power of his idolatrous opponents, Muhammed began to make advances towards the subversion of Christianity. The chief of the Taiites was a Christian named Adi; his subjects, we are told, were idolaters, and he was obliged to seek refuge in Syria from the arms of the prophet; but his wife and family fell into the hands of the victor, and he was compelled to redeem them by his apostacy.[1] The Christian inhabitants of Dûmato'l-Gjaudal, a town on the frontiers of Syria, five days from Damascus, and fifteen or sixteen from Medina,[2] were induced by the persuasions of Abdo'l-Rahman to accept the faith of Islam, and the daughter of their prince, who was a Calbite and named Ashas, was betrothed to their converter.[3] But their conversion was perhaps insincere, for after the battle of Muta Muhammed was obliged to confirm them by force in their new religion;[4] and at the same time the church of the tribe of Ganam, whose crime, according to the Arabian writers, was that of hypocrisy, was levelled with the ground.[5] But the conquests of Muhammed only extended as yet over the northern districts of Arabia, while the whole of Yaman was subject to Badhân, the Persian viceroy.
