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122 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT
iii. TheEarly Arabic Language Possessed a Distinct Alphabet
Turning our attention to Dr. Mingana's hypothesis that early Arabic lacked
an alphabet, I will present a few dated and highly developed inscriptions
which clearly show otherwise. There are many Arabic inscriptions from the
6th century C.E. which very nearly approach the Arabic palaeography used
in the first century of A.H.Iseventh century C.E.; my examples willprogress
from these into the Islamic era.
1. A pre-Islamic trilingual inscription in Arabic, Greek and Syriac at
Zabad, northern Syria, dated c. 512 C.E. 24
II~f.... 99>'-'"' q q ~ >' ""}-'Ui- u.OJ{,.""L&> 9 qll.>.o.£o'", ,,_ <JlU r + \
Figure 9.5: A pre-Islamic trilingual (only the Arabic is shown) inscription
at:(,abad, c. 512 C.E. Source: al-Munaggid, Etudes, p. 21.
2. Another pre-Islamic Arabic inscription atJabal Asis, 105km south-
25
east of Damascus. The date corresponds to c. 528 C.E.
Figure 9.6: Another pre-Islamic Arabic inscription atJabalASls, c. 528
C.E. Source: Hamidullah, Six Originaux, p. 60.
3. Harran, a pre-Islamic Arabic inscription corresponding to c. 568 C.E. 26
Figure 9.7: A pre-Islamic Arabic inscription at Harriin, c. 568 C.E. Source:
al-Munaggid, Etudes, p. 21.
24 S.al-Munaggid, EtudesDePaleographieArabe, p. 21; seealso Gruendler, TheDevelopment
II! theArabic Script, pp. 13-14.
25 M. Hamidullah, SixOriginaux des LettresDiplomatiques duProphete de L'lslam, Premiere
edition, Paris 1986/1406 A.H., p. 60.
26 S. al-Munaggid, Etudes De Paleographie Arabe, p. 21.
