24 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [Jantary, 1875. whose written monuments, in spite of the icono- clastic fervour of the first Moslems, have heen preserved to our times, mast have heen the principal idiom of Southern Arabia, though there is no doubt also that various other dialects, and even langnagcs, were current; but in the entire absence of reliable information it would be use- Lesa to adduce the scanty and unreliable notices in Muhammadan authors, by whom such pagan researches were generally considered 6mfol unless they contribute in some way to elucidate their own religion, and to this circumstance we are indebted also for the meagreness of the vocabulary purporting to contain Hemyaritic and Tamani words given by Snyuti* as follows :
- a:Lj ^j *U*J| Jli ^i^ii^oU jJo|j jJUi a]j3
Aijx^b ^ Jj &*jU ^♦jJI cUi &L ^ } * J.* tf J IS y jy * Ij^jk-,! v lix/| ey*^ 4;^i &*k It will be observed that some Qoranic words are here translated differently ; thus in sum Lin. 61 ^y^Klm f& j is usually rendered by 11 And you are careless or triflers," or, as Sale has it, " spending your time in idle diversions ■" but Suynti renders the word u.?* - l*» by c LuW I Again, in Lxxv. 15 iji^ Jb jlj the meaning is "and though he offer his excuses" (or set forth bis plea); but Snyuti puts for %ji jt** its equivalent 8j^*-» ; and in the same chapter, T - ilj Jjj 1 & we have in Snyuti for j j^ V "no place," the word ck* if. He further says that }d [play] is in the Tamani language 5 j*i I [woman]. In sura xxxvm. 15, " Do ye invoke Ba'l," he says kj the ace. of Zj [Lord]. The word .rib [bird, &e,] means, according to him, in the Hemyaritic language, *!!#* [ignor- ance]. In mm l. 35 lyp*' rendered by Sale
- ' Pass therefore," is, in the language of Yemen
y ) j A — 'they fled.' Lastly yUJ" hook is in the Hemyaritic language called jj^l. The following expressions, ocenrring in the same work, p. r*| r, stated to be Hemyaritic, uitli their Arabic equivalents, I insert without comment : — Ijjjj ^y^. ** lj *** C^b fj^ 1 1**=* iii-flj ^m* «&? ^U ^^w* * ^lll 4i&-Jl tj4&* j s *-j < ^jV ^eSxi fSjZ, i^b**! ol^^l^l eoil| C-r tJ jL^ g*£&" JIjjj gokjixi ix> i j ^^x^-l^r* ^..^a* Hemyaritic is believed to have ceased to be a spoken language long before the Hijrah era; but perhaps it may have been used later also, in the same manner as Latin inscriptions are still employed on buildings, monuments, and coins among ourselves, long after the language itself has become a dead one. The Hemyaritic or rather Sabrean language, as at present known from the inscriptions, al- though essentially one, may be divided info four varieties or dialects, the first of which is the general Sabasan, comprising by far the greatest number of all the inscriptions hitherto known ; the second was current in M&'ia, and is the Minman dialect belonging to the people called Minaei by the Greek and Roman geogra- phers ; the third is nearly the same as the and was spoken in the interior of Hadra- maut ; whilst the fourth, to judge from in-. minations of words such as tm "his sanctuary" and Dtirropo " their rank and order/' appears to have been affected by Persian influences, is well known that Persian colonies existed Chare. The inscriptions hitherto discovered may, according to their contents, be divided into six classes : — • «A*-4 yj!1 r jl* ^ bjJSJJi Cilc. 1857, pp. 310 t m .
