[72] It was reconquered in 629 by Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor, who set up the Cross in the city which had first beheld the emblem of salvation; and the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross is kept on the 14th September in memory of that event. [73] The origin of this well-known expression is curious. The designation Yemen, or the “right hand,” was given by its northern neighbours to a strip on the south-eastern coast of the Red Sea. But in Arabic, as in the Latin and many other languages, the right hand is associated with good fortune. Hence by mistranslation the territory became known to the West as “The Blessed,” or “Felix.” It is well watered, and is better peopled than any other part of the Arabian peninsula. [74] The _Ka`ba_ is said to have contained 160 idols, each tribe having its separate God; and so great was the toleration in ante-Mohammedan times that on the pillars of the temples there were also to be found images of Abraham and of the Virgin and Child. In the sixth century the primitive religion had lost its old signification and had developed into fetishism. [75] Swedenborg was fifty-eight ere he had his first vision. [76] There are two popular fallacies to be noted with regard to the so-called “_Hegira_.” In the first place, it should be transcribed as _Hijra_; and secondly, the word does not mean _flight_, but _separation_, for the incident to be recalled was not Mohammed’s flight to Medīna--but his _separation from his family_. [77] “Islām” is synonymous for Mohammedanism in all Arabic-speaking countries. Its literal meaning is “resignation”--a heart-whole submission to the divine will. [78] _Khalīfa Rasūl Illāh_ was the full title of the “Successor of the Prophet of God.” The correct designation of the holder of the office is _Khalīfa_, while the office itself is Khilāfaa. The former word has till quite lately been transcribed “Khalif,” or Caliph. The self-styled successor of the Mahdi in the Soudan is, however, known to Europe under the correct designation, Khalifah. [79] The outraged hospitality was avenged, for the murderer was torn to pieces by the mob, while the body of Yezdijerd was embalmed and buried in his ancestral tomb at Istakhr. [80] He was the Prophet’s son-in-law, and had been elected in A.H. 44 by a council of six as successor to the stern `Omar, the second Caliph. [81] _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, chap. li. [82] Cf. Muir, _Decline and Fall of the Caliphate_, p. 208. [83] Tabari, _Annales_, Series II. p. 15. From this date until the appearance in Central Asia of Kutayba in A.H. 86, our history is little more than an enumeration of Arab governors in Khorāsān, whose rule was usually as uneventful as it was shortlived. We have, however, considered it fitting to enter here into detail somewhat disproportionate to the rest of our narrative, seeing that the facts have hitherto been only accessible in works of Oriental writers. [84] Müller, _Der Islam_, i. p. 354.