Here they maintained themselves, according to Abulfe da, for 616 years ; when Jabalak, the son of Al Ayhanl, submitted to the caliph Omar, and became a convert to Mahometanism. But soon after returning to Chris tianity, he abandoned his throne, and retired to Con stantinople.
The last prince of the Hamyaritic line, who reigned in regular succession, was the impious Yusof, surnamed Dhu Nowas, from his flowing curls. He was a bigotted Jew, and treated his Christian subjects with the great est barbarity. Elesbaan, king of Abyssinia, having de clared war against him, for massacring certain Christian merchants, overthrew him in battle, stripped him of his dominions, and placed a Christian prince upon the throne of Hamyar. But Dhu Nowas, upon the death of this prince, found means of again seizing upon the crown ; and began his reign with a violent persecution of the Christians. He exercised upon them the most exquisite tortures, and caused such as would not renounce their faith, to be thrown into a fiery pit, whence he received the appellation of " the lord of the pit." To revenge such inhuman cruelty, the patriarch of Alexandria be sought the king of Abyssinia again to undertake the Christian cause. Elesbaan crossing the straights of Ba bel Mandeb, with an army of 120,000 men, completely routed the forces of Dhu Nowas, who, being closely pursued, was reduced to such extremities, that he forced his horse into the sea, and lost at once his kingdom and his life, in the 524th year of the Christian sera. After the death of Dhu Nowas, the Christian religion was es tablished in Yemen, and an Abyssinian viceroy continued to wield the sceptre of Hamyar, Ste. nearly 72 years, when Seif, the son of Dhu Yazan, of the royal family of Hamyar, with the assistance of Chosroes, king of Persia, expelled the Abyssinians from Yemen, and re covered the kingdom of his ancestors. The reign, how ever, of this prince, was hut of short duration, as he fell a victim to the vengeance of the Abyssinians. His successors were appointed by the king of Persia, till Badhan, the last of them, submitted to the authority and doctrines of Mahomet.
The posterity of Jorham occupied the throne of Hed jas, till the accession of Kidar, the son of Ishmael, who, according to some authors, had the crown resigned to him, by his uncles, the Jorhamites. Others maintain, that this tribe being expelled from Hedjas, by the Ish maelites, retired to Johainah, and, after various fortunes, were at last destroyed by an inundation. or the suc cessors of Kedar, we know nothing. Their history is
altogether involved in uncertainty. How long the gov ernment continued in his family, or whether his de scendants were, in their turn, expelled by some more powerful tribe, it is unnecessary to enquire. It would seem, however, that about the time of Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Hedjas was divided among seve ral independent tribes, whose jarring interests occasion ed amongst them a continual warfare. The most pow erful of these tribes were the Koreish and Khozlites. The Koreish were of the posterity of Ishmael. They deduced their descent from Fehr, surnamed Korcish, from his determined valour, and were considered the politest and noblest of the Arabian tribes. The tribe of Khozaa emigrating from Yemen, after the inundation of Al Arem, took refuge in Hedjas, and settled in the valley of Marri, near Mecca. There. they founded an aristocracy, which soon rose to considerable power. Expellinz the Ishmaelites from Mecca, they seized upon the government, and assumed to themselves the guar dianship of the Caaha ; the profound veneration in which this temple was held by the Arabs rendering it a situation of great honour and authority. This aristocracy con tinued to flourish for many ages, till Kosa, the chief of the Koreish, viewing, with jealousy, the growing in fluence and power of this strange tribe, meditated the design of regaining the honourable and important chaige of the Caaba, which had been wrested, by the Khozaites, from his ancestors. Kosa himself undertook the ag grandisement of his family ; and, in order to facilitate his purpose, married the daughter of Habil, the gov ernor of Mecca, and guardian of the Caaba. By this alliance, having soon raised himself to power and afflu ence, he easily prevailed upon the Koreish to aid him in his design. The great religious festival of the Arabs was chosen for the execution of this enterprise ; and while the pilgrims were engaged in the ceremony of throwing the stones in the valley of Mina, Kosa rushed out with a body of troops, which he had before hand placed in ambush, and fell upon the Khozaites with such fury, that he slew a great number of them, and com pelled the rest to cry for quarter. Upon this, Habil and Kosa referred their dispute to the arbitration of Ya'ames Ebn Awl, who adjudged to the latter the sove reignty of Mecca, and the custody of the Caaba. Kosa immediately assumed the title of king, and took the oath of allegiance from his new subjects.