HADRAMUTIC INSCRIPTIONS
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] . HADRAMUTIC INSCRIPTIONS. 365
line. This artifice of composition is not pre¬
served in the translation; which here, as in ren¬
dering the first two lines of the inscription, falls
into couplets, the sense being commensurate with
the line.
To the awful sublimity of the latter part of
the seventh line, and to its wonderful coincidence
with the sublimest passage of the Book of Job, I
have already briefly adverted. But to do any
thing like justice to a passage, which comprizes,
in four words, the preaching of an anticipated
Gospel *, demands a closer analysis.
vxmn-i-YxiiAii-v-vjqY-i-vxiA u i
Literally,
“ And we proclaimed our belief in mysteries:
In the miracle-mystery, in the Ilesurrection-mystery, in the nostrilmystery.”
\ T, is the Arabic UJ (Rana), Yocem edidit.
Yociferavit. X1A is the same with Socios
consortesve addidit Deo, atque ita crediditin Deum
(in other words, in the Trinity), and YX, is
<_.oA, Res occulta et abscondita.
Having first stated, as a general proposition,
the belief of the Adites in the mysteries of Reve¬
lation ; the poet goes on to specify the articles of
their creed: beginning with their belief in mi¬
racles.
36G HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF ARABIA. [Arp.
For VIIV, is the Arabic (Dark), Restauravit resarcivit aliud alio: whence 'LSj\a
(Darkat), Comprehensiva potentia (in other
words, supernatural power), with the term Cliab
“ mystery,” suffixed.. . . The next article of faith
is, the Resurrection.
VX11 All is manifestly the Arabic Ortus
fuit Sol. Ortus Solis, (i. e. “ The Sun risen
again:” or, “ Sunrise,”) with the prefix m, to
convert it into a noun substantive, and the
suffix chab, to mark the mysteriousness of the
doctrine. It is impossible more clearly or beau¬
tifully to express the doctrine of the Resurrec¬
tion, than by this image: the very image, indeed,
from which the term resurrection is itself derived.
Accordingly, the common emblem of faith in this
great truth, is the sun, with the motto, Resurgam. That such was the sense ofthe Adite poet,
is demonstrated by his Arabic translator; whose
synonyme for the original word, is
Resurrectio,from the root Excitavit e somno.
Resuscitavit mortuum.
The closing compound, VXTI 53, appeared, at
first sight, far more difficult of interpretation:
although (as is so often the case in the difficulties
of Scripture, and peculiarly of the Book of Job)
when interpreted, the very obscurity ofthe phrase,
I.] IIADRAMUTIC INSCRIPTIONS. 367 but heightened the awful grandeur of the sense which it, at once, covered and conveyed. As given in Mr. Wellsted’s transcript of the inscrip¬ tion, Munkar, without the final chab, my first impression was, that we had here the Munker of the Koran, one of the two angels styled “ Ex¬ aminers,” from their office of examining the dead, in the tomb, previous to the Resurrection. And I was sorry to think that Mahomet had such ancient authority for his “ lying wonders.” The only rendering for the word, taken otherwise than as a proper name, afforded by the Arabic, was Sonum emisit, spiritumne cum sono eduxit, per nares, . . . whencejU^, (Muncliar), e naribus spirans. The agreement between this root, and the equivalent term employed by the Arabic translator, viz.^iJi, Vita futura, from .tJ, Revixit mortuus, Vivificavit, Resuscitavit, mortuum Deus, I mil own did not at once strike me. But being led to weigh the meaning more thoughtfully, on finding, from Mr. Cruttenden’s copy ofthe inscription, thatthe mystery-breathing termination chab, belonged to this word also, the sense of the Adite poet broke upon me in all its fulness, when I remembered, that it is by the nostrils, and the breath of the nostrils, that God himself, in Scripture, defines the life in man: that, at his creation, “ The Lord God. . . breathed