but completed his devotions before returning their salutation. Then they told him, "el-Hajjâj has sent to fetch thee."
"And is compliance absolutely necessary?" he asked.
"Absolutely," they replied.
So he praised and glorified God, and blessed His prophet, and then rose and walked with them until they came to the monastery of the monk, who called out, "ye horsemen! have ye found your friend?" "Yes," they replied. "Then come up into the monastery," said he; "for of a truth lions and lionesses prowl round about it during the night. Therefore come in quickly, before dusk."
And they all did so excepting Saʾîd, who refused to
with an army of 4,000 men, again invaded el-Yémen, and inflicted cruel retribution upon the Abyssinians, whom to the number of about 3,000 he put to death. The Persian monarch was so much pleased with his conduct that he appointed Wahráz viceroy of the country, and then it was that el-Yémen and its dependencies became provinces of the Persian empire. The Persian rule was mild, and the three religions, Pagan, Jewish, and Christian, were equally tolerated. Christianity maintained its ground (chiefly at Nejrán, which place was at the time of the Hijrah governed by a noble Christian family named Oulad ʾAbd-el-Madán-ibn-Deyyan), but rapidly declined after the promulgation of Muhammadism.
