A mindset in stone

Lessons from the inscription of Jabal Ramm

At first glance, the inscription shown above may not look like much. It was found in Jabal Ramm, a valley in present-day Jordan, etched into the wall of a pre-Islamic temple. Measuring no more than a foot across, it could have easily been dismissed as a meaningless scrawling — if it was even noticed at all.

But in fact, this inscription is one of the most remarkable finds of Near East scholarship. Dated to approximately 350 AD, it remains the second-oldest attestation of the Arabic language ever to be found: a written record which, given the barrenness of the language’s native environment and the primarily oral tradition of its culture, are quite scarce — and therefore, incredibly precious.

And even more striking than its antiquity is its content. In the midst of an empty and silent landscape, these ancient letters of stone speak out and address us. What are they trying to communicate? And can we find, in this message of a thousand years passed, any lessons for the modern-day reader?

Thousands of petroglyphs, like the Jabal Ramm inscription and the one shown above, can be found across the Arabian Peninsula (Source)

We begin with a slight difficulty: to the modern Arabic reader, the text of the Jabal Ramm inscription remains…