Daniel A. Beck

[OCIANA @OCIANA_OSU]

#New on #OCIANA - an extremely challenging inscription, but sometimes these contain the most interesting information. Our author complains of Bʿlsmn, the storm god, being greedy (𝒕𝒔́𝒓𝒉) with the rains, a creative way of saying: drought!
Find more: https://t.co/NNg3mSDSTd

[OCIANA @OCIANA_OSU]

General remarks: 1) we have no info of area of discovery or arch/epig. context; 2) paleographically late, 5th c. CE or later; 3) meaning unclear- is تسقط a family name? Unattested!; or an epithet: mHmd “who has descended” t-stem of سقط. Important no mimation on mHmd. Exciting.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

My hope is not to declare these problems resolved, but rather to highlight how outrageously interesting and insightful the epigraphic data is for fundamental problems in quranic studies--and the epigraphic research continues to evolve and improve rapidly.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

Revisiting Safaitic AWS 385 and its 'lf. The current entry on OCIANA is only partially translated, which is why I used the Safaitic Dictionary translation in my recent thread. But it lacks a sacrificial context. See: https://t.co/lvZusRcnnD

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

Read this way, an 'lf provided security, but it implied a redistributive obligation to divide the corresponding material wealth, sanctioned by the deity who ensured the efficacy of the arrangement. Q 106, then, exhorts recognition of that dependence and obligation.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@jricole And, although this far exceeds the scope of what can cover in Twitter, there is reason to suspect it was associated with the evening star, Venus in descent at dusk, as determiner of fate and security, as well as vengeance.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

The 'ilaf security pact with Allah in Q 106 versus the 'lf security pact with Allat in Safaitic inscription AWS 385. Islamic tradition argued that the 'ilaf were Quraysh security pacts with human polities. But new epigraphic work gives us a fascinating and far better explanation.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@jricole They might not be. That part is uncertain and speculative, true. But in turn, the triple sacrificial grouping may well have been an existing nomadic invocational structure that sedentarized at Hijr or elsewhere. It is extraordinary to see it with Allat and ilaf.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@RamonIHarvey That is why the Safaitic evidence is so exciting (among other things); it explains why they might be resistant to Q 106 in context. Is the explanation consistent with tradition? Sure, but in a different way, tying travel security to intercessory pacts with the three of 53:19-20.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@RamonIHarvey Other Quraysh may have already recited similar statements, and the prophet was using that as building blocks for pointing towards an eschatological conclusion of the concept. We don’t really know. It is hard to see any other Quraysh disagreeing with Q 106 as it is phrased.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@RamonIHarvey Understandable and I agree in part; tweets are not a great medium for methodology. After all, epigraphy has its own problems and limits. We might find new inscriptions that change things further. But that is the point; material evidence of usage is foundational. Not just help.

[Ramon Harvey @RamonIHarvey]

Al-Maturidi's 1st option: 'It is as if He says: I destroyed the People of the Elephant and did to them what I did, for the desired security (li-ta'alluf) of Quraysh in that place like that by which they secured (alifu) the two journeys made for them in the winter and summer'.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@RamonIHarvey Particularly exciting here is the striking ritual connection it indicates between Q 106 and Q53:19-20. This isn’t something anybody would have guessed (much less known) without the epigraphic data. The bare semantics were insufficient to puzzle it out.

[Daniel A. Beck @DanielABeck9]

@RamonIHarvey It’s not just the tradition that lacked this access. It’s also modern scholarship—including mine. This is the problem I have with ‘enriched.’ Empirical data on pre-Islamic usage isn’t just ‘enriching,’ it’s foundational for historical analysis. Just like the Islamic era material.