114 ANCIENT KINGS OF ARABIA. 



Arabs), was then oil the point of undertaking atl 

 expedition into Arabia ; and from tliis period must 

 be dated the extinction of a race of princes, who 

 had ruled above two thousand years the sequestered 

 region of myrrh and frankincense.* 



III. Table. — Ab3-ssinian Kings of Yemen, — A. D. 529-601. 

 A. D. 529. Aryat or Arnat. 1 A. D. 589, Yacsiim. 



549, Abraha— Al Ashram. | 601, Masruk. 



As a condition of his victory, Ar>^at Avas con- 

 firmed in the government of Yemen ; but the turbu- 

 lent and artful^ poUcy of Abraha, an officer in the 

 expedition, and formerly the slave of a Roman mer- 

 chant at Adulis, shortened his reign. Supported by 

 a part of the army, he revolted and offered battle. 

 Instead of hazarding a civil war, it was agreed to 

 decide the contest by single combat, in which the 

 Abyssinian was treacherou.sly stabbed by a slave ; 

 not, however, before he had wounded his antagonist 

 in the face, which gave him the surname of Al 

 Ashram, or the Slit-nosed. The nayash threatened 

 to punish the rebel ; and made a vow to drag him 

 from his throne by the hair, to trample his dominion 

 Under foot, and die his spear in his blood. Abraha 

 seems to have paid little regard to these menaces ; 

 and took an ingenious plan to accomplish their ful- 

 filment without danger to himself. He filled two 

 sacks with earth, cut off two locks of his hair, 

 which, with a small vial of his blood, he enclosed in 

 a rich casket perfumed with musk, and despatched 

 to his master : expressing a hope that the royal dis- 

 pleasure would be satisfied Avith this easy mode of 

 punishment, as he had thus given him an opportu- 

 nity of executing his threat to the letter, without 

 Violating his conscience, or incurring the hazard 

 and expense of an expedition. The nayash was 



♦ Vincent*8 Perip. vol. i. App. ii. ; Valentia's Trav. vol. m. 

 ch.vL 



