Object
The word on
the church wall
The oldest dated Arabic inscription naming God is on a church.
The Word · The word on the church wall, 512 CE
In 512 CE, at Zabad, south-east of Aleppo in Syria, Christians dedicated a church to St Sergius. Over the door they carved an inscription in three languages: Greek, Syriac and Arabic. The Arabic line calls on al-ilāh, “the God”: “may God remember…”, followed by the names of the people who built it.
It is the oldest dated Arabic inscription naming God. It is older than Islam by about a century. And it is Christian.
The lintel is now in the Art & History Museum in Brussels. Scholars still discuss exactly how to read its first word; we say no more than the stone does.
Guess first
Is the word Allah older or younger than Islam?
Older. The oldest dated Arabic inscription naming God is on this church, from 512 CE.
Source: Nicolai Sinai, Rain-Giver, Bone-Breaker, Score-Settler (2019), p. 7. We show no photograph of the stone until we have one we may use.