Ṣalm

The chief god of the ancient oasis of Taymāʾ, and also worshipped at Dūma (Dūmat al-Jandal, al-Jawf), and possibly at Qurayya in the same area.

The deity ṣlm, conventionally vocalized as “Ṣalm”, appears to have been the chief or most popular deity in the oasis of Taymāʾ in North-West Arabia, in the second half of the first millennium BCE, though there is possibly a much earlier representation of the “Ṣalm head” (see below) sculpted on a frieze at the site of Qurayya, which may date to as early as the late second millennium BCE (Luciani 2021: 278–285). The etymology of the name is uncertain since in the Taymanitic language, which has been shown to be more closely related to North-West Semitic than to Arabic (Kootstra 2016: 105–106), /ẓ/ merged with /ṣ/ (e.g. nṣr < nẓr “to keep watch, guard”, Kootstra 2016: 79–80). Thus ṣlm could derive either from the root Ṣ-L-M meaning “image” or Ẓ-L-M “black, dark, shade, etc.”. Since, alas, we have no information on the mythology attached to the deity, it is not possible to choose between these.

Ṣalm is highly unusual among deities in ancient North Arabia in that he seems to be represented by an anthropomorphic symbol: an inverted triangle with horns. Sometimes it is simply this, but usually it has eyes (sometimes with eyebrows), often a schematic nose, ears, sometimes a beard, and occasionally a mouth. Between the horns there is sometimes a star or crescent moon or both, or a circle with a cross in it. It is not absolutely certain that these images are linked to the deity. However, the fact that there is one inscription next to such a head which reads bs³n | {b} dtn | nṣb ṣ[l]m “Bs³n {son of} Dtn set up a standing stone for Ṣa[l]m”, (ELHT Wādī al-Zaydāniyyah Tay 21) might suggest that they are, though, of course, this proximity could be pure chance.

We know that at least in the late 6th/early 5th centuries BCE a manifestation of the deity, “Ṣalm of Mḥrm” was worshipped with two other deities, Šnglʾ and Ašīmāʾ in Taymāʾ. Šnglʾ is known only from two Aramaic inscriptions in Taymāʾ(Musée du Louvre A.O. 1505, see Stein in Macdonald & Al-Najem 2024, and National Museum, Riyāḍ 1020, see Norris in Macdonald & Al-Najem 2024), but Ašīmāʾ is also found in a third Imperial Aramaic inscription from the oasis (TM.IA.027, Macdonald & Al-Najem 2024) and is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the deity of the people of Ḥamath (modern Ḥamāh in central Syria) whom the Assyrians had deported to Samaria in 722/1 BCE (2 Kgs 17: 30). Another manifestation of Ṣalm, ṣlm zy {r/d}b, was also worshipped in the temple known today as Qaṣr al-Ḥamrāʾ to which, the inscription records, Šnglʾ and Ašīmā were admitted (see Norris in Macdonald & Al-Najem 2024). The worship of Ṣalm continued into the Nabataean period since a dedication to him (TA 14285+14286+13651) is dated to year seventeen of Malichus II of Nabataea (56/57 CE, Macdonald 2020: 117–118). There are also two later references where Ṣalm is associated with the oasis of Dūma (modern Dūmat al-Jandal, al-Jawf). One is a Safaitic graffito (roughly 1st century BCE – 4th century CE) from north-eastern Jordan carved by someone who identifies himself as coming from Dūma and prays to ṣlm ʾlh dmt “Ṣalm the god of Dūma” (KRS 30, Al-Jallad 2015: 20). The other is a Latin inscription of the third century CE from Dūma itself which is a dedication to Jupiter Hammon and Sancto Salmo (Bauzou 1996: 24).

Unfortunately, nothing is known about the cult practices or rituals in Ṣalm’s worship.

Michael C.A. Macdonald

References and suggested reading

• Al-Jallad, A. 2015. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 80). Leiden: Brill.
• Bauzou,T. 1996. La Praetensio de Bostra à Dumata (El-Jowf). Syria 73: 23–35.
• Kootstra, F. 2016. The language of the Taymanitic inscriptions and its classification. AEN 2: 67–140.
• Luciani, M. 2021. Canons of Iconography: Water, animals, gods and humans, in C. Bührig, M. van Ess, I. Gerlach, A. Hausleiter and B. Müller-Neuhof (eds) Klänge der Archäologie. Festschrift für Ricardo Eichmann: 277–288. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. 2020. Taymāʾ II. Catalogue of the inscriptions discovered in the Saudi-German excavations at Taymāʾ, 2004-2015 (Taymāʾ. Multidisciplinary Series On the Results of the Saudi-German Archaeological Project, 2). Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. & M. Al-Najem (eds), 2024. With contributions by F. Imbert, J. Norris, and P. Stein. Taymāʾ III. Catalogue of the inscriptions in the Taymāʾ Museum and other collections. Oxford: Archaeopresss.

_{Alternate spelling: Salm}