Hafnat al-Abyad: Scribes

Date: 683-84

An early graffito on a stone found at Hafnat al-Abyad, near Kufa records the death of one Layth ibn Yazid al-Asʿadi. The inscription finishes with a first-person statement by the unnamed man who carved the text reading: “I wrote this inscription in (the month of) Shawwāl in the year four and sixty.” This date corresponds to 683-84 CE. See also: Mason; Quarrier; Qurʾan scribe.

Citation: “Arabic Graffito near Karbala in Iraq, 64 AH/683-684 CE,” Islamic Awareness: https://www.islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/sumer.html (last consulted: 10 August 2018).