110 ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA, 



Hamyarite Tobbaa in that quarter. Harassed with 

 his endless wars, which procured him the name of 

 Abucarb, or the Father of Affliction, his subjects 

 conspired his death, and transferred the crown to 

 his son Hassan, who was himself slain by his brother 

 Amru. This state of affairs led to an insurrection, 

 in which the usurper with his four sous and their 

 sister Alsaha were cut off; although the latter are 

 not admitted by some among- the number of his 

 successors. Abd-Kelal, according to Hamza, em- 

 braced Christianity ; but he was det&rred by politi- 

 cal motives from avowing it openly, or imposing it 

 on his subjects. Tobbaa, the last that was honoured 

 with that title, marched with an army of 100,000 

 men into Hejaz, threatening to exterminate the 

 Jews, who had put his viceroy to death on account 

 of his cruelties. A colony of these people had fled 

 from Palestine and Syria, in the wars of Titus and 

 Adrian, and settled near Yatreb (Medina). This 

 city Tobbaa besieged ; but a reconciliation having 

 taken place, it Avas saved from destruction. Two 

 Jewish doctors, it is alleged, had succeeded m im- 

 pressing him with the danger of violating a place 

 which was under the special protection of Heaven, 

 and destined to become the future asylum of a great 

 prophet. A similar veneration was the means of 

 protecting Mecca and its temple from pillage. In 

 reverence for its antiquity and holiness he presented 

 the Kaaba with its first canopy, a cloth of rich ta- 

 pestry, and a gate of gold ; and during the six months 

 of his residence there, he is said to have sacrificed 

 every day a thousand camels. His intercourse with 

 these Hebrew exiles led to a change in his religion. 

 The doctrines they unfolded to him appeared so ac- 

 ceptable, that he instantly abandoned the absurd- 

 ities of idol-worship, and became a zealous convert 

 to the Mosaic ritual. 



On his return to Yemen, he v/as accompanied by 

 a number of Jews, whom he soon advanced to places 



