Access and Understand the Sources
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Learn how to read, understand, edit, and critique Safaitic inscriptions, our main source for the religion and culture of North Arabia's pre-Islamic nomads.
This intensive course focuses on the Sabaic language and introduces students to its script, grammar, and lexicon. Students master the monumental Musnad and cursive Zabur scripts to analyze diverse genres, from legal decrees to private letters. The curriculum tracks the region's evolution from Bronze Age to the rise of the Himyarite Kingdom, culminating with the rise of Abraha.
This course introduces students to the Paleo-Arabic epigraphic corpus, tracing the script's evolution from its Nabataean roots through a chronological study of key inscriptions. Participants will conduct a comprehensive reading of the known corpus, critically examining issues of interpretation, historical context, and the broader historical ramifications.