Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

484 The Life of Muhammad
And made you drink death with their swift-slaying swords,
Looking for the victory of their prophet's religion
Despising every risk of hurt.
'AMR B. AL-'A$ AND KHALID B. AL-WALlD ACCEPT ISLAM
Yazid b. Abu Habib from Rashid client of !:Iabib b. Abu Aus al-Thaqafi
from !:Iabib toid me that 'Amr b. al-'A~ told him from his own mouth:
When we came away from the trench with the mixed tribes I gathered
some of Quraysh together, men who shared my opinion and would listen
to me, and said: 'You know that in my opinion this affair of Muhammad
will go to unheard-of lengths and I should like to know what you think of
my opinion. I think that we ought to go to the Negus and stay with him.
If Muhammad conquers our people we shall be with the Negus and we
should prefer to be subject to his authority rather than to Muhammad; on
the other hand, if our people get the, upper hand they know us and WIll
treat us well.' They thought that ml' suggestion was excellent so I told
them to collect something that we could take as a present to him; as leather
was the product of our land which he most valued we collected a large
quantity and took it to him.
While we were with him who should come to him but .'Amr b. Umayya
aI-I)amri whom the apostle had sent concerning Jaffar and his companions.
He had an audience with the Negus, and when he came out I said to my
companions that if I were to go to the Negus and ask him to let me have
him he would give him to me and we could cut off his head; and when I
had 'done that Quraysh would see that I had served them well in killing
Muhammad's messenger. So I went in to the Negus and did obeisance as
was my wont. He welcomed me as a friend and asked if I had brought
anything from our country, and when I told him that I had brought a lar?e
quantity of leather and produced it he was greatly pleased and coveted 1~.
Then I said, '0 King, I have just seen a man leave your presence. He IS
the messenger of an enemy of ours, so let me have him that I may kill him,
for he has kil1ed some of our chiefs and best men.' He was enraged, and
stretching out his hand he gave his nose such a blow that I thought he
would have broken it. If the earth had opened I would have gone into it to
escape his anger. I said that had I known that my request would have been
distasteful to him I would not have made it. He said, 'Woul