Early Christianity in Arabia - Is Petra the Holy City of Islam?

IN ARABIA. 21
Shamar was succeeded by his son Abu Malec,
who, delaying* to seek revenge for his father's death,
perished in a useless expedition into Africa. 2 After
his death the crown passed from that branch of the
family of Saba who traced their descent from
Hamyar, to the descendants of Cahlan. The successor
of Abu Malec, and the first of this dynast}',
was Amran, who had the reputation of being- a
g-reat diviner or prophet. He 3 was succeeded by
his brother Amrou, who was surnamed Mozaikia,
or the tearer, because he every evening- tore in pieces
the clothes which he had worn during- the day, that
4
they might not be used a second time
;
he died in
the reig-n of Ali, between Yaman and Hedjaz. 5
The sceptre then ag-ain reverted to the descendants
of Hamyar, in the person of Al Akran, the son of
Al Malec, who was contemporary with the Persian
kino- Bahman, about a.a.c. 4G5. 6 This tobbaa
immediately undertook to revenge the death of his
grandfather Shamar. He inarched to Samarcand,
part of which he is said to have rebuilt, and proceeding
perhaps in the steps of Shamar's arm}', of
which remains might, it is suggested, still be found
on the road, entered China, destroyed its capital,
and founded there a city, in which he left a colony
of thirty thousand Arabians, whose descendants
a
Nuweir, p. 58. Hamza, p. 28. Abulfeda, p. 8.
» Abulfeda, ibid.
"
Abulfeda, ibid.
« Eicbborn, Monument. Antiq. Hist. Arab. p. 152.
s
Abidfed. p. 8. Hamza, p. 28.