Khosrû Parvîz, then king of Persia, received his letter with great disdain, and tore it in a passion, sending away the messenger very abruptly; which when Mohammed heard, he said, "GOD shall tear his kingdom." And soon after a messenger came to Mohammed from Badhân, king of Yaman, who was a dependant on the Persians,2 to acquaint him that he had received orders to send him to Khosrû. Mohammed put off his answer till the next morning, and then told the messenger it had been revealed to him that night that Khosrû was slain by his son Shirûyeh; adding that he was well assured his new religion and empire should rise to as great a height as that of Khosrû; and therefore bid him advise his master to embrace Mohammedism. The messenger being returned, Badhân in a few days received a letter from Shirûyeh informing him of his father's death, and ordering him to give the prophet no further disturbance. Whereupon Badhân and the Persians with him turned Mohammedans.3 The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians assure us, received Mohammed's letter with great respect, laying it on his pillow, and dismissed the bearer honourably. And some pretend that he would have professed this new faith, had he not been afraid of losing his crown.4 Mohammed wrote to the same effect to the king of Ethiopia, though he had been converted before, according to the Arab writers; and to 1 Abulfeda Vit. Moh. p. 85. 2 See before, p. 8. 3 Abulfeda, Vit. Moh. p. 92, &c. 4 Al Jannâbi. Mokawkas, governor of Egypt, who gave the messenger a very favourable reception, and sent several valuable presents to Mohammed, and among the rest two girls, one of which, named Mary,1 became a great favourite with him. He also sent letters of the like purport to several Arab princes, particularly one to al Hareth Ebn Abi Shamer,2 king of Ghassân, who, returning for answer that he would go to Mohammed himself, the prophet said, "May his kingdom perish;" another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yamâma, who was a Christian, and having some time before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his former faith; this prince sent back a very rough answer, upon which Mohammed cursing him, he died soon after; and a third to al Mondar Ebn Sâwa, king of Bahrein, who embraced Mohammedism, and all the Arabs of that country followed his example.3 The eighth year of the Hejra was a very fortunate year to Mohammed. In the beginning of it Khâled Ebn al Walîd and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent soldiers, the first of whom afterwards conquered Syria and other countries, and the latter Egypt, became proselytes of Mohammedism. And soon after the prophet sent 3,000 men against the Grecian forces, to revenge the death of one of his ambassadors, who being sent to the governor of Bosra on the same errand as those who went to the above-mentioned princes, was slain by an Arab of the tribe of Ghassân at Mûta, a town in the territory of Balkâ in Syria, about