Note 15 — Chapter I

It was in the time when Abdol Motalleb held the sacerdotal office that Mecca was invested by an army of Africans, under the command of the Christian usurper of Yemen, Abrahah, the nominal vassal of the Abyssinian Negus. The valor of the Koreishites, or perhaps the want of provisions, compelled the investing host to a disgraceful retreat, and broke the power of the Abyssinians so effectually that the kingdom of Yemen became soon after an easy prey to the victorious arms of the great Chosroes of Persia. Had the Christian Abrahah prevailed, the early feeble efforts of Mohammed to propagate his new doctrine would certainly have been crushed in the bud, and the fate of the world would have been changed.