Paleo-Arabic

Paleo-Arabic was first documented in inscriptions in Syria and Jordan, but has since been found in Western Arabia (the Hejaz), where over fifty Paleo-Arabic inscriptions have now been found, and in South Arabia. The only god mentioned in these inscriptions is Allah. These inscriptions are always Christian when more detailed religious information is available, a finding that is considered informative for understanding the religious history of late pre-Islamic Arabia.

Paleo-Arabic inscriptions are publicly uploaded to the DiCoNab database.

Linguistics

Distinguishing features

Paleo-Arabic refers to the Arabic script in the centuries prior to the standardization Arabic underwent in the Islamic era. According to Ahmad Al-Jallad and Hythem Sidky, Paleo-Arabic can be distinguished from the script that occurs in later periods by a number of orthographic features, including:

• Wawation (the addition of a seemingly superfluous waw (و) to the end of nouns)
• Use of Arameograms, i.e. fossilized Aramaic forms of Arabic words such as Aramaic br for Arabic bn ('son') or Aramaic ’nh for Arabic ’na ('I; me')
• Absence of ʾalif ( ا ) to represent the long ā
• Occasional phonetic spelling of the definite article, i.e. eye spelling of al (ال) to match assimilated sun letters instead of retaining the lam.
• Occasional use of dots to distinguish the dāl (د) from rē (ر) as a relic from the Syriac script

Categories

Known Paleo-Arabic inscriptions fall into one of three categories:

• simple signatures with no confessional statements
• monotheist invocations
• specifically Christian texts

Introductory formulae

The present corpus of Paleo-Arabic inscriptions attests the following introductory formulae:

• b-sm-k rb-nʾ / In your name, our lord
• brk-[k]m rb-nʾ / May our lord bless you
• b-sm-k ʾllhm / In your name, O God

Spelling of "God"

Paleo-Arabic inscriptions most commonly refer to "God" as al-ʾilāh or by its orthographic variant illāh, though the term Rabb for "Lord" also appears as is seen in the Abd Shams inscription, Jabal Dabub inscription, and the Ri al-Zallalah inscription.