Majmuna Stone
The Majmuna Stone
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| Material | Marble |
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| Writing | Kufic Arabic script |
| Created | 1174 (marble reuse of Roman period) |
| Discovered | Unknown, possibly near Xewkija and Sannat, Gozo, Malta |
| Present location | Gozo Museum of Archaeology |
The Majmuna Stone (Maltese: il-Ġebla ta' Majmuna or il-Ħaġra ta' Majmuna, Arabic: شاهد قبر ميمونة), also known as Majmûnah Tombstone, is a 12th-century marble tombstone (of Roman origins) which is believed to have been discovered in Gozo, Malta. According to judge and historian Giovanni Bonello, the Majmuna Stone is "the only spectacular visual relic of the Islamic presence in Malta." It is now exhibited in the Gozo Museum of Archaeology at the Cittadella of Victoria, Gozo.
The Majmuna Stone is the tombstone of a girl called Majmuna, who died on 21 March 1174. It is a marble slab which has Roman decorations on the back (such reuse was a common occurrence in Islamic North Africa). The Kufic Arabic inscription approximately translates to:
In the name of Allah, the merciful and compassionate. May He be propitious to the Prophet Muhammad and to his followers and grant them eternal salvation.
God is great and eternal and He has decreed that his creatures should perish. Of this the prophet of Allah bears witness.
This is the tomb of Maymūnah, daughter of Hassān, son of ‘Ali al-Hudali, known as Ibn as-Susi. She died – Allah's mercy be upon her – on Thursday 16th day of the month of Sha'ban in the year 569, professing that there is only one God who has no equal.
Look around you! Is there anything everlasting on earth; anything that repels or casts a spell on death? Death robbed me from a palace and, alas, neither doors nor bolts could save me. All I did in my lifetime remains, and shall be reckoned.
The inscription is dated 1174, almost a century after the Norman conquest of Malta in 1091. It is believed that Islam remained the dominant religion in Malta until the Arabs were expelled in 1224.
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