A new reading of an Islamic inscription associated with Caliph Othman bin Affan – HA
Ashraf AboArafe
The Heritage Authority/ HA revealed that an Islamic inscription was found related to the third rightly-guided caliph, Caliph Othman bin Affan – may God be pleased with him -, dated the twenty-fourth year of the Hijrah. Al-Mukarramah, previously registered with the authority in the National Antiquities Register.
The authority extended its thanks to Dr. Eid Al-Yahya and his team, who indicated the inscription, and the expert on Islamic inscriptions, Muhammad Al-Magdawi, who participated in reading the initial inscription. Historically, it documents one of the important events in early Islamic history, where the reading “God is written and written in the time of Amr Ibn Affan in the year 24”.
The authority explained that the archaeological studies conducted by a team of specialists from the Heritage Authority on the rock – led by Dr. Nayef Al-Qanour, Director of the Protection Department at the Heritage Authority – provided a reading of the inscription, after examining and documenting it, as the mystery of the first line of the inscription that reveals the name of the flag (Zuhair) was read and revealed. Who wrote and transcribed the text and the initial reading came as follows: “I Zuhair believed – in God and wrote a time – Amr ibn Affan, twenty-four years old.”
The inscription appears similar to the content of the Zuhair inscription in the province of Al-Ula, which was documented by the writer of the time in which the Commander of the Faithful, Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab – may God be pleased with him – died. And later published it with all the inscriptions on the site in its scientific containers.
The importance of the inscription comes as the third oldest rock document dated Islamic inscriptions after the Salamah inscription in Yanbu al-Nakhl dated in the year (23 AH) and the Zuhair inscription in the province of Al-Ula (24 AH).
The Al-Juhfa site is one of the most important archaeological sites in the north of the Makkah region, where the Heritage Authority is working on a project to survey archaeological sites for the current season (2022 AD), to complete the work on archaeological sites in the northwest of the Makkah region in the previous two seasons (2018-2019), which started from Jeddah Governorate to Al-Kamil Governorate, and it included a number of its affiliated centers, during which a number of archaeological sites dating back to the Neolithic period, sites of rock art and writings, an Islamic site, and sites of urban heritage were monitored.
The Heritage Authority praised the great role of those interested in preserving archaeological sites and highlighting their importance, stressing the importance of community members’ participation in the care and preservation of cultural heritage, and the initiative to report any observations or discoveries related to national heritage, based on its belief in the need to integrate efforts in developing The cultural heritage sector.
