Note 7 — Chapter I

Dunaan, prince of the Homerites, had been gained over to the Mosaic faith by the Jewish exiles who had found an asylum in Yemen. The new proselyte carried on a most vigorous persecution of the Christians in his dominions, and more particularly in the city of Negra, or Nag’ran, (situated between Saana and Mecca). The Christian king of Abyssinia, who preferred an hereditary claim to the crown of Yemen, as a descendant of Balkis, Queen of Sheba, came to the rescue of his oppressed fellow-believers, and speedily deprived the Jewish proselyte of crown and life. He allied himself also with the Emperor Justinian for the overthrow of the Persian power; but he failed in his subsequent enterprise, and found himself incapable even of defending his Arabian conquests, which were wrested from him by the revolt and usurpation of Abrahah, once the slave of a Roman merchant of Adulis. The payment of a slight tribute alone acknowledged the supremacy of the Ethiopian prince. After a long and prosperous reign, the power of Abrahah was overthrown before the gates of Mecca, by Abdul Motalleb, the grandfather of Mohammed; and his children were finally despoiled by Chosroes Nushirvan, of Persia.