C H A P . XXX.
Intithd, The G r e e k s *; revealed at Meccab.
In the name of the moft merciful G od.
L. M c. The Greeks have been overcome by the Perfiamd, in the
■ neareft
* The original word is a l Rum ; by which
the later Greeks, or fubje&s of the Conftantino- '
poll tan empire, are here meant; tho’ the Arabs
give the fame name alfo to the Romans, and
other Europaans.
b Some except the verfe beginning at thefe
words, Praife be unto G od.
c See the Prelim. Difc. §. III. p. 59, & c.
d ‘the Greeks have been overcome by the Perfians,
The accompliftiment of the prophecy
contained in this paflage, which is very
famous among the Mohammedans, being infilled
on by their dodlors as a convincing proof that
the Koran really came down from heaven, it
may be excufable to be a little particular.
The paflage is faid to have been revealed on
occafitJTi of a great victory obtained by the Persians
over the Greeks, the news whereof coming
to Mecca, the infidels became ftrangely elated,
and began to abufe Mohammed and his followers,
imagining that this fuccefs of the Perfians, who,
like themfelves, were idolaters, and fuppofed to
have no fcriptures, againft the Chrijlians, who
pretended, as well as Mohammed, to worlhip
one God, and to have divine fcriptures, was an
earneft of their own future fuccefles againft the
prophet and thofe of his religion: to check
which vain hopes, it was foretold, in the words
of the text, that how improbable foever it
might feem, yet the fcale ihould be turned in
a few years, and the vanquilhed Greeks prevail
as remarkably againft the Perfians.
That this prophecy was cxaltly fulfilled the
commentators fail not to obferve, tho’ they do
not exaClly agree in the accounts they give of
its accomplilhment; the number of years between
the two adions being not precifely determined.
Some place the victory gained by the
Perfians in the fifth year before the Hejra, and
their defeat by the Greeks in the fecond year after
it, when the battle of Bedr was fought1 :
others place the former in the third or fourth
year before the Hejra, and the latter in the end
of the fixth, or beginning of the feventh year
after it, when the expedition of a l Hodeibiyab
was undertaken z.
The djte of the viftory gained by the Greeks,
in the firft of thefe accounts, interferes with a
ilory which the commentators tell, of a wager
laid by Abu Beer with Obba Ebn Khalf, who
turned^this prophecy into ridicule. Abu Beer at
firft laid ten young camels that the Perfians
fhould receive an overthrow within, three years;
but on his acquainting Mohammed with what he
had done, that prophet told him that the word
bed\ made ufe of in this paflage, figtlified no
determinate number o f years, but any number
from three to nine, (tho’ fome fuppöfe the tenth
year is included) and therefore advifed him to
prolong the time, and to raife the wager ; which
he accordingly propofed to Obba, and they
agreed that the time afligned Ihould be nine
years, and the wager a hundred camels. Before
the time was elapfed, Obba died, of a wound
he had received at Ohod, in the third year of the
Hejra 3 ; but the event afterwards fhewing that
Abu Beer had won, he received the camels of
Obba's heirs, and brought them in triumph to
Mohammed 4.
Hiftory informs us that the fuccefles of Kbof-
fu Parviz, king of Perfia, who carried on a terrible
war againft the Greek empire, to revenge
the death of Maurice his father-in-law, flain by
Phocas, were very great, and continued in an
uninterrupted courfe for two and twenty years.
Particularly in the year of C hrist 615; about
1 J ali.alo’ddin, & e. 2 ^ / Z amakh, ä/Beidawi.
4 ^T/Beidawi, J allalo’ddin, ÜV.
See p. 298. not. e.
the beginning of the fixth year before the Hejra,
the Perfians, having the preceding year conquered
Syria, made themfelves matters of Paleftine,
and took Jerufalem; which feems to be that
fignal advantage gained over the Greeks mention-
I ed in this paflage, as agreeing beft with the terms
I here ufed, and moft likely to alarm the Arabs by
I reafen of their vicinity to the feene of allion :
I and there was fo little probability, at that time,
of the Greeks being able to retrieve their lofles,
much lefs to diftrefs the Perfians, that in the
following years the arms of the latter made ftill
farther and more confiderable progrefles, and at
length they laid liege to Conftantinople it felf.
But in the year 625, in which the fourth year
of the Hejra began, about ten years after the
taking of Jerufalem, the Greeks, when it was
leaft expelled, gained a remarkable villory over
the Perfians, and not only obliged them to quit
the territories of the empire, by carrying the
War into their own country, but drove them to
the laft extremity, and fpoiled the capital city
al Madayen; Heraclius enjoying, thence forward,
a continued feries of good fortune, to the depo-
fition and death of Khofru. For more exalt information
in thefe matters, and more nicely fixing
the dates, either fo as to correlpond with, or
to overturn this pretended prophecy, (neither of
which is my bufinefs here,) the reader may have
recourfe to the hiftorians and chronologers 1.
a In the nearefi part o f tbe land;] Some interpreters,
fuppofing that the land here meant is the
land of Arabia, or elfe that of the Greeks, place
the feene of allion in the confines of Arabia
and Syria, near Boftra and Adhraat 2 ; others
imagine the land o f Perfia is intended, and lay
the feene in Mefopotamia, on the frontiers of that
kingdom 3 : but Ebn Abbas, with more probability,
thinks it was in Paleftine.
b And broke up the earth;] To dig for water
and minerals, and to till the ground for feed,
lsV +.
1 V. etiam A sseman. Bibl. Orient, t. 3. part. 1. p. 411» £sV. & Boulainv. Vie de Mahom.
p' 333» Isfr. 2 Y ahya, ä/Beidawi. 3 Mojahed, apud Z amakh. Jaelaeo’ ddin.
4 A l Beidawi.