The Excellent Exemplar - Muhammad — Page 5
THE EXCELLENT EXEMPLAR — MUHAMMAD 5 trade with India; Indian swords were highly prized. Dates and liquor were among the products of Arabia, of which the former were much appreciated outside Arabia also. A certain amount of sericulture was carried on in Yemen and other parts of the peninsula, and silk cloth and stuffs were manufactured. The political situation was confused and unstable. At the time of the birth of the Prophet, control over Yemen was exercised by Ethiopia, from across the Red Sea. Only that year - A. D. 570 - Abraha, Ethiopia’s Viceroy in Yemen, had led an expedition against Mecca, with the declared intention of destroying the Ka’aba. The expedition proved an utter failure. Abraha’s forces, which included an elephant, were struck by a virulent epidemic that destroyed large numbers of them during their encampment in a valley a f ew miles outside Mecca. The remainder of the group retired in confusion and terror. The year of that expedition is still known as the Year of the Elephant. The event is the subject matter of a brief chapter in the Quran (ch. 105) Some years later Yemen appears to have passed under the sovereignty of Iran. It was the Iranian Viceroy of Yemen who was directed by the then Emperor of Iran to arrest the Prophet (who by then had migrated to Medina) and to forward him under guard to the E mperor. For this purpose the Viceroy sent emissaries to Medina. When the Prophet was apprised of their mission, he - wishing time for prayer and reflection - asked them to wait a day or two. During that time the assassination of the Emperor of Iran was reveale d to the Prophet. When he informed