Dedication

For my mother,

Rohi Sarwar

The raw power of your maternal love forever uplifts my pen, heart and soul. The wonder of souls as beautiful as yours is that you continue to teach me as much in your death as you did in your life. May any and every word of goodness contained herein weigh heavily on your scales. Ameen.

Patiently awaiting the best of reunions with you,

Zimarina

In today’s world we are used to communicating within split seconds and can speak to people on the other side of the globe at the tap of a screen. Things were not always this way, however. Before the technology of today, important messages between people living in different countries had to be in the form of handwritten letters.

With no neighbourhood postman or delivery companies, these letters had to be sent with messengers. Messengers were people who would travel across huge distances of desert, sea and vast landscapes just to deliver letters by hand. The journey was often treacherous, and the messengers could take weeks

Today we can easily learn about and interact with people from all over the world, but back then, the distance between societies was much greater—both in geography and understanding. The messengers would be sent to places where they would encounter cultures, languages and societies completely different to their own. Because it was such hard work to send a letter, people would only do so when they had something very important they wanted to communicate.

Al-Muqawqis King Chosroes

We will look at a series of four letters sent by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to some of the most powerful leaders on earth. Sent with messengers to distant empires, these letters were an invitation to Islam for people who were living an extremely different way of life. The men receiving the letters dominated huge swathes of land and ruled over subjects bound by loyalty and tradition. We will see what happened when Heraclius— Emperor of Byzantium, al-Muqawqis—the King of Egypt, Chosroes—the Shah of Persia and al-Najashi—the King of Abyssinia came to hear of this message. Together, we will be looking at each letter in detail, the reactions that these rulers had to them and the course of events that were soon to follow.

The hugely respected King of Abyssinia—al-Najashi—was a great man named As’hama ibn Abjar. He ruled over the Kingdom of Aksum where Ethiopia and Eritrea lie today. Al-Najashi reigned from 614–631 CE and had a reputation for being a wise and just man not only among his people, but by all those who knew him. Al-Najashi was already familiar with the Muslims, since a few years earlier he had given refuge to a group of

Muslims in his land. They came asking to settle in Abyssinia as they were facing extreme persecution in Makkah. Because of this, al-Najashi had many close experiences with the Muslims and a strong understanding of Islam too.

This time, he faced another group of Muslims. In his court, the Companion ‘Amr ibn Umayyah al-Dhamri arrived carrying a letter from the Prophet ﷺ .