Early Islamic Graffiti of Wādī al-Khirqa in Northwest Saudi Arabia

A Commentary on Unpublished Materials

Abstract

Wādī al-Khirqa is situated about 75 km northwest of Tabūk, Saudi Arabia. In 2017, a Saudi–Japanese team started graffiti surveys at the site, within the framework of al-Jawf/Tabūk Archaeological Project led by Prof. Sumio Fujii (Kanazawa University), and completed the third season in 2022. The site yielded 113 early Islamic Arabic graffiti, among which 32 were published in my previous papers. In this paper, 28 unpublished graffiti in good condition are introduced with their textual and orthographic analyses.

Regarding the texts, in addition to the common invocations beginning with Allāhumma (“O Allāh”), the formula with Anā PN (“I, PN”) that is typical of the Islamic period’s earliest stage (the midseventh to the beginning of the eighth centuries), the early simple proclamation of faith with Āmana PN (“PN believes”) and shahāda (declaration of faith) were observed. In shahāda, the texts following the declaration of tawḥīd (Allāh’s oneness) are not uniform, which suggests that the common shahāda with the declaration of Muḥammad’s messengership might not have been established in this period. Similarly, some expressions for Allāh in the graff iti are rather rare in later periods. Concerning orthography, the spelling of some words does not correspond with the grammar of Classical Arabic, but they seem to follow certain rules.

The period of these inscriptions corresponds to the last period of the Rashidun Caliphate and the beginning of the Abbasid period, in which Muslims had to build their own identity due to rapid territorial expansion. The graff iti of Wādī al-Khirqa seem to reflect the stage of trial and error of this period in establishing a common traditional Islamic formula, as well as providing a glimpse into the diversity and flexibility in writing before the establishment of the Classical Arabic orthography.