Namara inscription

The Namara inscription (Arabic: نقش النمارة‎‎ naqš an-Namārah) is usually interpreted as an early example of the Arabic language, but is sometimes interpreted as a late version of the Nabataean language in its transition to Arabic. It has been described by Irfan Shahid as "the most important Arabic inscription of pre-Islamic times" and by Kees Versteegh as "the most famous Arabic inscription". It is also an important source for the relationships between the Romans and the Arabs in the fourth century AD.

The inscription is written in the Nabatean Aramaic script but there are ambiguities of interpretation as the script has only 22 signs (some with added annotations) and the Arabic dialect had 28 or 29 consonants. The script has ligatures between some letters, showing a transition towards an Arabic script. Some of the terms used in the text are closer to Aramaic than Arabic; for example, it uses the Aramaic patronymic "b-r" rather than the Arabic term "b-n". However, most of the text is very close to the classical Arabic used in the Qur'an in the 7th century.

The inscription was found on 4 April 1901 by two French archaeologists, René Dussaud and Frédéric Macler, at al-Namara (also Namārah; modern Nimreh) near Shahba and Jabal al-Druze in southern Syria, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Damascus and 50 kilometres (31 mi) northeast Bosra, and 120 kilometres (75 mi) east of the Sea of Galilee. The location was near the boundary of the Roman Empire at the date it was carved, the Limes Arabicus of the province of Arabia Petraea. Al-Namara was later the site of a Roman fort.

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