There are no inscriptions by which to fix the date of Ukhaiḍir. If any record of its foundation were made, it must have been written upon the plaster which covered the walls, and in some of the more important rooms the plaster has peeled away. But it is probable that there was no such record. The laudable habit of setting the name and date of the founder upon the building which he had caused to be constructed does not seem to have been followed in the first age of Islâm, and, like Ukhaiḍir, the ḥîrahs upon the Syrian frontier have furnished us with no direct evidence as to their origin. I found in room 44 a graffito upon the plaster on the south side of the doorway which communicates with room 45. It is exceedingly ill written, and in some places the cracking of the plaster makes it almost indecipherable. The authors of _Ocheïdir_ did not notice it and no mention of it appears in M. Massignon’s text, though he certainly saw it, since it is visible in one of his photographs.[429] The original is so indistinct that I doubt whether any photograph would reproduce it satisfactorily. After an unsuccessful attempt to take a squeeze, I made a copy--scarcely more successfully (Fig. 35). When I returned to Ukhaiḍir in 1911 the plaster was still more damaged, and I abandoned the attempt to re-copy the graffito. Meantime Dr. B. Moritz had noticed the characters in M. Massignon’s photograph, and he was inclined to believe that they might be ancient, possibly Nabataean. I therefore sent my copy both to him and to Professor Littmann, and the latter was so kind as to supply me with the following notes. ‘Dr. Moritz and I combined our efforts and something like the following may be suggested: [Illustration: Arabic] “This water from the house (?) to ... from this water. And the declaration was pronounced that there is no God but God and Muḥammad is his Prophet. And there was present at this ... Bishr, son of ‘Âdah son of ‘Îsâ son of ‘Umar, in the year of the Hidjrah 77-.” ‘If the date is correctly read we would have to choose between the years A.H. 771 and 779 = A.D. 1369-1378. The purpose of this inscription may be to reserve the rights of watering at or near Ukhaiḍir. The Beduin put their tribe marks on ruins in the desert in order to prove that the region (water and pasture) is theirs. This is their way of annexation. The whole is very doubtful; but we have made out at least something. The words that are absolutely certain are [Illustration: Arabic], [Illustration: Arabic] and [Illustration: Arabic].’ The result, as Professor Littmann observes, is small; but we have at any rate the assurance that the graffito is not very ancient and that it is not concerned with the building or restoration of the palace. The water to which it alludes must be the well in the Wâdi al-Ubaiḍ.