars like Fraenkel and Jeffery agree with him."?5 The ‘word means ‘parchment, document’ in Akkadian and Aramaic, and in Arabic it must have the same meaning. Usually it denotes a ‘legal trument, deed’. Law The word Jawh means ‘board, plank, tablet’. In general it refers to any kind of tablet on which one would write. The Arabic word lawh is of Aramaic origin.'"6 Ie is attested several times in the Qur’in,"”” and the Qur'an itself is said to have been written on tablets (alwah)."?* Moreover, it occurs in the hadith!” and in pre-Islamic poetry. These tablets were usually made of wood, bronze, stone or bone. They were employed for writing different subjects, for exam- ple, votive inscriptions. The South Arabian term ¢f “(votive) tablet, plaque’! which is related co Akkadian ruppu, ‘ablee’, should also be noted. Arabic sources provide no information as to whether the wooden tablets were coated with stucco or not. However, such rablets were used in Egypt'® and wooden tablets coated with wax were used all over the ancient Near East," especially in the New Assyrian period and later in the Classical world. Diprycha or polydiprycha were made from wooden tablets." In Arabia wax wooden tablets are attested in the sources. No wooden tablets have survived in Norch Arabia, but some small ones have been found in the Yemen.'* Stone tablets have been discovered all over Arabia, and bronze tablets in several places, eg. at ‘Amran (see above). "Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary ofthe Quan, 241; al Shay’, Mu'iam alt al- bhayth al-itima‘igah, 255: al-Zabidi, Tj ab‘aris, article qt; al-Asad, shi'r abjabil, 70-71; ‘NU, a Muss ft arith ‘arab gable al-Islam VU, 272. 16 Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur ‘én, 253; Lemaire, Vom Ostrakon aut Schriferole’, 112-16. 7 al-Qalgashandi, Subh ala'shé I, 483-4. 11 aL Suyah, Kix al-ligdn 1, 205. Wensinck, Concordance et Indices de la Tradition Musulmane V1, 152. "© Sabaic Dictionary, 153. "8 Schloss, Schrift und Schreiber im Alten Aaypten, 61 2 Galling, “Tafel, Buch und Blatt, 211-17. "9 Blanck, Das Buch in der Antike, 46-51. \™ Grohmann, Arabiche Paliegraphie I, 94-5 308WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA str means ‘to write, write down, engrave’, and the noun str (pl. ‘7, ‘writing, inscription, document’.!® The Arabic saer is apparently a loanword from South Arabian. 16 Kort ‘This word occurs often in Thamudic inscriptions meaning ‘to write, to draw’, and some of these inscriptions are described as being signed (hts) by someone.' Apparently this word, which has the same meaning in Arabic, is genuinely of North Arabian origin. Sift The Arabic siff; ‘book’ seems to be an early borrowing from Ara- maic,'®* as Classical Arabic authors have noted. Ic is well attested in Arabic sources, e.g. in the Qur’an.'® Ir is mostly used for religious books. Moreover, the word safarah, ‘scribes’ is found. Sf with the meaning ‘inscription’ is attested in Safsitic inscriptions." ‘Kitab The word kitdb, ‘book, letter’, is of Aramaic origin.'7! Ie is men- tioned in Lihyanite inscriptions!” and this root is also attested in the name of the North Arabian deity Alkutbay/Hanakcab. Apparently Alkutbay was the Arabian scribe deity, like Naba in Mesopotamia.17? Qit This word occurs in the Qur’in and in poetry. Apparently itt (< itt) is of Akkadian origin (git < KUS.GID.DA).” Tt came into ° Sabaic Dictionary, 129. 4 al Selwi, Jemenitzche Warte, 109. ° G.L. Harding, Some Thamudie Ineriprions from the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan (Leiden 1952), 52 "4 Fraenkel, Die aramalichen Fremadwirier im Arabischen, 247 Jeffery, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'én, 170-71. "8 E. Litamann, Sefaitic Inscriptions (Leiden 1943), 333. 1 Jefery, The Foreign Vocabulary ofthe Qur'én, 248. 1 W, Cashel, Likyan und Lihyanisch (Cologne 1954), 138. 9 B Zayadine, “The Gods) Aktab/Kutbay and his (het) Iconography’ in Pesra and the Carauan Cities: Proceeding the Spmposinom Organised as Pera in Sep tember 1985 by the Deparement of Antiquitesof Jordan and the lonographic Lexicon of Clasical Mythology (LIMC), ed. F. Zayadine (Amman 1990), 37-44. €S.A. Kaufiman, The Abkadian Influences on Aramaic (Chicago 1974), 52 307 sqeumol pussy wou PopEORENOG loz PL waren wo ze a[WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA ‘Aramaic or South Arabian chac the majority of these words came into Arabic, and the South Arabian words continued to be used in Arabic. Greek or Persian loanwords in Arabic came chiefly through Aramaic. The following is a description of some terms for written materials: Musnad The word musnad is used to describe South Arabian script and in- scriptions. This usage is found already in Classical Arabic authors. The South Arabic term ménd is employed for an inscribed bronze plaque and as a general word for an inscription on bronze or stone.!58 Zabar This word, mentioned several times in the Quran and other sources, means ‘book? Arabic sources record this word as being of Yemeni origin.‘® Ic means a ‘written document’, on soft material like ‘as?b or leather. Ibn Durayd writes that the people of Yemen called every book zabr, and also notes the form zibr.'6! This word with such a meaning is still unattested in the epigraphical materials written on hard materials, but the verb 2br is found in the texts written on wooden sticks. Str The word safr, ‘book’, is mentioned in the Qur'an, in the hadith! and in poetry. The root sr, which is thought to be of Aramaic or South Arabian origin,'® seems to be a common Semitic root. It is attested in South Arabian inscriptions." In South Arabian the verb "8 Sabaic Dictionary, 138. 19 aLSelwi,Jemenitsche Worter, 103. ' al-Selwi, Jemenitche Worter, 103: Ghill Early Southern Arabian Languages and Clasical Arabic Souree, 207. "6 thn Durayd, Jembareta-lugha, L254. "8 Wensinck, Concordance et Indies de Tradition Musulmane tt, 461 1 Jeffery. The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'én. 170. "4 Sabaic Dictionary, 129: S. D. Ricks, Lexicon of Incrptional Qatabanian (Scudi Pohl 14, Rome 1989), 159-60; G. Garbini, lerision’ sudarabiche 1 Lerizioni minee, (Naples 1974). The word sr in Minaean inscriptions occurs only in pl form ‘sr, cf the following examples, nos. 102, 9: 163, 3; 193, 3: 197, 6: 316, 2; 317, 3: 351, 9. 306WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA Hanbasi used to read them." In the newly discovered wood-sticks there are also no words for scribe, but the word zbr written by’ and a personal name are found.' Nabataean inscriptions were engraved by stonemasons (ps). These can be compared with North-West Semitic inscriptions. Some give an indication of cursive script, which means that the text was first written on leather or papyrus and then engraved on stones.'*" ‘One may inquire whether the written materials were preserved in libraries or archives. Libraries and archives have been found from all over the ancient Near East.!5? Al-Hamdani informs us that books or written materials were stored in treasuries of the Himyarite (khazd’in bimyar)." Ibn al-Nadim mentions that books or translations in Himyarite were stored in the library of the caliph al-Ma'miin.'™ We have no solid information about schools in pre-Islamic Arabia; how- ever, temples and courts of kings in South Arabia must have been centres for teaching and learning the language and script. Arabic sources record such places in North Arabia, e.g. in Mecca, al-T7'if, Yathrib and al-Hira.!5 Icshould be noted that the attestation of zabar in connection with stone, in the sense of writing engraved on stone (al-nagsh fi L- ajar),"% probably represents later Arabic usage, in which the verb zabara simply meant ‘to write. 10 III Terms for Written Materials ‘There are many words for writing and written materials recorded in Arabic sources in reference to pre-Islamic Arabia.'%” It was through Mi al-Hlamdani, Kitab a-Ikli L, 1=13. © Ryckmans, ‘Inscribed Old South Arabian Sticks and Palm-leaf Stalks’, 130. © ChB. Jean, J. Hofijzer, Dictionnaire des inscriptions sémitiguer de Vouest (Leiden 1965), 231; J. F Healey, The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Madan Sali (Oxford 1993}, 264 '51-Van der Kooi, Early North-West Semitic Serpe Traditions, 14-25, 126-226. 1 CER, Veenhof, ed, Cuneiform, Archives and Libraries: Papers Read at the 30° Renconie Asyriolegique Internationale, Leiden, 48 July 1983 (Istanbul 1986) *55'AbG: Mubammad al-Hasan b, Ahmad al-Hamdant, Kitdb al-Mel X, ed Mubjbb al-Din al-Khatb (Caieo 1948), 111 "5 Ibn al-Nadim, Kitdb al-Fibrix, 5. "5 Scribes ofthe pre-Islamic period are mentioned in che sources: see Abu Jafar Mubammad b. Habib, Kindo al-Mubabbar (Beicut, no.), 475% ‘Ali ak-Mufayal ft ‘arith al-‘areh qabla l-llam NUL, 201-7. 6 'Tbn Sidah, Kitz al-Mulbhassay XO, 4 197 Some of these words are collected by ‘Ali, al-Mufaal ft trith al-arab qabla at-iim NMI, 275-87 305WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA, and not for engraving on palm-leaf stalks. These styli could be the same as the mizbar, which is attested in the Arabic sources in associa- tion with ink. Apparently, the sharp instrument which was used for engraving the newly discovered wood-sticks was also called a mizhar. ‘Two other styli have been found with ivory and wooden styli, one made of iron and the other of bronze.'*' Arabic sources inform us that Arabs sometimes erased texts and wrote others over them. This was done in the case of leather or papy- rus. The newly written document was called firs.!42 Ic is difficule to say whether a scribe or a stonemason wrote the monumental inscriptions. It may be assumed that the texts were first prepared by a scribe on soft materials like leather and then engraved or incised by a stonemason with a chisel. There is an indication of this from South Arabian inscriptions. The king of Qataban ordered an edict to be written on wood and stone. This inscription is found written on stone.'# It is possible that monumental inscriptions were engraved by a Sabaean stonemason (grbyn).! Ie is to be noted that Arabic sources, especially pre-Islamic poetry, mention the Himyarite scribe (al-katib al-bimyari). For instance, the poet Abi Thu’ayb al-Huthali describes che Himyarite scribe in one of his poems. This Himyarite scribe used to write with ink (the verbs used here are dhabaralzabara and habbara).""° The poet Labid de- scribes a skilful writer of the zabiir-script as a young Yemeni (walid aman’). § Yemeni as a writer is also recorded in the following verse in the mu‘allagah of Imru al-Qays:'” Li-man talalun absartubit fa-shajéni kackhasti zabitrin ff ‘asibi yamant For whom are these traces which I have seen, (they) distressed me, like zabar-script (written) on a palm-leaf stalk of a Yemeni. ‘Al-Hamdani mentions people who knew how co read and write the musnad-inscriptions and zabiir-books, and tell the difference be- ween musnad- and zabiz-script. He records that Abii Nasr al- 441 Ryckmans, Miller and Abdallah, Texes du Yémen, plate Sa 8 Th Manzi, Lisin al-‘arab, ar. M8 RES, no. 3566, 21 4 Sebaie Diesionary, 50 thn Durayd, Kitdb al-bbvigag, 48: Lewin, A Vocabulary of the Hudailian Po- ems, 139, 367 "Me “Abbas, Sherb Diwan Labid, 138. "© Did Inra? al-Qayp, 170; For another explanation of this verse, see note 117 and the discussion by S. Noja, ‘Une petite retouche 8 une traduction courante Ime al-Qais’, RSO 62 (1988), 1-5. 304 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL usw‘WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA formation about this. The word galam is mentioned in connection with adim. It must be said that these two kinds of leathers (adim and 4gadim) were a local product and specially developed for writing the zabirscript. Palm leaves or bark are special writing materials which until roday have only been found in Arabia, not in other parts of the ancient Near East. However, palm leaves were used for writing in India, as mentioned above.'* Whether we should see here Indian influence, or an independent local development is difficult to decide. ‘Stamp seals have been found in the Yemen.'25 These seals were used for stamping documents of parchment or papyrus, a practice well known in the ancient Near East. Arabic sources mention the word ‘margiom, ‘stamped’, which is probably a Yemeni word. Kitab margim means a ‘stamped book’.! The decipherment of this cursive or mi- rnuscule script went through several stages: the first steps were made by Mahmid al-Ghiil®” and were continued by other scholars.!3* ‘We do not know exactly which word means ‘scribe’ in the South Arabian inscriptions, However, it must be a derivation from South Arabian roots meaning ‘to write’, such as shf or zbr. Proper names like sprn and zbrn which could be related to these roots, are to be noted. South Arabian inscriptions have not provided us with infor- mation about the role of the scribe in society. Who wrote them? Were they royal scribes or priests? The texts written in zabizr-script were executed by scribes with a pen (galam, yard’ or mizhar). The word mizhar is mentioned in a hadith"? and also from the time of the first caliph Aba Baks.'“° The ivory styli discovered in connection with the wooden inscribed sticks are good examples of instruments used for writing on materials such as leather, parchment or papyti, 8D, Ditinges, The Alphabet: A Key wo the History of Mankind, 2 vols (London 1968), 1,264: I, 297 "CE for example, RES, nos. 2688, 2696, 3313-24 "36 M.A. Ghill, Early Southern Arabian Languages and Classical Arabi Sources A Grtical Examination of Literary and Lexicgraphical Sources by Comparison with the Incriprions ed. O. alGhul (ebid 1993). 320. '87'A.E L. Beeston, ‘Mahmoud ‘Ali Ghul and the Sabaean Cursive Script in Arabian Studies in Honour of Mahmoud Ghul: Symposium at Yarmouk Univer. Dec. 8-11 1984, ed. M. Ibrahim (Wiesbaden 1989), 15-19. J. Ryckmans, ‘Pétioles dd palmes ct batonnets insrits: un nouveau type de documents du Yémen antique’ in J. Ryckmans etal, Texter du Yemen Antique, 25-34 "3 Ryckmans, ‘Inscribed Old South Arabian Sticks and Palm-ea Stalks, 127-40. 1 al: Zabidi, Taj alanis, are. br 4 al-Qalgashandl, Sub aba'shd Il, 444; Jarallah Mahmad 6. “Umar alZa- rmakhshar, alFa'ig ft gharb al-badith, 4 vol, ed. ‘Alt Muhammad al-Bajfwi and Mohammad Abi al-Fadl Ibrahim (Cairo 19712), Il, 103, 303\WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA Postery Potsherds (ostraca) were commonly used in Syria-Palestine and in Egypr, mainly for writing short notes or letters or brief messages. Ostraca were found in several places in the Yemen, in Tayma’, in Qaryat al-Faw and in other places." Ie seems that ostraca were not common in Arabia Stones Most South Arabian and early North Arabian inscriptions (e.g. Thamudic, Lihyanite and Safaitic) are written on stone. The same can be said for the Nabataean inscriptions, thousands of which were found carved on rock or incised in roughly dressed stones. Engraved inscriptions on well-dressed stones, such as on walls of cities or temples have been found in South Arabia. Many inscriptions were written on stelae, altars, blocks, slabs of stone, statues and statu- ceces. The most commonly used stones are limestone and sandstone, but inscriptions on marble or alabaster have also been found. Some ‘small inscribed objects, such as seals, were made from dolerite or dio- rite. Some of the written stone tablets were coated with a red colour. Inscriptions painted in red or black colours on plastered walls were found at Qaryat al-Faw'* and painted writings on stones and on walls have also been discovered in caves in Oman. The painting is mostly in black or red.!®5 This kind of writing is well known in Egypt. The Ara- imaic texts from Deir‘ Alli% which are written on plastered walls wich different colours, are a good example of this type of inscription. ‘The Arabs also wrote on thin stone slabs. Arabic sources state that the Qur’an was written at the time of the Prophet on thin stone slabs called lithaf (sg. lakbfal), “thin white stone slabs, or flat, white splinters of (lime)stone.!®” Writing on stones is called al- "© More than 50 Sabiean estrca have been found in the excavations of the German Archaeological Institue (1997, 1998) ac the Awim Cemetery near Marib “These ostraca will be published by the author. Sce also Livingstone etal, "Taima Recent Soundings and new Inscribed Material’, Asal , 1983, 102-16; al-Ansary, Qunatal-Fau, 6. ‘OH aLAnsary, Quryat al-Fau, 131, 133,137. "A.A. M. al-Shahri, ‘Recent Epigraphic Discoveries in Dhofa’, Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Srudes \ (1991), 173-91. N06 J, Hofijer and G. van dee Kooij, Anumaic Inscriptions from Deir ‘Alla (Leiden 1976), 23-8; Lemaire, “Writing and Wriing Material’, 999-1008. Ibn al-Nadim, Kitdb al-Fihrix, 21; alSuyiti Kita al-legén I, 203, 207; M Ullmann, Worcerbuch der Klasschen Arabichen Sprache Ml Til 1, 430. 299 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL usw‘WRITING MATERIAL IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA waky by the pre-Islamic poets,'% a term also used for other kinds of writing, A type of stone called salimah (pl. sildm), which is said in Arabic sources to be of Yemeni origin," is mentioned in pre-Islamic poetry asa writing material!" I Writing Materials and Script In the third millennium BC there were ewo writing systems in the Near East: cuneiform in Mesopotamia and hieroglyphic in Egypt. Cuneiform was mostly written on clay tablets. In Egypt papyrus was the most common material for writing, but other materials, such as parchment, stone and wood were also used. In the first half of the second millennium BC the Canaanites devel- oped their alphabetical writing system and leather and papyrus, rather than clay tablets, were suitable materials for writing the alphabetical texts, In the first millennium papyrus, parchment and leather are asso- ciated with the North-West Semitic scripts. Excavations and literary sources both confirm the use of these materials for the Aramaic, Phoenician and Hebrew texts, which were specially developed for these alphabets." The population of Arabia cook their writing system from the Caananites sometime during the second half of the second millennium BC. The South Arabian system is an offshoot of the Proto-Canaanite. It must be stressed that writing materials had a great influence on the style of writing itself. Writing on hard materials pro- duces a kind of formal or lapidary scrips, whereas writing on soft ma- terial like papyrus or parchment produces a cursive script." This can be seen in the North-West Semitic scripc and later in the development of the Arabic script. Ic is well known that the Arabic script developed from the Nabataean;'' it must be noted that the Nabataean script self developed from a cursive offshoot of Imperial Aramaic. In South ‘Arabia two forms of script can be distinguished: 28 aL Shiv’, Mitjam alfis al-baydh abijtima'iyah, 317; arith al‘arab gable al-lam, VIII, 265. 1 alSelwi, Jementische Warer, 113. No This is mentioned by Labid in his Mu‘allagah, cf. alAsad, Matddir abbr alah, 87. ‘Lemaire, “Writing and Waiting Material, 999-1008, 1 On the technique of writing Norch-West Semitic scripts with ink, see van der Kooi, Early North-West Semitic Script Traditions, 90-94, 114-25, 217-20 "3 J, F Healey, ‘The Nabatiean Contribution to the Development of Arabic Serpe’, Aram 2 (1990), 93-8, bi, ab Mufayal ft 300 Z1oz "+1 way wo zHEW An w io sPuINofpIO}Osf SN HHO FOREOLUNOCLWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA (a) Musnad-script was used for monumental and official inscrip- tions in South Arabia. It is the name of the script of the ancient civilization of the Yemen given by early Arabic authors in the Is- lamic period. The term Himyarite is also used.' This script and its development are known to a certain extent. It is formal or monu- mental in style and is written on hard material, mostly on stone and bronze. (b) Zabir-script is a cursive developed from musnad-script.'"5 Until the discovery of the wood-sticks this script was unknown — although the term ‘zabiar-script’ (khart al-zabia) occurs several times in the sources, particularly in pre-Islamic poety,"® it was not recog- nized until this discovery. W. W. Milller and Yasuf ‘Abdallah were the first to give attention to the identity of this script and the associa- tion of the zabir-script with the palm-leaf stalk ‘asi.!” Tc must be stressed that the Classical Arab authors knew the iden- tity of the zabizr-script. For instance, al-Sukkati interpreted the word dhabr, a cognate of zabr as follows: ‘al-dhabr means a book in Himyarice, written on ‘asi. According co Tbn Durayd and others, in the dialect of the tribe Hudhail al-dhabr means ‘writing’ and al- zabr ‘reading’ "”? Tbn Durayd also quotes poetic references to the ef fect that Himyarive books (cubur Himyar), which contain their tory, were written in Himyarite on ‘asib, and he gives the commen- tary that they used to write on ‘asib."° Moreover, zabiir-script (in- sctiptions, books) is mentioned alongside the musnad-script, which means that a distinction had been made between them." Al- Hamdant mentions zubur Himyar al-gadimah wa-masinidi-ha al- MH AF. L. Beeston, ‘Musnad’, in £7, VIL (Leiden 1993), 704-5, 45 J. Ryckmans, ‘Inscribed Old South Arabian Sticks and Palm-leaf Stalks: An Inwroduetion and a Palacographical Approach’, Proceedings ofthe Seminar for Ara- bian Studies 23 (1993), 127-40, "6 Diwwén Inu” al: Qa, 170, 173. 17 WW. Miller, ‘Céericure eabir du Yémen préslamique dans la eadtion arabe, and Y. M, Abdalla, ‘Kha al-zabir al-yamant wal-nugish al-khashabiyyal, in J. Ryckmans, W. W. Miller and ¥.M. Abdalla, Tees du Vémen antique inseris Neuve, 1994), 35-9 (French section), 5-15 (Arabic section) al-Hasan b. aleHusayn al-Sukkatt, Kitdb sharh as'dr al- udhaliyin, 3 vols, ed “Abd al-Savcar Abmad Farr (Cairo 1965), 1, 256, cf. also 98, "Tho Sidah, Kitab al-Mubhases XIM, 4-5; H. al‘Ta"tn, alAdab alyjabilé bayna labajatal-gaba'l wal-lughah al-muwabbaddh, (Baghdad 1978), 179. 0 Thm Durayd, Jamharatal-lughah, |, 254 - 1) alTabar, Ta'ibh al-rual wa-al-mudak Ml, 117; Mabmid Shukst al-Altst al-Baghdidi, Buligh ab-arah ft ma'rift abwal al-‘arah, 3 vols (Beirut, n.d). Il, 368. 301 rsyeumofpnyxorsfi-d wou popeoquog E loz'PL uswWRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA dabriyyah, ‘ancient books of Himyar and their eternal inscrip- tions’,!22 ‘We have some information about the scripts of pre-Islamic Arabia from pre-Islamic poetry, mostly from the so-called ‘traces-introduc- tion’ (al-mugaddimah al-ralaliyyah), in which the poets describe the remains or ruins of dwellings and the traces of an abandoned en- campment of the lover, comparing it to script. The traces (atldl) of the encampment of the lover are said to be like the traces of script on ‘asib or ragg.!® The association of the zabiir-script with the palm-leaf stalk ‘sib is mentioned by pre-Islamic poets like Imru’ al-Qays,!™ Labid,! al- A’sha!and, from the Umayyad period, al-Marrar b. Mungidh'”” and others. Zabiir-script is also artested in connection with palm-leaves (iarid) by al-Hamdani."* Apparently, zabar was the script used for writing on palm leaves, palm trunks and palm bark. The ben-tree is also mentioned in connection with the zabir-script, by Labid.!? Zabir-script is thought to be the script employed for writing on parchment. The association of zabiir script, inkwell (dawat), papyrus (girsas)"® and parchment (ragq, git) is found in pre-Islamic poetry. Different kinds of leather, such as adim and gadim, were also used for zabiir-script. Ibn al-Nadim mentioned a kind of script described. as resembling women’s script (bhatt al-nisd”) written on adim,!>! which could be a reference to zabirscript. Words for ink (bibr, midad) are recorded in Arabic sources for the pre-Islamic period, and writing with ink is mentioned in pre-Islamic poetry.? The script called al-wahy is said co be written not only on stone, as men- tioned above, but also on white or new parchment," which could be a reference to zabiir or a similar script. Poctry provides some in- "2 Aba. Muhammad al-Hasan b, Abmad alHamdani, Kitab ab-thil 1, ed ‘Muhammad b. ‘Al al-Akwa" al-Hiwalt (Cairo 1963), 13. "NH. al-Quysi al-Tabt'ch ft alsh' alah (Beirue 1984), 257-76, espe- cially 265-8; ‘Abbas, Sharh Dian Labi, 299; a-Alasi, Bulagh ab-arab Il, 367-8. " Diwsin Inara’ al-Qeys, 170 173. "5 “Abbas, Sharh Dram Labid, 138, 126 abShayi’, Maja alle al-haych alicia yah, 123. 17 aLDabbr, a Mufaddalpy, 154, 16, 56. "8 al-Hamdini, Kb altel VIL, 221 1 CE note 44. 8 thn Manzi, Ldn al-‘arab, art gr dhe script is described there as mabhatt sabi, "30 thn al-Nadim, Kitdb al-Fibrs, 5 2 Tha Manze, Lisén al-anab, ats hbr, dup: B. Lewin, A Vocabulary of the Hudailian Poems (Geteborg, 1978). 136. "8 Din Hassan Ion Thabie, 82, 15.1 302‘WRITING MATERIALS IN PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA Sahifah Sabifah (pl. subuf) means ‘document’. The Arabs understood it as any kind of sheet to write on. The term was common in pre-Islamic Arabia. It is mentioned in the Qur'an, in hadieh, in poetry"® and by different Arab authors.'® Moreover, i is attested several times in South Arabian inscriptions, in Sabaic,"*” several times in Qaea- banian'® and mostly frequenely in Minaean inscriptions. The word sahifah derives from the South Semitic root shf!® which means ‘to write, write down, inscribe’. The word shft in South Arabian in- scriptions usually means a document written on stone. Sahifah was used for writing important subjects like religious themes, contracts, and so on." The root is also found in Akkadian (sépu)."?? The Ara- bic word mashaf, ‘book, volume’, which is found for the Qur"in, was borrowed from Ge'ez;! the word originally meant a volume of subuf’. Subuf means ‘rolls, as was noted by Classical Arabic au- thors.™ The Arabic word sahifih is of South Arabian origin" and seems to refer to a document or a sheet, written on any kind of max terial, such as leather or stone. The Arabic sources define the gadim as white leather or white sahifah for writing. The pre-Islamic poet al- A‘sha mentions silver documents (sihdf al-fiddah).'°° ‘The Arabic lexicons explain riga’, ‘scraps’, as paper (girtd)."” How- ever, they can also be pieces of leather or papyrus. Among the writ- ten materials upon which the Qur'an was gathered, were rigad® made of parchment (raqq), leather (jild), papyrus or paper (kaghid).!"* 5 abShayi’, Mucjiam ale al-bayah a-jtina'nyah, 165; Lewin, A Vocabulary of the Hudailan Poems, 233. Asad, Masi al-shi'r al abil, 66, © ‘Sabaic Dictionary, 142. "Mt Ricks, Lexicon of Incrptional Qatabanian, 134-5. "9 Garbini, erisin’ sudarabiche, nos. 151, 1; 182, 2: 185, 1; 186, 1; 195, 2: 208, 2; 222, 2: 28, 2: 246,25 247, 1; 264, 2; 398, 6 ‘30 Sabaic Dictionary, 142. 19 -Selwi,Jemenitvche Worter, 128. 2 Aw, 1091. "8 Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Gee, $52. 1% al-Suyat, Kitab a- liga I, 205. 1 al Ss Jmeniticbe Wort, 128 "6 sh-Zabidi, Taj al‘ar, ae sf 1 ak Zabii, Taj alas art 1g 18 About, The Rise ofthe North Arabic Script, 52; Hebbo, Die Fremdwirer in er anabischen Prophetenbiographie, 143; al-Suyiti, Kit al-lagdn I, 202, 207. 309‘WRITING MATERIALS IN PRESLAMIC ARABIA Majalla This Arabic word is of Aramaic origin. It means scroll or written rolled material. Majallah could be made from papyti or leather. Pa- pyrus rolls are found in Egypt, SyriaPalestine, and are atested also in Mesopotamia." Scrolls were used in Egypt as early as the third millennium BC, and were used for writing Hieratic?® or Aramaic lit- rary texts, of religious texts like the Qumran texts. Aramaic prov- cerbs and the story of the wise Ahigir were found written on a roll of papyrus.®" The word majallah was known in pre-Islamic Arabia, as the Arabic sources mention. These give its meaning as ‘a document (abifah) for writing words of wisdom. Thus majallat Lugman is the name used by Arabic writers for the book containing the wisdom of Ahigie.2°? Galling, “Tafel, Buch und Blatt’, 221-2; Lemaire, ‘Vom Ostrakon zur Schriferolle’, 119-23. 200 Schlace, Schrift und Schreiber im Alten Aggypten, 70-76. 21 CE. note 199. 22 Hebbo, Die Fremdwiner in der arabischen Prophetenbiographie des Ibn Hischam, 391-2; al-Asad, Masidir alsbi'r al-jahil, 64. 310