278 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.8., XVIII, 
according to this account with the mission to the Byzantine 
ruler, Heraclius; the missive he was charged to deliver was 
sealed, it is said, like those to the other potentates with the silver 
signet-ring of the Prophet which Gabriel had appro - re- 
jecting previous patterns in iron and copper r (Tab., 857). 
The narrative of the circumstances of its delivery as ieee in 
Tab., I, 1561 //., with but slight differences in Al-Agham (VI, 
94), is all nee if not veracity: Abu Sufyan b. Harb is is ee 
ed to have said: ‘‘ We were a community of traders, and the 
feud eles the Prophet and us had so straitened us that our 
possessions were exhausted. When the Truce (of Al-Huday- 
biyyah) ! was concluded between the Apostle of God and us, we 
were not without fear that we would not find security, but I 
proceeded with some traders of the Quraysh towards Syria, our 
trade-objective there being Gaza (Ghazzah). We came to it at 
the time when Heraclius had proved victorious over the Persians 
within his territory, and had driven them out of it, and there 
had been wrested from them for him his Holy Cross, which 
they had plundered. When he heard this news s (of their expul- 
sion} and that his Cross had been rescued for him, he set forth 
restoration he had made, from Hims where he then had his 
quarters, in order to pray in the Holy City (Jerusalem), carpets 
being spread for him (in his path), and sweet-smelling flowers 
cast on them. When he reached’ ‘Iliya’? he offered there his 
prayers, his generals and the Byzantium nobles accom ng 
him. e appeared next morning careworn, and kept tu —_ 
his glance heavenwards His generals said to him: “ 
Majesty is verily careworn this morning.” He answered: “ Yous ; 
I was shown yestreen the dominion of the circumcised trium- 
phant’” Theyre plied; ‘‘ Weare not aw are of any nation that 
practises circumcision save the Jews, and they are under your 

eaty between Muhammad and the people of Makkah, conelud- 
ed i “= BF Sed Qa‘dah, 6 A.H. (Caet., I, 706 /f.). 
2 *Tliya’, actually Aelia, was the name by which the peace a had 
chosen to designate Jerusalem in che following circums stances: «« About 
A o believe 
more successful than that described by Josephus; and, after i PE 
sion, Jerusalem was turned into a Roman colony, called Aelia Capitolina 
with a temple to J vies Capitolinus on the Temple area pade-pant 
Aelia dephlented the time-honoured name, which pe awhile belon god a 
clusively to the a city of devotional faney, which the fall of Jeru- 
salem under Ti vis had caused to be painted in more gorgeous colours than 
befor Even now Aelia is with Moslems the alternative a appellation = 2 
the Holy City ” and figures on the —— of — printed at 
salem ” (Margoliouth’s Cairo, Jerusalem 8, p. 190). a 
8 considers it very probable t that this se of the story _ 
have fee suggested by the fearful slaughter of the Jews which seems 




