Ḥalfān

Ḥalfān is a male deity attested in Ancient South Arabian sources. He was worshipped in the area of the city of Haram (Kharibat Hamdān) in the Jawf by tribes that inhabited the region towards the end of the first millennium BCE, such as the Amīr.

Ḥalfān (Sab. Ḥlfn) is a minor Ancient South Arabian male god. Several mentions of him are found in inscriptions from the Jawf region, left by the communities that settled in the area of the town of Haram towards the end of the 1st millennium BCE. The most important of those communities was the tribe of Amīr.

Ḥalfān was worshipped in the extra muros temple of the town, formerly dedicated to the god of the city-state of Haram, Matabnaṭiyān. A mention of Ḥalfān is also found in a graffito on the walls of the temple of Matabnaṭiyān in the site of al-Kāfir (al-Kāfir 29), some 15 km north of Haram. This suggests that cultic places of the Haramite god were later re-consecrated to Ḥalfān.

In Haram’s temple, named Arathat (ʾrṯt or ʾrṯtm), fines were fixed to be paid in the event that offences were committed during the feast of the god and in the sacred area (Haram 13), and communities recorded their expiations for the god (Haram 8, Haram 10). The latter inscription tells that the clans postponed the sacred hunt of Ḥalfān during a war, when they took refuge in the nearby town of Yathill (Barāqish). There, they undertook the pilgrimage for the god dhu-Samāwī, and so Ḥalfān did not grant them the required flow of water in autumn and spring.

Ḥalfān was probably also worshipped in Yathill: the inscription Y.05.B.B 16, found in sand deposits in the former Minaean temple of ʿAthtar dhu-Qabḍ, is a dedication for the god and is further evidence of Amīrite presence at the site following the decline of the kingdom of Maʿīn. The latter text also attests to the use of anthroponyms using the god’s name (ʿbdḥlfn, meaning “Servant of Ḥalfān”).

Irene Rossi

References and suggested reading

• Agostini, A. 2015. The excavation of the temple of ʿAthtar dhu-Qabḍ in Barāqish. Stratigraphic data and historical reconstruction. PSAS 45: 1–14.
• Agostini, A. 2021. Il tempio di ʿAthtar dhu-Qabḍ. Lo scavo, in S. Antonini & F.G. Fedele (eds) Barāqish/Yathill (Yemen) 1986-2007. Volume 1: Excavations of Temple B and related research and restoration. Scavi del Tempio B e ricerche e restauri connessi: 95–150. Oxford: Archaeopress.
• Robin, C.J. 1992. Inventaire des inscriptions sudarabiques. Tome 1 : Inabbaʾ, Haram, al-Kāfir, Kamna et al-Ḥarāshif. Paris, Rome: De Boccard, Herder.

_{Alternate spellings: Halfân, Halfan, Ḥlfn, Hlfn}