Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 366
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 366 Ever since the Holy Prophet had received the Divine Call the Byzantine and Persian empires had been waging with each other a ceaseless deadly warfare. Until the year 621, unvarying success attended the Persians’ arms. Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor were over run. Constantinople itself was threatened. At last Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor, took matters seriously in hand and, shortly after the Holy Prophet’s Migration from Mecca to Medina, started driving the invaders from their fastnesses in Asia Minor. Duri ng the three years in which Heraclius was retrieving the fortunes of the empire, the Holy Prophet was engaged in his struggle with Quraish. Then came the critical siege of Constantinople by the Persians, which preceded by little more than half a year the s iege of Medina by Quraish and their allies. In 627, in his third campaign, Heraclius followed up his previous success, and at the close of the year achieved the decisive victory of Nineveh. In this action the forces of Persia were irretrievably broken. Thi s event coincided with the Truce of Hudaibiyya. During the autumn, Heraclius, in fulfilment of his vow for the outstanding success, which had just crowned his arms, performed on foot a pilgrimage from Emesa (Hims) to Jerusalem. Soon after his arrival there , his courtiers noticed one morning that the Emperor appeared to be seriously perturbed. On enquiry, he disclosed that the cause of his perturbation was that the previous night his study of the planets had revealed that a mighty king had arisen among the c ircumcised. He asked which were the people who practised circumcision, and was told that it was a custom of the Jews, but that the Jews, as the Emperor was aware, were not strong enough to pose any serious threat to the empire. About