DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4996#0062
48 ORIGIN OF THE SINAITIC WRITINGS.
childish efforts, and widely different from the finished works of
Egyptian art that we had just been inspecting. As far as their
quantity and frequent occurrence on this lower road to Sinai may be
taken in evidence, it would certainly appear that Wady Feiran was
far more frequented than Sinai itself; but whether Mount Serbal
was, at the period of their execution, considered to be the real
Horeb, we are, perhaps, not sufficiently advanced in the study
of these mysterious inscriptions to decide ; the presumption in
favour of such a supposition certainly appears very strono-.
I have already alluded to the obscurity that still appears to hang
over the origin of these inscriptions. They were first, as Robinson
informs us, mentioned about A. d. 535, by Cosmas, who supposed
them to be the work of the ancient Hebrews ; and even states that
certain Jews, who had read them, had explained them to him as
noting the " journey of such an one, out of such a tribe, on such a
year and month ;" just as even now, on the road to Mecca, similar
inscriptions are to be seen, the work of Moslem pilgrims. This
view was afterwards taken by Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, in 1753 ;
but without any one being as yet able to decipher the writings. It
is but quite lately that Professor Beer, of Leipsic, after laborious
study, has been able to do this: he pronounces them to be of
Christian origin,—probably the work of pilgrims to Mount Sinai.
Christian monograms and crosses, as well as Greek inscriptions
demonstrably older, as Dr. Lepsius affirms, tend to prove this. The
peculiar character itself approximates most nearly to the Cufic, and
is supposed by Beer to have appertained to the language for-
merly spoken by the Nabathseans of Petra, and other parts of the
peninsula, (afterwards superseded by the Arabic,) and of which these
inscriptions are almost the only existing traces. Dr. Lepsius agrees
with Professor Beer as to the nature of the inscriptions, but regards
them as the work of a Christian pastoral people, and not of mere
passing pilgrims ; an opinion seemingly borne out by their number,
their often elaborate, though rude, character, and the remote spots
in which they are sometimes met with. It is somewhat sin-
gular that there should be so many of them at this particular place ;
childish efforts, and widely different from the finished works of
Egyptian art that we had just been inspecting. As far as their
quantity and frequent occurrence on this lower road to Sinai may be
taken in evidence, it would certainly appear that Wady Feiran was
far more frequented than Sinai itself; but whether Mount Serbal
was, at the period of their execution, considered to be the real
Horeb, we are, perhaps, not sufficiently advanced in the study
of these mysterious inscriptions to decide ; the presumption in
favour of such a supposition certainly appears very strono-.
I have already alluded to the obscurity that still appears to hang
over the origin of these inscriptions. They were first, as Robinson
informs us, mentioned about A. d. 535, by Cosmas, who supposed
them to be the work of the ancient Hebrews ; and even states that
certain Jews, who had read them, had explained them to him as
noting the " journey of such an one, out of such a tribe, on such a
year and month ;" just as even now, on the road to Mecca, similar
inscriptions are to be seen, the work of Moslem pilgrims. This
view was afterwards taken by Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, in 1753 ;
but without any one being as yet able to decipher the writings. It
is but quite lately that Professor Beer, of Leipsic, after laborious
study, has been able to do this: he pronounces them to be of
Christian origin,—probably the work of pilgrims to Mount Sinai.
Christian monograms and crosses, as well as Greek inscriptions
demonstrably older, as Dr. Lepsius affirms, tend to prove this. The
peculiar character itself approximates most nearly to the Cufic, and
is supposed by Beer to have appertained to the language for-
merly spoken by the Nabathseans of Petra, and other parts of the
peninsula, (afterwards superseded by the Arabic,) and of which these
inscriptions are almost the only existing traces. Dr. Lepsius agrees
with Professor Beer as to the nature of the inscriptions, but regards
them as the work of a Christian pastoral people, and not of mere
passing pilgrims ; an opinion seemingly borne out by their number,
their often elaborate, though rude, character, and the remote spots
in which they are sometimes met with. It is somewhat sin-
gular that there should be so many of them at this particular place ;