282 Juurnal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XVIII, 
to death. Dihyah returned and related the incident to the 
Prophet (Tab., I. 1567). Apparently soon after Heraclius set 
out from Syria for Constantinople (Tab., ib.). 
e narrative lacks little in verisimilitude ; the first, and 
perhaps the only serious, question that suggests itself is 
whether it is likely that Heraclius flushed with triumph and 
controlled by an impulse of gratitude to his God who had led 
his armies to victory, is likely to have been so sorely shaken by 
a report that as yet threatened no peril to his empire newly 
confirmed by the sword. 
But unfortunately for the plausible tale it has to contend 
with two difficulties, of a narrative order and of a chronologi- 
eal. 
e account in Ibn Sa‘d, e.g. varies almost in toto from 
that given atlengthabove. It is very brief. merely informs us 
that the Prophet wrote to the Emperor calling him unto Islam, 
and sent his letter by Dihyah al-Kalbi, bidding him make it 
over to the Lord of Busra, who should then make it over in 
turn to the Emperor, and the Lord of Busra duly fulfilled his 
charge (Tabaqat, IV, 1,185). 1n another tradition it is further 
stated that he made over the letter to the Emperor in Hims in 
Muharram of the 7th year of the Hijrah (i.). 
The narrative as found in Bukhari (I, 7-9, ed. Krehl) is 
somewhat similar in its account of the summons before the 
Emperor in ‘Iliya’ of Abi Sufyan and his fellow-traders of 
Quraysh, who taking advantage of the Truce had resumed their 
interrupted calling, and also in its interrogatory to the story as 
given above by Tabari; Heraclius was, it is added, an astrologer 
and the stars in their courses had been the source of his anxiety 
and alarm in ’[liya’ (Bukh., I, 9). The remainder of the story 
has closer affinity with Ibn Sa‘d, inasmuch as the letter com- 
mitted by the Prophet to Dihyah had been made over to the 
Lord of Busra, who made it over in turn to Heraclius; the 
tenor of the letter is much the same, but the wording is differ- 
ent, though here notice need be taken only of the form 
‘akk@rin occurring in the phrase “the sin of the tillers of the 
soil be on your head,”’ a word which had evidently trouble 
the copyist of the ’Aghani who read it as ’akabir, and is various- 
ly reproduced as harrathin, jallahin. and rakusiyyin in other 
writers (‘ Umdatu ’l-Qari’, I, 103, Const.), and is here given as 
yaristyyin (Bukh., I, 8), and ’arisiyyin (ib., 11, 235). 
A narrative of this embassy to Heraclius, based on the 
various sources, with a bibliography of the latter, is to be found 
in Caetani’s Annali dell’ Islam, I, 731-4, in n. 3, p. 734 ° 
which the date of Heraclius’ pilgrimage to Jerusalem is give? 
as the spring of 629 A.D., whereas Dhuw’ l-Hijjah of 6 A.H. give? 
in the Muhammadan records quoted above as the date of the 
despatch of Dihyah and the other envoys falls in April of 
628 A.D., ie. there is about a year’s discrepance in the corres- 
