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A Paleo - Arabic dedication on a boulder near an abandoned mosque in Saudi Arabia may have been carved by Ḥanẓalah bin Abī ʿĀmir , a companion of the Moslem prophet Muhammad , a Modern field of study finds .
Although many inscription from the early day of Islam are known , their penning remains unconfirmed , except for one in Saudi Arabia ’s al - Bahah region that can be firmly attributed to Muhammad ’s companion , who later became the governor of Mecca . The dedication , which researchers analyse in a new study published in the April return of theJournal of Near Eastern Studies , is only the second confirm inscription whose ascription connect to Muhammad . Unlike the former textbook , this one was carve in the early 7th century before Islam came to prevail Arabia , piss it an significant attestator to the pre - Muslim Hijaz ( the region where Mecca is located ) and the spiritual backdrop of the Quran ’s audience .
The boulder with the two Paleo-Arabic inscriptions. The top inscription was likely carved by Ḥanẓalah bin Abī ʿĀmir, a companion of Muhammad.
However , not everyone is to the full convinced about the author ' identities .
The finding slough light on the former days of Islam , the investigator said .
" obstinate to the popularly held belief that Islam was carry in the full luminousness of history , we do n’t know much about the rise of Islam from contemporary sources,“Ahmad Al - Jallad , a prof of Arabic study at The Ohio State University and the survey ’s co - writer , told Live Science . " That geological period of sentence is cover in mystery . These dedication provide a confirmable fundament for the writing of an evidence - base history of this flow . "
Yusef Bilin , a Turkish calligraphist visiting an ancient mosque in the city of Taif that ’s believe to have been build up by Alī b. Abī Ṭālib , the fourth Caliph of Islam , noticed two inscription on a prominent boulder some 330 feet ( 100 beat ) aside . In 2021 , he take it to the attention of the written report ’s authors . The inscriptions were written in Paleo - Arabic book , which report the belated pre - Moslem form of the Arabic ABC’s . The authors of the top and bottom inscriptions identify themselves as Ḥanẓalah , boy of ʿAbd-ʿAmr - w and Abd al-ʿUzzē , son of Sufyān .
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The text edition translates to " In your name , our Lord , I am Ḥanẓalah [ son of ] ʿAbd-ʿAmr - w , I root on ( you ) to be pious towards God " and " In your name , our Lord , I am ʿAbd al-ʿUzzē Logos of Sufyān , I urge ( you ) to be pious towards God . "
The generator study the traditional Moslem life of Muhammad and genealogic disc of Arabs and chance that the combination of these name was passing rare . One someone with the name Ḥanẓalah , whose father was ʿAbd-ʿAmr , fit the bill . This person belonged to the Aws clan — based in Yathrib ( now known as Medina ) — and have prominently as a fellow traveler of Muhammad in early Islamic literature .
These observations led the research worker to conclude that Ḥanẓalah is most likely the same one consociate with Muhammad and that he etched these words while traveling through Taif , perhaps with someone named ʿAbd al-ʿUzzē , before he have Islam .
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" It ’s basically unimaginable that this inscription was made after Muhammad commence his ministry , because the hoi polloi in Taif were super hostile to him , and it ’s unconvincing that one of his followers went there and left this inscription , " subject co - authorHythem Sidky , executive conductor of the International Quranic Studies Association in Washington , D.C. , told Live Science .
Al - Jallad added that the patina of the inscription and the weathering patterns indicate that it had been there a long prison term , ruling out the possibility of a modern counterfeit .
" The clause is a very telling small-arm of scholarship,“James Montgomery , a professor of Arabic and midway Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the study , told Live Science in an electronic mail . " It is careful , meticulous and discreet in its use of evidence , with every title being properly corroborate by reference to all relevant and available grounds . "
Although Montgomery thinks the identification is most likely exact , he remained agnostic about the title that the Ḥanẓalah mentioned in the inscription is the same one of Islamic custom . " I would like to reserve opinion until we have two more inscriptions that also satisfy the stringent dating criteria the authors engage , " he said .
