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RE: orion Cryptic A + Magarians



You'll need to be more specific about Ethiopic characters.  There are
two "t's" in Ethiopic, as one might expect of a Semitic language.  The
Tawe is an unremarkable cross (like a modern lower case "t") with
various appendages to indicate vowels, and a similarity between it and a
Cryptic script would not be very remarkable.  The other "t" is tait,
which might remind one of a roman upper case "M" formed by joining the
two outer legs at the top and dropping the middle leg straight down from
the top.  The result is somewhat beetle-shaped (viewed from the side).
One of my Ethiopic grammars indicates that the origin of the script is
south Arabia, and that there is similarity to Minao-Sabaic inscriptions.
I don't have ready access to the Cryptic scripts to make a comparison,
unless someone can give me a ready reference.

David Suter
Saint Martin's College
dsuter@crc.stmartin.edu

> ----------
> From: 	J.E.Harding[SMTP:BSP97JEH@sheffield.ac.uk]
> Reply To: 	orion@mscc.huji.ac.il
> Sent: 	Monday, July 13, 1998 5:11 AM
> To: 	orion@panda.mscc.huji.ac.il
> Subject: 	orion Cryptic A + Magarians
> 
> I'm writing with two unrelated ideas in my mind:
> (1)With regard to Cryptic script A (e.g. 4Q298, 4Q317), has anyone 
> noted the similarities between cryptic/esoteric taw and the Ethiopic 
> letter t?
> (2)With regard to the question of the identification of the Qumran 
> sect and related topics, does anyone know of a discussion of Jaqub 
> al-Qirqisani's 'History of Jewish Sects' which raises this issue? 
> Qirqisani mentions a Second Temple sect known as 'Magarians,' on 
> account of the fact that their texts were found in a cave this is a 
> paraphrase, not a quotation).
> 
> James Harding
> University of Sheffield
>