6 A. FONAHN. M.-N. Kl. 
I have therefore been led to the supposition that the inscription repre- 
sents a non-Arabic word or sentence, transcribed with Arabic characters. 
Searching about, I came across an Aramaic nomen proprium masc. 
among the Palmyrene inscriptions, a noun strikingly like our Arabic 
inscription. 
Transcribing the Palmyrene characters into Hebrew, the word reads 
as follows: 
3pyny, also apy Ny and IDYDN, with Greek transcription: "A9ndxaBoc 
(found only in the genitiv case: «9nax«ov). 
We do not know how to vocalize correctly these different forms of 
the same word. 
They are found in some Palmyrene inscriptions, one of which is dated 
A.D. 56, another A.D 181, a third one A.D. 218. 
The inscription of A.D. 56 (vide de Vogüé: Syrie Centrale. Inscrip- 
tions Sémitiques, page 38 — copied by Waddington) runs as follows: 
Saba Me) mss T 3p Translation by de Vogüé: 
NI dace py wi »Ce tombeau, demeure éternelle, est celui 
THe Jen ap yhHy 1 de A’thiaqab, fils de Gadia, fils de A’thia- 
NIS d. vu] qab, d'une fraction de la tribu des Beni- 
[3 lp mp mma Maitha, qu'il a bàti de son vivant, en son 
CANSN wey SS bonneur et en l'honneur de ses enfants, 
367 nw ip ne pour Gadia, son père. Dans le mois de 
Nisan de l'année 367 (avril 56 apr. J.-C.)«. 
De Vogüé adds the remark: 3pyny = Athi sustinuit. 
The inscription from A.D. 181 (vide Lidzbarski: Hdb. der nord- 
semitischen Epigraphik) is published for the first time by Dav. Heinr. 
Müller in »Palmyrenische Inschriften nach Abklatschen des Hern. Dr. 
Alois Musil (Denkschr. d. Kaiserl. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien, Phil.-hist. Cl. 
XLVI, III) 1898; it runs: 
492 DMYTN AVS On the fifth line we meet the name: 
wawb SON bar ‘Ati'aqab = son of 'A., as a part of 
2 NO" 13 wv hie a name beginning on the fourth line. 
any Am a mob nn pu 
mot NTIESN 2pyny 
NISUS SONIS p 
NN NMBD vy 
