1This 150-page book, the last 60 of which are appendices, can almost be read like a novel. It is easy to carry around, very clearly written, and well produced despite ten or so typing mistakes which were not corrected by the publisher’s editorial department.

5Below is a short, non-exhaustive list of the words which may have been added to the general index:

8The identification of ʿmn with Wadi Ram is based on the facts that Allāt is said in two Safaitic inscriptions to be “from ʿmn” and that a temple was consecrated to this goddess at Wadi Ram. This identification should probably be more argued, for instance by recalling that Allāt was worshipped neither in Petra nor in Boṣrā. Also, in Hegra, she is said in Nabataean inscription JSNab 16 dy mn ʿmnd, “who is fromʿmnd”. In this case, could ʿmnd be a variant of ʿmn?

9In the chapter on the gods and their worshippers (p. 60-72), A. J. examines the aspects of the life of the authors of the Safaitic inscriptions which appear in the prayers they write to the gods, such as security, relief, deliverance, protection from the enemies and misfortune. Other prayers give a glimpse into more prosaic wishes of these nomads: long life, reunion with the family, relief from a limp, loss of a sheep, curing of an illness, etc. They provide a vivid snapshot of their concerns.

10Below is a subjective list of interesting ideas or useful reminders put forward by the author:

• Safaitic grew out of the Thamudic B writing tradition (p. 5 n. 22);
• Safaitic inscriptions have a formulaic structure characterized by a genealogy, followed by a narrative. The interesting point raised by the author relates to the semantic connection between the narrative and the prayer, which are complementary (p. 10). Many examples are given where the two are bound to each other;
• on the reference to Jesus in a Safaitic text, mentioned p. 7 n. 28, see now Ahmad Al-Jallad, and Ali al-Manaser, ‘The Pre-Islamic Divine Name ʿsy and the Background of the Qurʾānic Jesus’, Journal of the International Qur’anic Association, 2021, no. 6 , p. 107-136.
• sacrifices are often mentioned in the texts, usually with the word ḏbḥ. The sacrificed animal is not always mentioned but when it is, the animal is always a camel, which was, the author rightly recalls, a valuable and important beast (p. 18-19);
• sacrifices could be performed in the open-air, in the Ḥarrah itself, but some places held a particular significance. One of them, in north-eastern Jordan, published in 2015, is described and analysed again. It is the closest parallel, in the Ḥarrah, to the Nabataean and other high places where sacrifices were performed, while an inscription discovered at another site designates this type of place as a ṣmd, to be compared with Arabic ṣamdun, ‘high ground’ (p. 22-23);
• the author suggests a possible semantic connection between sikkānum/skn used in Bronze Age in the city states of Mari, Ugarit, and Emar to refer to the standing stones on the one hand, and Greek Βαίτυλος, the equivalent of Semitic byt ʾl, ‘dwelling of (the) god’. The important concept is the fact that the standing stones were “regarded as vessels that divinities could occupy for the duration of a ritual”;8
• nfs(s), pl. ʾ(n)fs, ‘funerary monument’, is used in the Safaitic inscriptions with the verb bny, ‘built’. This indicates that for the nomads who wrote these texts, this monument was more than a simple commemorative stele (p. 33);
• having examined the use of the term str, A.J. concludes that it refers to some kind of shelter used while performing sacral activities. Although nothing, neither in the inscriptions nor in the places where they were written, allows to determine what the str looked like, the existence of such a shelter provides a new brick for the reconstruction of the religious material culture of the nomads who populated the Ḥarrah;
• the chapter describing the role of the gods as it appears in the inscriptions is also very interesting: as representing astral phenomena (śms and possibly blg, the sun); Allāt, abundance and fertility; Roḍaw, possibly the Moon; Baʿal-Samīn, rain and storm as well as “master of the rains/heaven”, called upon to send rains. One should perhaps only be cautious with respect to the familial relationships between the gods. For instance, the idea that Allāt was the mother of Dūšarā because in Nabataean inscriptions she is said ʾm ʾlhyʾ dy mrʾnʾ rbʾl, “mother of the gods of our lord Rabb-ʾEl” while Dūšarā is said ʾlh mrʾnʾ, “the god of our lord”, is perhaps not enough to consider that this may have been true in the Safaitic context;
• the interpretation of the phrase tẓr mny, ‘Fate lay in wait’ is very convincing (p. 75-76) and it makes indeed more sense to consider that Fate is “stalking the living” than assume that the author of the texts is “simply awaiting what must happen to come to pass”;
• finally, A. J. provides a useful synthesis on the burial installations, their shape and the objects that were found in some of them. The only reserve would be the function attributed to the nṣb, the standing stone, which may have been used to put the tombs under divine protection and not necessarily “allow for supernatural participation”.

11All in all, this work renews completely the so far fragmented image we had of the religion and rituals of the nomads who wrote the Safaitic inscriptions. It appears to be more complex and organised than previously assumed, with the existence of structures – whether built to some extent or simply set up and dismantled after use – used to perform the rituals. It also brings light on a number of concepts and what may be called a proper religious tradition. Many ideas put forward in the volume are not mentioned is this short review but this work is worth being read as the religious novel of the most prolific ancient nomads in the Near East.