THE CHALLENGE OF THE QUR’AN

The Challenge of The Qur’an ~ 303 ~ When Chosroes learnt about this peace mission, he said: ‘It was not an embassy’, said the tyrant of Asia; ‘It was the person of Heraclius bound in chains that he would have brought to the foot of my throne. I will never give peace to the emperor of Rome till he has abjured his crucified God and embraced the worship of the sun.8 ‘However, a six-year long battle finally inclined the Persian monarch to make peace on certain conditions: ‘A thousand talents of gold, a thousand silk robes, a thousand horses and a thousand virgins.’9 Gibbon rightly describes these terms as ignominious. Heraclius would definitely have accepted these terms, but, in view of how circumscribed and depleted the territory was and considering in how short a time he was expected to meet these terms, it was preferable for him to employ those very resources in preparation for a final decisive battle with the enemy. These events that were taking place in Rome and Persia, the greatest empires of the time, had their repercussions in Makkah, which occupied a central