The Maymūnah Stone ( mt, il-Ġebla ta' Majmuna or ''il-Ħaġra ta' Majmuna'', ar, شاهد قبر ميمونة) is a 12th-century

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

tombstone (of Roman origins) which is believed to have been discovered in

Xewkija Xewkija ( mt, Ix-Xewkija, it, Casal Xeuchia, pronounced and written as Casal Sceuchia) is an administrative unit of Malta, on the island of Gozo. The population of Xewkija is 3,300 as of March 2014. History Xewkija, which is situated between ...

Gozo Gozo (, ), Maltese: ''Għawdex'' () and in antiquity known as Gaulos ( xpu, 𐤂𐤅𐤋, ; grc, Γαῦλος, Gaúlos), is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After t ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. According to judge and historian

Giovanni Bonello Giovanni Bonello (born 11 June 1936 in Floriana) is a Maltese judge, judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 1 November 1998 until 31 October 2004. As the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejected the names proposed by t ...

, the Majmuna Stone is a "spectacular visual relic of the Islamic presence in Malta." It is now exhibited in the Gozo Museum of Archaeology at the

Cittadella Cittadella ( vec, Sitadeła) is a medieval walled city in the province of Padua, northern Italy, founded in the 13th century as a military outpost of Padua. The surrounding wall has been restored and is in circumference with a diameter of around ...

of Victoria, Gozo.

Description

Maltese_Arabic_script_crop_on_a_tomb_stone

The marble stone was originally used in the Roman period as its backside indicates. A relief in the form of a rose was sculpted in the Roman architectural style. It was later reused as a tombstone. It is the only islamic funerary stone in Malta of its period to be still intact in its original size and the only one which gives a date. The Majmuna Stone is the tombstone of a girl called Majmuna, who died on 21 March 1174. It is a marble slab which has Roman decorations on the back (such reuse was a common occurrence in Islamic

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

). The

Kufic Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts. It ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

inscription approximately translates to:

In the name of
Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", ...
, the merciful and compassionate. May He be propitious to the Prophet
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monot ...
and to his followers and grant them eternal salvation.
God is great and eternal and He has decreed that his creatures should perish. Of this the prophet of Allah bears witness.
This is the tomb of Maymūnah, daughter of Hassān, son of ‘Ali al-Hudali, known as Ibn as-Susi. She died – Allah's mercy be upon her – on Thursday 16th day of the month of
Sha'ban Shaʽban ( ar, شَعْبَان, ') is the eighth month of the Islamic calendar. It is called as the month of "separation", as the word means "to disperse" or "to separate" because the pagan Arabs used to disperse in search of water. The fiftee ...
in the year 569, professing that there is only one God who has no equal.
Look around you! Is there anything everlasting on earth; anything that repels or casts a spell on death? Death robbed me from a palace and, alas, neither doors nor bolts could save me. All I did in my lifetime remains, and shall be reckoned.
Oh he who looks upon this tomb! I am already consumed inside it, and dust has settled on my eyes. On my couch in my abode there is nothing but tears, and what is to happen at my resurrection when I shall appear before my Creator? Oh my brother, be wise and repent.

The inscription is dated 1174, almost a century after the

Norman invasion of Malta The Norman invasion of Malta was an attack on the island of Malta, then inhabited predominantly by Muslims, by forces of the Norman County of Sicily led by Roger I in 1091. The invaders besieged Medina (modern Mdina), the main settlement on the ...

in 1091. It is believed that Islam remained the dominant religion in Malta until the Muslims were expelled in 1224.

Recent history

The date and location of discovery of the Majmuna Stone are unknown. It is traditionally held that the stone was found in an area known as ''Ta' Majmuna'', between the Gozitan villages of

and

Sannat Sannat ( mt, Ta' Sannat) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit of Malta, on the island of Gozo, with a population of 2,117 people (March 2014). Ta' Sannat is in the south of Gozo, popular for its very high cliffs, ancient cart ruts, ...

. However, it is also possible that the stone was not found in Malta at all, and it might originate from

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, North Africa. In his 1772 book ''Malta illustrata ovvero descrizione di Malta isola del Mare Siciliano e Adriatico'', Count Giovannantonio Ciantar wrote about the stone and illustrated it, but he was not able to decipher its writing. Ciantar wrote that the tombstone was located in the courtyard of a private residence. In 1799, during the Maltese uprising against French occupation,

Paul I of Russia Paul I (russian: Па́вел I Петро́вич ; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her l ...

sent the diplomat Andrey Italinski to ensure the

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregul ...

that they had Russian protection. Italinski examined the stone during his stay in Malta, and was the first person who managed to decipher part of its inscription. In an undated early 19th century scrapbook, Father Giuseppe Carmelo Gristi recorded that the stone was discovered "in Malta," and was preserved at Baron Muscat's residence in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was ...

. By 1839, the stone belonged to the Xara family, and it was eventually passed down to Baron Sir Giuseppe Maria de Piro. In 1845, de Piro donated it to the

Public Library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

. The stone has been part of the collections of the Gozo Museum of Archaeology since 1960. It has been called "the pride and joy" of the museum.

References

{{reflist, 30em 1174 works 12th-century inscriptions 12th century in Malta 1772 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Malta Arabic inscriptions Islam in Malta Burial monuments and structures Monuments and memorials to women Stone monuments and memorials Xewkija Gozo

Description

Recent history

Further reading

See also

References