on the same day which the Apostle of God had foretold. As soon as Badzan learned this, he sent to inform the Prophet that himself and all the Persians under him had embraced Islam.'

This narrative of the Moslem historian evidently seeks to attribute to Mohammed a supernatural knowledge of a future event, and connects Badzan's conversion to Islam with the fulfilment of that prophecy. But it is known from history that when Chosroes II. was completely defeated, A.D. 627, near the ruins of ancient Nineveh, and his capital Destagerd (=Artemita), with all its accumulated treasures, fell into the hands of the Emperor Heraclius, he was so enraged against his satraps and grandees, that a conspiracy headed by Shiruweih, one of Chosroes' own sons, was formed amongst them which led to his assassination. Badzan, whose disloyalty is apparent from his communicating his royal master's letter to Mohammed, had, as we learn, previously received an offer from the prophet that, if he embraced Islam, he should be confirmed in his dominion and have other portions of Persia added to it.

Some time before Mohammed claimed to be a prophet in Mecca, a request of Chosroes to his vassal, the ruler of Hira, for a supply of Arab beauties to replenish his harem, led to a conflict in which the powerful Arab tribe of the Beni Bekr became involved. The Persians mustered a large army, comprising many Arab auxiliaries, with the view of crushing the Beni Bekr. A battle ensued, but it terminated in favour of the Arabs, as is thus graphically described by Sir W. Muir: 'The word of alarm had been given, and as it rapidly passed from clan to clan amongst the ramifications of that great tribe, the Arabs flocked to the rendezvous in the valley of Dzu Kar. The opposing ranks were about to close, when the iron-hearted Hanzala, their commander, with his own hand severed the girths of the camels on which were seated his wife and the other women of the tribe, and thus abandoned them, in case of defeat, to certain captivity. The Arabs fought with desperate bravery, and the Persian army was completely routed. This defeat, ominous of the fate of Persia, took place A.D. 611, a few months after Mohammed had entered on his prophetic career.'

This great military success, crowning the united and determined efforts of a single, but large and powerful tribe, clearly proved the possibility of entirely throwing off the Persian yoke. It took place when Mohammed was just rather timidly beginning to offer himself to the faith of his countrymen, and could hardly fail to inspire him and the Arabs who were half disposed to listen to his proposals with the hope of far greater successes in the future, if they were but united as one nation, and fought the foreigner under a generally recognised leadership.

The preceding rapid glance at Arab politics has shown us that for ages before the Mohammedan era Arabia had been forced to yield part of its independence to foreigners: to Romans, Abyssinians, and Persians. From them it had in turn to accept that domination and interference which is always felt the more humiliating and vexatious by any people the greater its national pride and the stronger its love of liberty. We have seen that since 'the year of the elephant,' or about the time of Mohammed's birth, the Abyssinian power began to wane, but that the Persian influence steadily waxed stronger, so that at the time when Mohammed sprang into manhood, Persian, domination had become firmly established both in Yemen and Hira, and was gradually extending from these southern and northern centres over the interior portions of the Peninsula. Even Mecca and Medina seem to have been claimed as under Persian suzerainty. For when Mohammed sent his summons to Chosroes II. to embrace Islam, that potentate angrily tore up the letter, saying, 'Shall Mohammed, who lives in my dominion and is my subject, write to me such a letter?' Still, it could not escape the observation of the keen-eyed sons of Arabia, that whilst Persian domination was seeking to tighten its hold upon their country, desperate struggles for supremacy were going on in the north between Persia and Rome, necessarily tending to exhaust both those national adversaries. These were circumstances eminently calculated to revive the hopes of independence amongst the liberty-loving tribes of Arabia. They would particularly influence the merchants of Mecca, who knew more about foreign politics, and were naturally eager to extend their