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A mountain oasis. Taif has always lived from its orchards and vines; Yaqut describes it as rich in fields, palm trees, vines and fruit, and notes that “the fruit of the people of Mecca comes from it”. To hold back storm water, the people of the region built dozens of stone dams, of which about twenty remain (see no. 06). The one at Saysad, also called the “al-ʿAbbad dam”, is the only one whose date is known with certainty.
The inscription of the year 58. Muʿawiya (may Allah be pleased with him) had then been caliph for seventeen years. On a large rock, at the foot of the mountain against which the dam rests, to the right of its face, a scribe carved six lines in Kufic script. The panel measures about 130 × 70 cm, and the letters alif reach 10 cm in height. Here is the text, line by line, in the spelling of the stone (reading by Philby):
> هذا السد لعبدالله معوية
> أمير المؤمنين بنيه عبدالله بن صخر
> باذن الله لسنة ثمن وخمسين ا
> للهم اغفر لعبدالله معوية ا
> مير المؤمنين وثبته وانصره ومتع ا
> لمومنين به كتب عمرو بن حباب
Read in standard Arabic: « هَذَا السَّدُّ لِعَبْدِ اللَّهِ مُعَاوِيَةَ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ، بَنَاهُ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ صَخْرٍ بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ لِسَنَةِ ثَمَانٍ وَخَمْسِينَ. اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِعَبْدِ اللَّهِ مُعَاوِيَةَ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ، وَثَبِّتْهُ وَانْصُرْهُ، وَمَتِّعِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ بِهِ. كَتَبَ عَمْرُو بْنُ حَبَّابٍ. »
Translation: “This dam belongs to the servant of Allah Muʿawiya, Commander of the Believers. ʿAbd Allah ibn Sakhr built it, with the permission of Allah, in the year fifty-eight. O Allah, forgive the servant of Allah Muʿawiya, Commander of the Believers; make him firm, grant him victory, and let the believers benefit from him. ʿAmr ibn Habbab wrote [this].”
Note the old spelling: معوية for معاوية, ثمن for ثمان, بنيه for بناه. Some words are split at the end of a line, such as اللهم and أمير. The text ends with a supplication for the caliph, followed by the signature of the carver.
Who built the dam? The name ʿAbd Allah ibn Sakhr appears in no known source. The Saudi researcher Sami as-Saqqar considers two answers. It may be an unknown engineer or master builder. It may also be Muʿawiya himself, since his father Abu Sufyan was named Sakhr; “ʿAbd Allah” would then be a formula of humility, as at the start of the text. Other readings (“ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs”, “ʿAbd Allah ibn Ibrahim”, “ʿAbd Allah ibn Khalid”) have been proposed and then judged mistaken.
Rediscovery. At the start of the 20th century, ʿAbd Allah Pasha Banajah photographed the inscription and sent the photo to Egypt to have it read. After his pilgrimage of 1354 AH (1936), the Egyptian writer Muhammad Husayn Haykal visited the dam and described it in his book Fi manzil al-wahy. The traveller St John Philby gave a reading of it. In 1364 AH (1945), the American engineer Twitchell found it “in excellent condition”. In 1948, the historian George C. Miles published the inscription in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, together with another Quranic inscription from the area around Taif. He noted that several letters already carry their distinguishing dots, which shows that dotting was in use as early as the sixth decade AH.
Today. The dam has been restored and its basin cleared, so that it once again holds large amounts of rainwater. It lies in the Saysad National Park, about ten kilometres from the centre of Taif. The inscription can still be read on its rock.
What is certain and what is not
- Certain: the inscription exists, it is dated 58 AH and names Muʿawiya, Commander of the Believers; it was published by Miles in 1948.
- Certain: the early use of diacritical dots on several letters.
- Unknown: the identity of “ʿAbd Allah ibn Sakhr”; the two hypotheses (an engineer, or Muʿawiya himself) remain open.
- Uncertain: the exact reading of some words in lines 4 to 6, which Saudipedia reports as cut or misread.
- Not found: the dimensions of the dam itself in the sources consulted.
Sources
1. Saudipedia, « نقوش سد معاوية بن أبي سفيان » (text of the inscription according to Philby, dimensions, Banajah, Haykal, Twitchell, as-Saqqar): https://saudipedia.com/نقوش-سد-معاوية-بن-أبي-سفيان
2. G. C. Miles, “Early Islamic Inscriptions near Ṭāʾif in the Ḥijāz”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 7 (1948), p. 236-242, presented on Islamic Awareness (line-by-line translation, diacritical dots): https://islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/muwinsc1 ; and the nearby Quranic inscription (33:56): https://islamic-awareness.org/history/islam/inscriptions/muwinsc2
3. Saudipedia, « قائمة السدود الأثرية في الطائف » (about 70 dams; restoration of Saysad, national park): https://saudipedia.com/قائمة-السدود-الأثرية-في-الطائف
4. Yaqut al-Hamawi, Muʿjam al-buldan, vol. 4, p. 8 ff., entry « الطائف ».