The Harrān inscription (not to be confused with the Babylonian Harran Stela) is an Arabic-Greek bilingual

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

dedicatory at a

martyrium A ''martyrium'' (Latin) or ''martyrion'' (Greek) (: ''martyria)'', sometimes anglicized martyry (: "martyries"), is a church or shrine built over the tomb of a Christian martyr. It is associated with a specific architectural form, centered on a ...

in the

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

village, which is in the city of

as-Suwayda Suwayda (), also spelled Sweida, is a mainly Druze city located in southern Syria, close to the border with Jordan. It is the capital of Suwayda Governorate, one of Syria's 14 governorates, bordering Jordan in the South, Daraa Governorate ...

(south of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

) in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. It dates to 567–568. The inscription has one section in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and another in

Paleo-Arabic Paleo-Arabic (or Palaeo-Arabic, previously called pre-Islamic Arabic or Old Arabic) is a pre-Islamic script used to write Arabic. It began to be used in the fifth century, when it succeeded the earlier Nabataeo-Arabic script, and it was used unti ...

and, while the content between the two overlaps, there are also substantial differences. The use of Arabic in the composition of inscription was probably important to the cultural identity of the authors, as otherwise Greek was the imperial language of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

which controlled the region at the time.

Text

The text that follows is from the translation of George Bevan.

Greek

Asaraël, son of Talemos, the phylarch founded this martyrion of St John in the first year of the indiction in year 463.112 May the writer be remembered

Arabic

1. Sharahil son of Zalim built this martyrion 2. nthe year 463, after the rebellion 3. of Khaybar 4. by one year

Description and interpretation

Two figures are named in the inscription: the constructor Sharahil ibn Zalim, who held the military title of

phylarch A phylarch (, ) is a Greek title meaning "ruler of a tribe", from ''phyle'', "tribe" + ''archein'' "to rule". Athens In Classical Athens, a phylarch was the elected commander of the cavalry provided by each of the city's ten tribes. In 442/44 ...

, and Saint John, to whom the martyrium is dedicated to. The name ''srḥyl'', which can either be interpreted as Šarāḥīl or Šarāḥʾil, also occurs in one other early Arabic inscription, found in a church in

Knidos, Cyprus Knidus or Cnidus was an ancient Greek city on the Elaea promontory in northeastern Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity a ...

dating to the end of the seventh century. In the eighth century forwards, attestations of this name become more common. The Arabic portion of the inscription contains this information, with the addition that it was constructed one year after the "rebellion of

Khaybar KhaybarOther Arabic transliteration, standardized Arabic transliterations: / . Anglicized pronunciation: , . (, ) is an oasis in Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province, Saudi Arabia, situated some north of the city of Medina. Prior to ...

," little of which is known about aside from that it is also mentioned in the ''Kitāb al-maʿārif'' ("Book of Knowledge") of

Ibn Qutaybah Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba al-Dīnawarī al-Marwazī better known simply as Ibn Qutaybah (; c. 828 – 13 November 889 CE/213 – 15 Rajab 276 AH) was an Islamic scholar of Persian people, Persian descent. He served as a q ...

(828–889). Unlike the version in Ibn Qutayba, Michael MacDonald reads the inscription as indicating a rebellion on the part of Khaybar as opposed to an expedition.

Linguistic environment

Alongside the Harran inscription, the only two other known uses of the Arabic script in Syria are the Zabad inscription and the Jabal Says inscription, which also date to the sixth century. Similar to the Harran inscription, the Zabad inscription also contains sections in both Greek and Arabic, and Syriac as well. This is contextualized in the intercommunications and exposure between Arabic, Greek, and Syrian communities in late antiquity.

References