In Cagliari, a funeral inscription in Arabic was recently found in a pile of stones inside the San Saturnino site. It is engraved in a local limestone ashlar 37.8 cm high, 67.5 cm long and 40 cm deep, worked on one side, probably during re-use (figs. 1-3). The final part of the text, on two lines, are legible: (…) sanat arba‘at wa-tis‘în wa-mâ‘tîn, that can be translated as: “(of’-in’-the) year two hundred and ninetry-four”, that determines the date of the item to 906-907 A.D. (fig. 4). The finding is a new, important elements for studies on Arab presence in Sardinia and is a sign of the probably presence of people of Islamic culture in Cagliari.

Fig. 1 - Arabic inscription (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

Fig. 2 - Arabic inscription (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

Fig. 3 - Arabic inscription: detail (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

Fig. 4 - The transcription of the Arabic inscription (from Salvi 2011, appendix by P. Fois, p. 114).