Arethas declared that he and his companions were all ready to die in the cause of their Saviour. The tobbaa accordingly ordered them to be conducted to the side of a small brook or wady,[1] in the neighbourhood, where they were beheaded.[2] Their wives, who had shewn the same constancy, were afterwards dragged to a similar fate. One named Ruma, the wife of the chief, was brought with her two virgin daughters before Dzu Nowass; their surpassing beauty is said to have moved his compassion, but their constancy and devotion provoked in a still greater degree his vengeance; the daughters were put to death before the face of their mother, and Ruma, after having been compelled to taste their blood, shared their fate.[3] When he had thus perpetrated the tragedy of Nadjran, the tobbaa returned with his army to Sanaa.[4]
At the time when this event occurred, an embassy had been sent by Justin to the mondar, or king of the Arabs of Hirah, under the direction of the bishop of Persia and a presbyter called Abraham, to con-
- ↑ ܘܕܝܐ, Jo. As. Ep. p. 35. Odias, Metaphrast. وادن Wadi, is the common name in Arabia for a stream or mountain torrent, and also of a valley, which has generally a stream running through it.
- ↑ Jo. As. p. 35. Metaphrast.
- ↑ Metaphrast.—"I swear by Adonai, (ܘܒܐܕܘܢܝ ܝܡܐ)" says the tobbaa, in his letter to the mondar of Hirah, preserved by Jo. As. Ep. p. 30, "that I am exceedingly grieved when I think of her beauty, and of that of her daughters."
- ↑ Hamza, p. 34. Tabeir, p. 106.
