Paleo-Arabic inscriptions on rock were made by Prophet Muhammad's unconverted companion, study finds

A Paleo-Arabic inscription on a boulder near an abandoned mosque in Saudi Arabia may have been carved by Ḥanẓalah bin Abī ʿĀmir, a companion of the Islamic prophet MuhaMMAd, a new study finds.

Although many inscriptions from the early days of Islam are known, their authorship remains unconfirmed, except for one in Saudi Arabia's al-Bahah region that can be securely attributed to Muhammad's companion, who later became the governor of Mecca. The inscription, which researchers analyzed in a new study published in the April issue of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, is only the second confirmed inscription whose attribution connects to Muhammad. Unlike the former text, this one was carved in the early seventh century before Islam came to dominate Arabia, making it an important witness to the pre-Islamic Hijaz (the region where Mecca is located) and the religious background of the Quran's audience.

However, not everyone is fully convinced about the authors' identities. 

The finding sheds light on the early days of Islam, the researchers said.

"Contrary to the popularly held belief that Islam was born in the full light of history, we don't know much about the rise of Islam from contemporary sources," Ahmad Al-Jallad, a professor of Arabic studies at The Ohio State University and the study's co-author, told Live Science. "That period of time is shrouded in mystery. These inscriptions provide a verifiable foundation for the writing of an evidence-based history of this period."

Yusef Bilin, a Turkish calligrapher visiting an ancient mosque in the city of Taif that's believed to have been built by Alī b. Abī Ṭālib, the fourth Caliph of Islam, noticed two inscriptions on a prominent boulder approximately 330 feet (100 meters) away. In 2021, he brought it to the attention of the study's authors. The inscriptions were written in Paleo-Arabic script, which describes the late pre-Islamic phase of the Arabic alphabet. The authors of the top and bottom inscriptions identified themselves as Ḥanẓalah, son of ʿAbd-ʿAmr-w and Abd al-ʿUzzē, son of Sufyān. 

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