Ighfir li - uma análise do panorama devocional pré e proto-islâmico a partir de fontes epigráficas árabes (sec. I - VIII E.C.)

Abstract

The so-called “epigraphic habit” was a feature of near-eastern communities in late antiquity. These vestiges consist in extremely fruitful sources for studying these peoples – their ideas, fears, distress and sentiments – beyond what institutional documentation and chronicles can provide. Despite their relative brevity, epigraphic sources, particularly graffiti, have been increasingly explored in an attempt to breach the documentation’s silence, such a distinct feature of the periods immediately prior and subsequent to the emergence of Islam (i. e. 6^th to 8^th centuries), especially due to the spike in the recording and processing of these in the last 15 years. Based on this material, we propose a comparative analysis of the devotional lexicon and concepts that can be found in pre and proto-islamic graffiti, particularly those inscriptions we term “supplicant” and “apotropaic”, as an attempt to measure possible changes in the devotional sensibilities of the common people who have left us these vestiges.