Arab. arch. epig.
2001: 12: 223–235
Printed in Denmark. All rights reserved
Origin and evolution of South Arabian
minuscule writing on wood (1)
J. RYCKMANS
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Introduction
In several unpublished lectures delivered
in the early 1970s the late Mahmoud Ghul
(Univ. of Yarmouk, Irbid, Jordan) described
two cylindrical wooden sticks from Yemen,
finely incised with a then unknown type of
writing. On the basis of a partial de-
cipherment Ghul identified this as a form
of handwriting derived from the monu-
mental inscriptions of pre-Islamic South
Arabia (2). It was not until late 1977, nearly
140 years after the decipherment of monu-
mental South Arabian writing, that Ghul
successfully concluded his decipherment
of the minuscule script and that the schol-
arly world became fully aware of the na-
ture of this writing as the device which was
substituted in daily life during the pre-Is-
lamic era (and even in the Islamic era) (3)
for monumental writing on stone. The
writing style of the two sticks studied by
Ghul is clearly that of a minuscule form of
writing, i.e. writing in which the ‘body’ of
the letter is extended to different heights
by a stem or a loop, as in a musical stave,
and which is to monumental writing what
‘script’ or ‘running writing’ is to printed
text. One should not, however, speak of the
writing as ‘cursive’. Certainly the writing
of the texts on wood is cursive, to the ex-
tent that this signifies ‘all writing repre-
senting a rapid form of a slower form of
writing’ (4). Nevertheless, the word ‘cur-
Copyright C Munksgaard 2001
ISSN 0905-7196
sive’ is already used to describe various
epigraphic scripts written on rock faces in
pre-Islamic Arabia which have no relation
to the writing in question here. Moreover,
the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current
English specifies that, in speaking of
writing, the word ‘cursive’ indicates that it
is ‘done with joined characters’ (5). In fact,
in none of the known examples are the let-
ters, however closely written together, ever
joined. The English definition of cursive
seems to have European minuscule hand-
writing in mind even though, not without
some ambiguity, certain Anglophone
scholars use the term ‘cursive’ in the sense
of ‘informal’ to designate Semitic writings
such as early Hebrew or Phoenician in
which all of the letters are separate.
In 1983 additional texts on wood, orig-
inating from clandestine excavations,
began appearing in the sūqs of Sw ancā’.
These included both segments of wooden
branches like the Ghul texts as well as, for
the first time, palm-leaf stalks or ‘ribs’. The
discovery of such texts, which we now
know are generally earlier than the cylin-
drical wooden sticks of the type studied by
Ghul, confirmed the Arabic tradition ac-
cording to which palm-leaf stalks (Ar. pl.
c
usub al-nah8 l) were used in pre-Islamic
Yemen for a type of writing called zabūr, as
distinct from the monumental epigraphic
South Arabian script which was called
223
J. RYCKMANS
musnad (6). In 1985 a dozen inscribed sticks
and palm-stalks (some of which belonged
to the Museum of Antiquities of the Uni-
versity of Sw ancā’), were entrusted to Walter
W. Müller of the Seminar für Semitistik,
Marburg University. These were studied
jointly by W.W. Müller, Yusuf M. Abdallah
of the University of Sw ancā’ and the present
writer (7).
The same team was invited in 1991 to
Sw ancā’ to study an additional forty palm-
stalk texts which had been acquired by the
National Museum of Yemen thanks to a
grant from Total-Yemen and the Indo-Suez
Bank. This study led to a publication in
1994 which concentrated on sixteen of the
best preserved pieces in the collection (8).
Already in 1990 a palm-stalk excavated by
the Soviet-Yemeni expedition at Raybūn
had been published, which bore a text in-
cised in a variant of the monumental script
which could be considered transitional be-
tween the monumental and the written
minuscule variety (9). In 1992 a further
dozen inscribed palm-stalks were en-
trusted for study to the author by several
anonymous collectors. Two of these texts,
displaying transitional letter forms, were
subsequently published (10).
With the exception of those texts con-
sidered transitional between the monu-
mental and the minuscule forms of writing
which might provisionally be dated to the
fourth-second centuries BC, the texts men-
tioned, studied and in part published then
would seem, judging by several criteria, to
date to between the first century BC and
the third century AD (11).
In September, 1994, the Board of the Oos-
ters Instituut (Oriental Institute), a private
foundation in Leiden, decided to put to
good use its important collection of texts
on wood by commissioning A.J. Drewes
(Univ. of Leiden) and the present writer to
study and publish them. The c.300 texts,
along with those texts already published or
224
known, were copied in facsimile (J. Ryck-
mans), transliterated and registered (A. J.
Drewes), word for word with context in a
computer database. The simple act of
making an inventory of the collection re-
vealed the presence, in a significant
number of cases, of texts written in what is
considered the most ancient style of monu-
mental epigraphic South Arabian, thus
confirming what had been, until our work
was undertaken, merely a rumour that
such was the case. Another surprise was
the rich diversity of letter forms which re-
flects the progressive disintegration of the
monumental writing style, the birth of the
minuscule mode of writing and its sub-
sequent evolution, as successive stages
emerged in a manner which, although irre-
versible, was nevertheless characterised by
the variable pace of evolution for each
letter. The totality of texts to which we
have had access thus allows us to establish
a fairly secure relative chronology from the
earliest documents dating roughly to the
seventh century BC (12) down to, at the
very least, the year 380 AD which corre-
sponds more or less to the year 495 in the
local era used in text Leiden 25 (13), al-
though certain letter forms in similar texts
appear to be even later.
The present article aims to examine the
evolution and development of the South
Arabian minuscule writing system. At-
tested for more than a millennium and de-
rived originally from the monumental epi-
graphic script, minuscule writing evolved
after its emergence as an autonomous
graphic system. The South Arabian minus-
cule tradition is of exceptional interest in
relation to the broader history of the evolu-
tion of the Semitic alphabets. So far as we
know, South Arabian minuscule writing
was used almost exclusively on wood. It is
only rarely used on any other medium,
such as stone, bronze or terracotta (14),
even if one might have expected to see it
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
used for graffiti on rock faces. The reason
for this almost exclusive use lies perhaps in
the fact that it was a form of ‘rapid
writing’.
The documentation used for the present
article consists of over 150 texts from the
collections mentioned above which the
author has copied from the original sources
and deciphered in collaboration with W.W.
Müller, Y.M. Abdallah, A.G. Lundin and,
for more than 100 of those texts, A.J.
Drewes. More than seventy graphically
variant texts have been chosen. In each
case the same twenty letters have been
used, selected among others because they
show a greater variation in the course of
their evolution. The elimination of dupli-
cates and of examples which are deficient
Fig. 1.
Stage I: Musnad; Stage II, Transition: Phases IIa-IId.
in one respect or another has resulted in
some fifty variant forms, illustrated in Figs.
1–4. The individual letters have been
drawn from tracings made of photographs,
adjusted in the case of the Leiden and
X.JRy texts, after a further scrutiny of the
original documents and the corresponding
photographs. The letter forms in the fig-
ures accompanied by a simple number are
those drawn from copies made from orig-
inal documents in 1985 which could not
later be re-examined, with the exception of
texts No. 7 and No. 8, in which several let-
ters could be collated on the basis of subse-
quently published, fragmentary photo-
graphs (15).
The classification of the graphic variants
has made it possible to distinguish a series
225
J. RYCKMANS
of stages and phases in the evolution of this
writing system. In the absence of absolute
chronological fixed points and with regard
to the independent evolution of the minus-
cule vs. the monumental script, it is im-
possible to determine the duration of each
of the graphic phases described below. Un-
fortunately, none of the reigns mentioned
in the minuscule texts can be dated with
precision and the rare cases of eponyms
mentioned in them are either unattested
elsewhere or else not yet dated with cer-
tainty.
Stages in the development of the South
Arabian minuscule script
Stage I
Stage I (Fig. 1) is characterised by musnad
writing, i.e. the style of monumental script
in a very early form which could be called
pre-classical because of its lack of regu-
larity, verticality, rigorous symmetry and
definition of forms as known in classical,
monumental script. Among the most
characteristic forms are the double-angled
lām, attested also in certain stages of Lihy-
anite writing (16) and in South Arabian
graffiti 6 and 9 from al-Durayb Yalā’. The
eyelets of the letters cayn, sw ād and wāw are
often made of a poorly formed, horizon-
tally elongated oval. The two ovals of d tā’
are placed one above the other without a
vertical bar between them. The oval in sw ād
rests on three steep legs which fan out (cf.
al-Durayb-Yalā’ 18). The lower legs of the
letters alif, kāf and sı̄n angle inwards, as in
Lihyanite.
Leiden 37 (17), a complete alphabet
primer (the reverse bears the beginning of
a second alphabet primer which was left
incomplete), is one of the very ancient texts
which belong to Stage I. The letters are ar-
ranged in the now well-known South Ar-
abian letter order, with one previously un-
attested inversion: final d-z-y-t-zw in place of
226
z-d etc. One characteristic of this writing
stage, which one finds in other examples as
well, is that the V-form of the upper
branches of hā’ and of the ‘trident’ of hw ā’ is
not extended by a vertical stem. This can
be seen in al-Durayb Yalā’ 18 and 21, as
well as on the incised palm-leaf stem from
Raybūn (see n. 9). On the other hand, the
dāl and the qāf in this stage appear in the
normal form found in the monumental in-
scriptions.
One unique text (Leiden 76, stage I), in
which only twelve letters of the alphabet
are attested, shows that when employed on
wood the monumental South Arabian
script was more highly evolved and
‘classical’ than that seen in the previously
mentioned alphabet primer. But this later
form does not seem to have influenced the
subsequent development of writing on
wood. The form of the hā’ in Leiden 76 –
a small, rounded half-oval atop a vertical
stroke – does not appear in later minuscule
versions of this letter, the shape of which
derives from the V-topped version men-
tioned above.
Stage II
Stage II (Fig. 1) is still characterised by a
monumental style of script. This is a tran-
sitional stage rich in variants which pre-
cedes the birth of true minuscule writing.
Four phases illustrate the progressive dis-
integration and dismemberment of the
monumental script, as certain forms are re-
placed by others, some of which appear for
the first time. The double-angled lām re-
mains well represented during the entire
stage.
A phase IIa may be distinguished from
Stage I by the final disappearance of the
monumental style mı̄m which was replaced
by various forms, some of which recall the
Lihyanite mı̄m. The former vertical back of
the letter becomes rounded or angular, al-
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
most boomerang-shaped. This recalls the
mı̄m found in rock inscriptions in North
Arabia as well as the graffiti at al-Durayb
Yalā’ (e.g. 4, 12, 14 and 18). The fā’ assumes
a plano-convex form (the flat side on the
left), also attested in al-Durayb Yalā’ 12. In
this phase the eyelets in some letters are
written in ill-adjusted strokes. The hā’ re-
tains its V without a stem and the alif re-
mains topped by a double angle as in the
monumental script (an alif topped by two
small vertical stems, common in Lihyanite
and many North Arabian rock inscriptions,
is never attested in the texts on wood).
A phase IIb is represented by a single in-
scription (Leiden 14) (18) which may be
considered Minaean in view of its very
clear links to the Lihyanite writing style
with its angular, bent and ‘dismembered’
letters, such as the tw ā’. In this phase the alif
loses its right angles and has a simplified
‘antenna’. The bars of the dāl become dis-
mantled (as in phase IIc). The loop of the
yā’ becomes extended into a triangle shape
on the right side of the stem, as seen in al-
Durayb Yala’ 1, 2 and 12. The hw ā’ has still
the early, angular shape as well as a variant
with a stem, perhaps influenced by the
monumental style as seen in Leiden 76
(phase I). The hā’ has a particular shape (cf.
al-Durayb Yala’ 11) which is otherwise at-
tested only in phase IVa and which can be
compared with a capital Y but with a lower
slanted stroke as in the small letter y. The
qāf of Leiden 14 still reflects the monu-
mental form of the letter but its append-
ages, instead of being vertical, are both
slanted towards the right. Interestingly a
variant of the same letter, in which the
upper appendage is slanted towards the
right while the lower one remains vertical,
is well attested in both early and late
monumental Lihyanite.
Phase IIc shares a number of character-
istics with IIb, particularly the form of the
letters dāl, wāw and yā’. Two texts may be
assigned to this phase. The first one is a
special case (see n. 14); it is a short inscrip-
tion incised on a terracotta incense burner
in the Yemen Museum which comes from
the temple of Wadd dūMasma‘im, at the
foot of Jabal Balaq al-Qiblı̄ in the Mārib re-
gion (unlike all of the texts on wood exam-
ined here which are thought to come from
al-Sawdā’ in the Jawf of northern Yemen).
The second text is published: X.JRy b-2 (see
n. 10). Both texts still use the monumental
type of dāl, but a new type of hā’ appears
which becomes common during phase IId
and is characterised by a vertical stem in
the middle of which a slightly curved
branch runs off to the right at a 45æ angle.
The nūn shows a very stylised form in
which the angle in this letter almost disap-
pears.
Phase IId is the most significant in the
entire evolution of this stage. It is charac-
terised by a new form of dāl and a pre-
viously unattested form of qāf which is vir-
tually exclusive to this phase. The qāf,
which we have called ‘ephemeral’, has no
parallel in any other writing system in Ar-
abia. It shows a vertical stem, from the
middle of which a sort of oblique zig-zag
runs off upwards to the right. It is possible
to trace this form, by a process of lateral
displacement, to the qāf of phase IIb but to
date no intermediate forms are attested
and, furthermore, this would not explain
the later exclusive appearance of a form of
qāf related to the earlier style, nor the dis-
appearance of the form by which it was
superseded in phase IId.
The dāl of monumental type disappears
for good after a final appearance in Leiden
140, where both the old and the new forms
co-exist. The new form seems to be the re-
sult of the breaking down of the old form
into two separate parts: the stem and the
triangle, a phenomenon comparable to that
which has affected virtually all forms of dāl
in Lihyanite inscriptions. If the chrono-
227
J. RYCKMANS
logical sequence suggested here is correct,
the detached triangle seems to have been
first placed on the writing line (19), to the
left of the stem (e.g. in Leiden 153), but it
later assumed a different position on a
second stem. There it appears at the top
and on the right side of the stem like a
small loop. Together the two segments of
the dāl resemble the letter combination PI
written in capitals. As will be seen below,
the subsequent forms of dāl are important
markers in defining the later stages in the
evolution of minuscule writing.
The monumental type of dāl also makes
a last appearance (Leiden 153) in phase IId
and is replaced in subsequent phases by a
series of very degraded variants. The bars
of this letter (still visible in phases IIc and
IId) give way to a loop or triangle attached
to the bottom right of the left-hand of two
vertical stems. Taken together the elements
of this letter resemble the Russian letter ery,
which one can represent in Latin script by
the letter combination bI (small b π capital
I). The loop is sometimes replaced by a
small vertical stem running upwards from
a horizontal line joining the two larger, ver-
tical ones (which may deviate obliquely to-
wards the top).
The double-angled lām makes its last ap-
pearances, after which it is replaced by a
triangular form resting on the writing line
which risks confusion with a bā’, tipped ob-
liquely. The hw ā’ shows the form first seen in
phase IIc. The hw ā’ with central stem be-
comes the norm. Three texts show a
curious form of the zāy (which occurs once
in phase IIIa as well) combining two chev-
rons sideways, one written over the other.
The last examples of the letter zw ā’ also
occur in this phase. We know that the ety-
mological /zw /, represented by a distinct sign
in the monumental inscriptions, is
rendered by dw ād in the minuscule texts
known to date. The alif of this phase has
finally lost all of the angularity of the
228
earlier, monumental style alif. Finally, the
top of the stem of the yā’ is bent, a trait
which will eventually distinguish this
letter from similar minuscule letters of the
series c/b/l/y.
The provisional, chronological assign-
ment of the texts of phase IId is based on
the persistence of several of the earlier
angular forms (e.g. a sw ād very similar to the
sw ād of the Lihyanite inscriptions and al-Du-
rayb Yalā’ 18). At the same time the attri-
bution of three texts to the end of this
phase is based on the presence of elements
which characterise minuscule writing, such
as the horizontal appendage on the writing
line at the end of a letter e.g. in the case of
the wāw, which is very similar to its true
minuscule counterpart, and the generally
relaxed, supple nature of the letters. The
latest text assigned to this phase (Leiden
11, unpubl.) is inscribed in very small let-
ters, even though they cannot yet be called
minuscule. It seems that it was specifically
this diminution in the size of written let-
ters, suitable for rapid forms of writing
which led to the emergence of the minus-
cule script (20), the stems and tails of which
served to maintain legibility, which might
otherwise have been lost in the process.
Stage III
Stage III (Fig. 2) represents true minuscule
writing, the evolution of which is marked
by a succession of variants in the form of
dāl (see upper left hand corner of Figs. 2–
4). In general the letters of this stage are
smaller and more angled than their prede-
cessors. The stems are elongated or new
stems appear (fā’, tw ā’), many of the ends of
letters extend like a horizontal appendage,
and most of the forms have rounded or
softened shapes.
An initial phase IIIa is characterised
firstly by a new form of dāl, consisting of
an elongated and angled stem ending in a
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
Fig. 2.
Stage III: Minuscule; Phases IIIa-IIIb Problems.
short, horizontal stroke separated from a
small triangle with a slight extension to the
left along the writing line, and a qāf which
regains for good a form derived directly
from the monumental type of qāf. The qāf
is made up of two strokes, a right-hand one
ending in a semi-circle open on the left,
and another one shaped like a reverse
comma, to the left, which extends down-
ward. A stylised variant of this letter, remi-
niscent of a double vertical zig-zag, ap-
pears in phase IIIa and later on as well. The
dāl occurs in several forms (some of which
were attested earlier) which appear indis-
criminately and are distinguished from one
another by the way in which the open loop
of the earlier forms is rendered. This is
either a small stroke or a curve open to the
left, between two vertical lines. Most often
the loop is formed by a rounded stroke
which opens at the bottom towards the left.
The hollow thereby formed may be closed
by another small stroke, or the bottom of
the second vertical stroke may end in a
curve opening towards the left.
A new, V-shaped hā’ appears, the base of
which resembles either a knot or a small,
horizontal stroke curving upward towards
the left. In some cases the left side of the V
extends below the right side, and may turn
back towards the left (e.g. X.JRy b-6)
making the letter resemble a ‘square’
Hebrew sw ādeh. The tines of the ‘fork’ of hw ā’
exhibit a number of variants. At first they
appear detached like apostrophes on either
side of the vertical stroke (cf. ‘l’), though
not necessarily at precisely the same
height. Later they appear like two small
circles flanking the top of the vertical stem
æ|æ. These circles may be open at the bottom,
giving the entire letter the appearance of
an open umbrella in profile. Often this
latter form can only be differentiated from
a wāw by the length of its central stem.
The letters cayn, bā’, lām and yā’ all have
similar shapes: a rounded or triangular
loop ending with a slight extension to-
wards the left. Generally the cayn is small
and angular, and after a divider, it can
often be confused with the second half of a
229
J. RYCKMANS
dāl; the bā’ is large, rounded and a bit taller;
the lām shows a small, rounded loop with
a long stem; and the yā’ has an angular
loop and vertical stem which bends near
the top. Having said this, all of these traits
are susceptible to alteration by individual
scribes, and discriminating between these
four letters is a recurrent problem in
dealing with the texts. The same applies,
although somewhat less so, to the alif, kāf
and sı̄n. To the letter forms for this phase
illustrated in the figures should be added
those of text X.JRy-c (21).
Without suggesting that it has any
chronological significance, we have given
the name phase IIIb to a hybrid writing
style which shows characteristics of both
IIb and IIIa, but which appears to be later.
This seems to be derived from that of
Leiden 33 (Minaean, phase IId) and is
characterised by an alif with a horizontal
‘antenna’ and a very stylised nūn. Apart
from the minuscule dāl, the writing of
phase IIIb is still done in capital letters.
Given their rounded forms the letters of
this phase could be termed uncial. Most
letters are extended by a horizontal ap-
pendage typical of minuscule writing.
There are two main varieties of this
writing style, both represented in stage IIIb
Problems. The earlier one, rarely attested,
is exemplified by the damaged text Leiden
107. The other, very similar to the older
one, is represented by Leiden 9, 12 and 149
(the last one not illustrated). Both varieties
exhibit a dāl with two parallel stems (cf.
one of the forms of dāl of phase IVb), a fā’
with a short stem, a lām formed by an iso-
lated stem followed by an oblique line; a
mı̄m composed of a curved, angled stem to
which a semi-circle is attached on the right
(cf. the fā’ of stages III and IV). The tā’ is
very angled and angular, its upper loop
transformed into a ‘fork’ as in stage IVa-b.
The lower loop of this letter is also open, so
that the whole form resembles an italicised
230
capital H with an appendix at the bottom
left. Apart from having a qāf of a type al-
ready seen in IId, Leiden 107 is notable for
its rare type of wāw: a vertical ovoid, from
the centre of which, on the left side, a short
line runs obliquely down to the left. The
three other texts belonging to this phase
share a ġayn which is exclusive to this
phase and which recalls a wāw, though
more angular and topped by a small ver-
tical stem (22). In addition, they have a hw ā’
showing the usual trident form, sometimes
with the tines separated from the vertical
stem. The lām of this phase is easily con-
fused with the sı̄n of the same phase, while
the qāf consists of a double zig-zag already
attested in phase IIIa.
Leiden 9 is unusually large, 40.4 cm long,
with eleven lines of writing. The writing
on this text and on Leiden 12 and 149 is
characterised by large, supple capitals
which are compact, but not linked, and dif-
ficult to read, suggestive of ceremonial
writing, as for example chancellery writing
(23). Alongside certain archaic traits the
writing of this phase contains letter forms
which occur nowhere else, or if so, with a
completely different value (!) in the later
stages of minuscule writing. The survival
of this kind of writing, somewhat apart
from the main trends seen in the evolution
of minuscule script, might be explained by
the closed nature of the particular scribal
school which used it. This is another reason
why texts 9, 12 and 149 appear to be older
than they actually are. In fact, along with
the texts on wood Leiden 25 and 138 (the
latter not illustrated) and the palm texts
Leiden 302 and 312, both of which belong
to phase IVb, Leiden 9, 12 and 149 are the
only texts on wood known to date (1998)
which contain a word for the root ‘three’ in
the late orthography tlt. The latest text
which contains the earlier forms s̆lt (the
contract concerning ‘Three sheep’ (24)),
with the dāl formed by two stems with an
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
isolated element still well drawn, belongs
to phase IVa. The texts described above
would thus belong to phase IVb, whatever
the exact point of the change in the root
for ‘three’ in the minuscule texts may have
been.
Another problem concerns the texts
which belong to phases IId through IIIb.
What is the significance of the appearance
in phase IId of the qāf derived from the
monumental form which is replaced before
the end of the phase by a previously unat-
tested form which subsequently disappears
completely? It doesn’t seem likely that the
form really went out of favour, but perhaps
the appearance of a new form resulted
from an external influence coinciding with
the appearance of the new type of dāl. As
we have seen, this new form of dāl shows
similarities with the Lihyanite dāl. Could
Fig. 3.
Stage IVa: Minuscule; Phase IVa.
the influence have come from that direc-
tion? An indication of the source of the in-
fluence is provided by the fact that, of the
eight texts known at this time and assigned
to phases IId and IIIb which show the later
type of qāf and the new type of dāl, five are
certainly Minaean (marked M) while one is
Sabaean (Leiden 107). The language of the
other two texts assigned to this group
cannot be determined since they are simple
alphabet primers (marked by an asterisk *),
but one might suggest, given the large
number of Minaean alphabet primers, that
they might well be Minaean as well. Thus,
bearing in mind the limited evidence be-
fore us, one might suggest that the new
types of qāf and dāl were introduced from
the north (?) into or from a Minaean cul-
tural milieu, particularly in view of the ex-
tensive north-south distribution of
231
J. RYCKMANS
Fig. 4.
Stage IVb: Minuscule; Phase IVb.
Minaean culture in the western Arabian
peninsula. Of the two letters in question,
only the new dāl later enjoyed a place in
the minuscule tradition. The ephemeral qāf
does not seem to have survived the end of
Minaean hegemony.
Stage IV
Stage IV (Figs. 3 & 4) is the best attested
of all in the corpus. An initial phase IVa is
characterised by a new type of dāl con-
sisting of two strokes, one long and gener-
ally vertical, and another one shorter and
more oblique, with the separate element
marked by an appendage. This separate
item may appear as one or two short, ver-
tical strokes, or one or two dots. This phase
is also characterised by the appearance of
cylindrical segments of wood of various
types alongside the palm leaf stalks. They
include examples of both dense wood,
232
such as the two pieces deciphered by Ghul,
as well as light wood characterised by a
large central medullary canal, the marrow
of which has generally disappeared, cre-
ating a tube-like effect. The wooden sticks
are marked in the figures by a bold dot ( . ).
A particular form of hā’ (already attested
in phase IId) is well established during this
period. It is marked by a long, oblique
curving stem running from the top right to-
wards the bottom left, in the middle of
which is a vertical or oblique line. The
letter thus resembles our printed small y
written as a capital. We also see the use of
forms previously attested for the letters dāl,
hā’, tā’, tw ā’ and mı̄m. For the last time the
mı̄m shows the trace of the typical reflex
angle of its monumental ancestor but two
new versions of this letter (seen together in
texts TYA 12 and No. 8) appear as well.
One is crescent-shaped like our capital D,
while the other one, which became stan-
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
dard, is formed of a small acute angle,
opened towards the left, and closed on the
left by a curve descending towards the
right. Thus this letter resembles our printed
small e.
Some examples of the series alif/kāf/sı̄n
and occasionally sw ād appear to be stretched
out vertically as a result of the elongation
of their final stroke. The kāf (Leiden 26) and
later the alif (‘No. 11’) are distinguished by
the new way in which their ‘antenna’
branches off the middle of the diagonal
stroke in the middle of the letter. The
curved ‘pocket’ of the sı̄n may be opened
on the left, resembling the form of the qāf.
The nūn is attested in various forms but
there is now a tendency for the join be-
tween the upper ‘antenna’ of the letter and
the lower curve to meet at an acute angle,
forming a fork with the body of the letter
(see e.g. text ‘No. 11’). The ġayn looks like
our small k (e.g. in TYA 8 and the two Ghul
texts) and this becomes the norm in the fol-
lowing phase.
In phase IVb (Fig. 4) the dāl is written
with two parallel strokes, either curved to-
wards the left at the bottom or joined at the
base. In one variant (TYA 1) the bottom of
the left-hand stroke bends out horizontally
towards the left. The remarks made above
concerning the series alif, kāf and sı̄n apply
in this phase as well, although many
examples of alif, and later kāf, take on a
new form resembling both our capital N
and an aleph in ‘square’ Hebrew writing.
The dāl is larger and in its most common
form what was formerly a loop appears
now as a bulge at the lower left of the
second (left-hand) vertical stroke. In three
examples (TYA 1 and 16; X.JRy b-4) the two
parts of the letter qāf are noticeably far
apart. The e-shaped mı̄m shows a tendency
to be made smaller, and in the texts Leiden
72, 4, 101 and 77 this form alternates with
another in which the upper angle of the
letter is open towards the left, giving the
letter a strong resemblance to the Arabic
letter hw ā’ in its isolated position. Similarly
in Leiden 4 and 101 the letter yā’ resembles
an angular headed number 3.
Five of the texts belonging to this phase
are engraved on wooden sticks to which
may be added a sixth, Leiden 138, not illus-
trated here. The text Leiden 25 gives us the
only firm chronological indicator among
all of the texts known thus far. It is dated
as follows in lines 9–10: ‘its date (or: its
month): dū Niswa[r] of the year 495 [...]’.
This local date corresponds approximately
to the year 380 AD. Among the texts as-
signed to this phase (for the most part ac-
cording to the evolution of the alif) it is too
difficult to say whether there are any which
ought to post-date Leiden 25. An unpub-
lished text X.JRy b-9, still only imperfectly
deciphered (the writing is terribly am-
biguous), seems to be just slightly later. It
is marked by the almost complete absence
of a terminal appendage on most letters, by
a nūn formed out of a long vertical stroke,
from the middle of which a short stroke
runs off to the left creating an acute angle,
and by a dāl formed by two high ‘paren-
theses’ enclosing a short vertical stroke.
Conclusion
The present study has attempted to outline
a chronological and graphic catalogue of
letters on wooden and palm texts, each
within its respective alphabetical environ-
ment. It reflects the relative paucity of
available texts, only a small portion of
which are illustrated here, as well as the
restricted number of photographs available
from which reliable tracings of letter forms
could be made. Within the aim of giving a
broad introduction to the reading and de-
cipherment of the texts on wood, particular
attention has been paid in the notes to texts
cited in previously published works with
accompanying photographs and drawings.
233
J. RYCKMANS
The evolutionary stages in the develop-
ment of this written genre have been estab-
lished in what is believed to be a chrono-
logical order. It is clear that with the ap-
pearance of additional texts it will be poss-
ible to refine the schema outlined here and
possibly also to bring to light new chrono-
logical fixed points with which to anchor
the proposed evolutionary sequence of
writing on wood and palm as it developed
in Southern Arabia.
References
1. Revised text of an unpublished lecture presented
at the Atelier Européen ‘Civilisations de l’Arabie
pré-islamique’, Aix-en-Provence, 1–3 March 1996
and at the Institut d’Études Sémitiques at the Col-
lège de France, 22 February 1999.
2. Tracing and transliteration of the characters of the
two texts: Beeston AFL. Mahmoud ‘Ali Ghul and
the Sabaean cursive script. In: Ibrahim MM, ed.
Arabian studies in honour of Mahmoud Ghul: Sym-
posium at Yarmouk University, December 8–11, 1984.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1989: 17 and Tables I–
II. Tables of characters of the two texts and of four
others: Ryckmans J. Pétioles de palmes et
bâtonnets inscrits: un type nouveau de documents
du Yémen antique. Bulletin de la Classe des Lettres
et des Sciences morales et politiques de l’Académie
Royale de Belgique 4: 1993: 32; Fig. 25; Ryckmans J.
Les deux bâtonnets sud-arabes déchiffrés par
Mahmoud Ghul. In: Gingrich A, Haas S, Paleczek
G & Fillitz T, eds. Studies in Oriental culture and
history: Festschrift for Walter Dostal. Frankfurt:
Peter Lang, 1993: 41–48, Figs. I-II: tracing and
transliteration of Ghul A and B; Pls. I and II:
photographs of both texts; Robin CJ. L’Arabie an-
tique de Karib’ı̂l à Mahomet. Revue du monde
musulman et de la Méditerranée 61: 1992: 132–4,
Figs. 30–1, photographs, tracing and transliter-
ation of text Ghul B.
3. Schneider M. Un rapport en arabe sur un pétiole
de palme originaire du Yémen. Aula Orientalis 12:
1994: 193–210; Un second rapport en arabe sur un
pétiole de palme originaire du Yémen. Aula Orien-
talis 14: 1996: 55–78.
4. Rey A, ed. Le Petit Robert: Dictionnaire alphabétique
et analogique de la langue française, I. Paris: Dic-
tionnaires Le Robert. 1979: 438, citing (without
ref.) Marcel Cohen.
5. Sykes JB, ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Cur-
rent English 1976: col. 2516.
234
6. Müller WW. L’écriture zabūr du Yémen pré-isla-
mique dans la tradition arabe. In: Ryckmans J,
Müller WW & Abdallah YM. Textes du Yémen an-
tique inscrits sur bois. Louvain-la-Neuve: Publi-
cations de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain, 43:
1994: 35–9 (hereafter TYA); Abdallah YM. H8 atw tw al-
zabūr al-yamānı̄ walnuqūs̆ al-H8 as̆abiyya. TYA
(Arabic section): 5–15.
7. The letter forms of a series of these texts have
been studied and illustrated in tables: Ryckmans
J. Une écriture minuscule sud-arabe antique ré-
cemment découverte. In: Vanstiphout HLJ, Jonge-
ling K, Leemhuis F & Reinink GJ, eds. Scripta
Signa Vocis: Studies about scripts, scriptures, scribes
and languages in the Near East presented to J.H. Hos-
pers. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1986: 185–199,
Figs. 198–9.
8. Ryckmans, Müller & Abdallah, TYA. Each text is
published with photograph, tracing, transliter-
ation and French and Arabic translation.
9. Bauer GM, Akopjan AM & Lundin AG. Novye
epigrafic̆eskie pamjatniki iz Hadramauta. VDI 2:
1990: 168–73, text and tracing. Re-edited under the
siglum X.RB-89, No. 7 in Frantsouzoff SA. Hadra-
mitic documents written on palm-leaf stalks.
PSAS 29: 1999: 55–65, with photographs and trac-
ings.
10. The texts X.JRy b-1 (phase IIc) and 2 (phase IId).
Edited by Ryckmans J. Pétioles de palmes et
bâtonnets sud-arabes inscrits: notes de paléogra-
phie. In: Nebes N, ed. Arabia Felix: Beiträge zur
Sprache und Kultur des vorislamischen Arabien,
Festschrift Walter W. Müller zum 60. Geburtstag.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994: 250–259. Table
259 gives for the text X.JRy b-2, col. ġayn, a sign
later correctly identified as qāf by Ryckmans J &
Loundine AG. Un pétiole de palme inscrit en
minéen. In: Stiegner R, ed. Aktualisierte Beiträge
zum 1. Internationalen Symposion Südarabien inter-
disziplinär an der Universität Graz, mit kurzen
Einführungen zu Sprache- und Kulturgeschichte in
Memoriam Maria Höfner. Graz: Leikam, 1997: 171–
180. Transliteration, translation, photographs and
tracing: 173–175 π errata.
11. Ryckmans, Pétioles de palmes: un type nouveau
de documents: 25–26.
12. Ryckmans J. Un abécédaire sud-arabe archaı̈que
complet, gravé sur un pétiole de palme. In: I primi
sessanta anni di scuola: Studi dedicati a Sergio Noja
Noseda nel suo 65æ anno compleanno, 7 luglio 1996.
Lesa: Fondazione Ferni Noja Noseda, 1997: 11–36.
The text published from a tracing (15, after a
photograph) bears the siglum ‘Oost. Inst. Leiden
37’, abbreviated here as Leiden 37.
13. Unpublished text, the late writing style of which
is shown here in Fig. 4, phase IVb.
 SOUTH ARABIAN MINUSCULE WRITING ON WOOD
14. To the rare occurrences cited in Ryckmans, Une
écriture minuscule sud-arabe antique: 198–199,
and Ryckmans, Pétioles de palmes: notes de
paléographie 256–7, can be added, firstly: a terra-
cotta incense burner in the Yemen Museum, inv.
YM 2536, the writing style illustrated here in Fig.
1, phase IIc; photograph, transliteration and trans-
lation of the inscription in Seipel W, ed. Jemen,
Kunst und Archäologie im Land der Königin von
Saba’, Eine Ausstellung des Kunsthistorischen Mu-
seums Wien in Zusammenarbeit mit der Generalinsti-
tution für Altertümer, Museen und Handschriften,
Ministerium für Kultur und Tourismus der Republik
Jemen. Wien: Kunstlerhaus, 9. November 1998 bis
21. Februar 1999: 90–91. Secondly, isolated letters
on the inscribed pottery from al-Durayb Yalā’,
published in Garbini G. Le iscrizioni su ceramica
da ad-Durayb-Yalā. Yemen 1: 1992: 79–91, photo-
graphs and tracings.
15. Text no. 7 illustrated in Fig. 3, phase IVa, is pub-
lished as No. 1 of the collection of texts on wood
in the Dept. of Antiquities of the University of
Sw ancā’ by Abdallah Y. H
8 atw tw al-musnad wal-nuqūs̆
al-yamāniyya al-qadı̄ma. Al-yaman al-ğadı̄d 15:
1986: 6, 10–28, with two poor photographs: 16
(one repeated needlessly: 28). The photo at the
bottom of p. 28 gives the beginning of lines 9–11
of the text presented here as Fig. 3, IVa, with the
siglum ‘No. 8’ already illustrated in Ryckmans,
Une écriture minuscule: 198–199.
16. The references to Lihyanite palaeography refer to
Caskel W. Lihyan und Lihyanisch. Köln/Opladen:
Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Forschung des Landes
Nordrhein-Westfalen, Geisteswissenschaften, 4:
1954: Schriftentafel 33–34.
17. See the publication mentioned in n. 12 which es-
tablishes correspondences between minuscule
forms and signs deemed ‘aberrant’ in early monu-
mental inscriptions.
18. Drewes AJ & Ryckmans J. Un pétiole de palme
inscrit en sabéen, no 14 de la collection de l’Oos-
ters Instituut à Leiden. PSAS 27: 1997: 225–233,
photograph and tracing: 225–226.
19. That is to say the real or imaginary line on which
the ‘body’ of the letters are aligned.
20. See Cohen M. La grande invention de l’écriture et
son évolution. Paris: Klincksieck, 958: 339–430, who
wrote, on the birth of Greek minuscule writing,
‘La caractéristique du tracé rapide est le rapetisse-
ment du corps des lettres, qui a pour contrepartie
des dépassements au-dessus et au-dessous’. A
similar opinion in Jensen H. Die Schrift in Vergang-
enheit und Gegenwart, 3rd ed. Berlin: VEB Deut-
scher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1969: 535.
21. Ryckmans, Pétioles de palmes: notes de paléogra-
phie 259. It is the fifth example in the table of
writing styles illustrating the development of
minuscule writing. The order of the last two
examples should now be reversed so as to con-
form to their chronological order.
22. This form of ġayn is perhaps represented by a sign
in text TYA No. 9, line 3, where the editors have
read with hesitation a sw ād in the expression b-s̆(sw )y.
23. Ryckmans, Pétioles de palmes: un type nouveau
de documents: 32.
24. Abdallah YM. Ein altsüdarabischer Vertragstext
von den neuentdeckten Inschriften auf Holz. In:
Nebes, Arabia Felix: 1–7 (transliteration, trans-
lation, commentary), 8–12 (photographs).
Address:
J. Ryckmans
38 Bieststr.
B – 3360 Lovenjoel-Bierbeek
Belgium
235