Namara inscription, the first text in Arabic script
Inscripción de Namara, primer texto en escritura árabe
- Date
- 328 · confidence high
- Place
- Namara, As-Suwayda, Syria
- Credited to
- Nabataean-Arab scribes
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays, dated AD 328, in Arabic written with joined Nabataean letters. It is the oldest evidence of the passage from the Nabataean alphabet to Arabic.
It is debated whether the text is already Arabic or Arabised Nabataean; the date follows the Bostran era.
What it led to
- the cursive Arabic script of the 7th century
- Qur'anic texts in Hijazi and Kufic scripts
- Islamic calligraphy