Madina or Mi'dhana? Revisiting the 'Foundation Inscription' of Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi

In the early 19th century J.-B. Rousseau included the following phrase in his reading of the well-known inscription from the Umayyad site of Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Sharqī – ‘… This town (madīna) was built by order of ʿAbd Allāh Hishām, Commander of the Believers …’. A century later Charles Clermont-Ganneau argued that the Arabic term in question was miʾdhana rather than madīna. The revised reading was rejected (or ignored) by successive generations of scholars, but new data shows that Clermont-Ganneau was right. This paper examines the reasons for the rejection of the miʾdhana reading and outlines the implications of its reinstatement.

Source: Brill

Treadwell, Luke. "Madīna or Miʾdhana? Revisiting the ‘Foundation Inscription’ of Qaṣr al-Ḥayr al-Sharqī", Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World 5, 1-2 (2024): 134-154, doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/26666286-12340050

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