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Earliest Islamic (Kufic) inscription

Inscribed 2003

What is it

An Arabic inscription, dated 24 Hegira (equivalent to AD 644), engraved on a rock located near al-Ula in the northwest Saudi Arabia.

Why was it inscribed

The inscription, in Kufic script, is the first and oldest dated Arabic inscription in the world and the earliest Islamic inscription.

Where is it

Near al-Ula, Saudi Arabia

This inscription, from the 7th century AD, was carved into a block of red sandstone located south of Qa’a al Muatadil and north of Sharma in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The rock stands on an ancient trade and pilgrimage route that connected the early Islamic city of al-Mabiyat with Madain Saleh, a city known to the Romans as Hegra and which was originally part of the Nabatean kingdom in the 1st century AD, their second city after Petra. By the time the inscription was carved, Madain Saleh was on the pilgrimage route to Mecca further south.

The inscription itself reads: ‘Bismallah Ana Zuhair Kataba zaman maout Omar sanat Arba Wa eshrain’, which translates as, ‘In the name of God I Zuhair wrote the date of the death of Omar the year four and twenty (Hegira)’.

The Omar mentioned in the inscription was Omar or Umar bin al-Khattab, the second caliph to rule after the death of the Prophet Mohammed. He is also named in the Sunni Muslim tradition as one of the four rightly guided, or righteous caliphs who succeeded the Prophet. Although he ruled the caliphate for only 10 years from 634 until his death in 644, his military and political prowess brought the vast expansion of Muslim lands, ultimately including the conquest of the Persian Empire.

Omar also established the Muslim calendar. Its start date was taken to be AD 622, the year the Prophet Mohammed moved from Mecca to Medina. Omar was stabbed and mortally wounded in an assassination attempt. He died on the last night of the month of Dul-Hajj of the year 23 Hegira, and was buried next day on the first day of Muharram of the new year 24 Hegira (corresponding to AD 644).

The inscription is in Kufic script, in a style without dots and in a relatively early or crude form of the script. The term ‘Kufic’ relates to the Muslim city of Kufah which was founded in Mesopotamia (in modern-day southern Iraq) in AD 638, although the script was used in the region before the city was established and may have taken its name because the style was developed there. Kufic script, which fell into disuse around the 11th or 12th century, was generally used as a display script on metal and stone, on coins and in mural inscriptions and, in this instance, on rock.