A fairly substantial number of Arabian inscriptions survive from the pre-Islamic era; however, very few are in the Arabic alphabet. Some are in the Arabic language, or its closest relatives; these notably include the Thamudic, Lihyanic, and Safaitic inscriptions in the north and the Epigraphic South Arabian (Sabaean, Himyaritic, etc.) inscriptions in the south, both in variants of the South Arabian musnad alphabet, as well as Nabataean inscriptions in Aramaic and Arabic. In addition, there are inscriptions in other languages, such as Syriac. This article deals with the more limited topic of pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet; extremely sparse in number (only 5 are known for certain), these do not use dots, making them sometimes difficult to interpret. 15 distinct letter-shapes had to do duty for 28 sounds!

The first known text in the Arabic alphabet is a late fourth-century inscription, found in the temple of al-Lat at Jabal Ramm (50 km east of Aqaba, Jordan.) It consists of three lines of Arabic and a bent line of Thamudic. It is the boast of an energetic man who made his fortune.

The next oldest (and the first dated) is a trilingual inscription at Zebed in Syria (near Aleppo) from 512. The Arabic portion consists of a few personal names.

The third is an undated but probably 5th century inscription found in a church at Umm al-Jimal in northern Jordan, a monument to one Ulayh ibn Ubaydah, the secretary of a Roman cohort. This, incidentally, refers to God with the word Allah, showing that Arab Christians' use of the word predates Islam.

The fourth inscription, dated to 528, was discovered in 1965 at Jabal Usays, about 100 km east of Damascus. It records a military expedition by one Ibrahim ibn Mughirah on behalf of the king al-Harith - presumably al-Harith ibn Jabalah (Aretas in Greek), king of the Ghassanid vassals of the Byzantines.

The fifth - and last - is dated to 568, and was discovered in a martyrium in Harran, south of Damascus. It records Sharahil ibn Zalim's building of the martyrium a year after the destruction of Khaybar.

See also: PERF 558

External links

• Pre-Islamic Nabataean inscriptions (http://home.student.uva.nl/rogier.visser/ac/nabatean.html) (pictures, mostly of the inscriptions listed above)