Jabal al-ʿHayn (, sometimes; Jabal Uhayn, Uhain or Uhain mount, literally the 'mount of censure') is a prominent outcrop of red sandstone in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, known for its pre-historic petroglyphs, tribal markings (''wusūm'') and inscriptions in early Semitic languages as well as

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The mountain is located in Medina Province, about 17.5 km north-east of the town of al-Hanākīyā (الحناكية) at 24°59'21"N 40°38'27"E.

Petroglyphs

Ancient petroglyphs carved on the rock faces of Jabal al-ʿHayn depict horned bison, standing figures and an exceptional wild cat with a curling tail. Camels are shown in some petroglyphs that seem to be less ancient.

Inscriptions

Among the many inscriptions at Jabal al-ʿHayn are a number in Arabic which date to the earliest years of the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...

. One inscription quotes

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

Surah A ''surah'' (; ; ) is an Arabic word meaning 'chapter' in the Quran. There are 114 ''suwar'' in the Quran, each divided into ayah, verses (). The ''suwar'' are of unequal length; the shortest ''surah'' (al-Kawthar) has only three verses, while ...

Al-Kahf Al-Kahf () is the 18th chapter (sūrah) of the Qur'an with 110 verses ( āyāt). Regarding the timing and contextual background of the revelation ('' asbāb al-nuzūl''), it is an earlier Meccan surah, which means it was revealed before Muh ...

verse 21. The inscription was studied by

Fred Donner Fred McGraw Donner (born 1945) is a scholar of Islam and Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.

and published in 1984. Following a frequently found formula, the inscription implores God to grant forgiveness and then bears witness to the hour of final judgement. In a second record of singular historical importance, an individual named Rāfiʿ bin 'Alī declares "I believe that there is no God except Him in whom the children of Israel believed, (believing as) a Muslim

Hanif In Islam, the terms (; , ) and (; ) are primarily used to refer to pre-Islamic Arabians who were Abrahamic monotheists. Muslims regard these people favorably for shunning Arabian polytheism and instead solely worshipping the God of Abraha ...

; nor am I among the polytheists." This gives a direct quote of

Yunus Yunus ibn Matta () is a prophet of God in Islam corresponding to Jonah son of Amittai in the Hebrew Bible. Jonah is the only one of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible to be named in the Quran.''Encyclopedia of Islam'', ''Yunus'', pg. 3 ...

verse 90.

Also published by Donner is an inscription on a boulder invoking the name of God and giving an exceptional religious maxim. This and the other inscriptions from the site are listed in ''Thesaurus d'épigraphie islamique'', an online research resource supported by the Max van Berchem Foundation, founded in 1973 in honour of the celebrated epigraphist

Max van Berchem Edmond Maximilien Berthout van Berchem (16 March 1863, Geneva – 7 March 1921, Vaumarcus) commonly known as Max van Berchem, was a Swiss philologist, epigraphist and historian. Best known as the founder of Arabic epigraphy in the Western worl ...

(1863–1921).

References

{{reflist

External links

* Thesaurus d'épigraphie islamiqu

Archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia Quranic words and phrases