God Arises
The Challenge of The Qur’an
~ 303 ~
When Chosroes learnt about this peace mission, he
said: ‘It was not an embassy’, said the tyrant of
Asia; ‘It was the person of Heraclius bound in
chains that he would have brought to the foot of my
throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of
Rome till he has abjured his crucified God and
embraced the worship of the sun.
8
‘However, a six-year long battle finally inclined the
Persian monarch to make peace on certain
conditions: ‘A thousand talents of gold, a thousand
silk robes, a thousand horses and a thousand
virgins.’
9
Gibbon rightly describes these terms as
ignominious. Heraclius would definitely have
accepted these terms, but, in view of how
circumscribed and depleted the territory was and
considering in how short a time he was expected to
meet these terms, it was preferable for him to
employ those very resources in preparation for a
final decisive battle with the enemy.
These events that were taking place in Rome and
Persia, the greatest empires of the time, had their
repercussions in Makkah, which occupied a central
