Muhammad's letters to the Heads-of-State

This is a sub-article to Muhammad in Medina.

According to al-Tabari in his History of the Prophets and Kings, Muhammad decided after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah to send letters to many rulers of the world, inviting them to Islam. Most critical scholars doubt this tradition, however.

Muhammad, according to the usually told Islamic historiography, sent ambassadors with such letters to Heraclius the Caesar of Byzantium, Chosroes II the Khosrau of Persia, the Negus of Ethiopia, Muqawqis the ruler of Egypt, Harith Gassani the governor of Syria, Munzir ibn Sawa and to the ruler of Bahrain.

To the Byzantine emperor

The text of the letter to Heraclius, as transmitted by Muslim historians, reads as follows:

The letter to Chosroes II is similar except that it refers to Magians instead of the Arians.

To the king of Ethiopia

To the governor of Bahrain

To Muqawqis of Egypt

References

1. ^ Lings, Martin (1994). Muhammad: His Life based on the earliest sources. Suhail Academy Lahore. p. 260. 
2. ^ Khan, Dr. Majid Ali (1998). Muhammad The Final Messenger. Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, 110002 (India). pp. 250â€"251. ISBN 81-85738-25-4. 
3. ^ Haykal, Muhammad Husayn (1993). The Life of Muhammad (Translated from the 8th Edition By Ism'il Ragi A. Al Faruqi). Islami Book Trust, Kula Lumpur. p. 360. 
4. ^ Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Emergence of Islam (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), p. 49.
5. ^ For example, Sigismund Koelle reports that "Ibn Ishak also mentions the names of nine different messengers who had to carry Mohammed’s letters to the following potentates: (1) to the Emperor of the Greeks; (2) to Chosroes, the king of Persia; (3) to Najashi, the prince of Abyssinia; (4) to Mokawkas, the prince of Alexandria; (5) to Jeifar and Iyaz, the princes of Oman; (6) to Thumama and Hawza, the princes of Yemama; (7) to Munzir, the prince of Bahrein; (8) to El Harith, the prince of the border districts of Syria; and (9) to the Himyarite Harith Ibn Abd Kulal, the prince of Yemen." Koelle, S. W. (1889). Mohammed and Mohammedanism Critically Considered (p. 194). London: Rivingtons.
6. ^ At-Tabari, Tarikh al-umam wal-muluk
7. ^ Translation was copied and modified from some websites here [1], [2]. It would be appreciated if there is a better translation.
8. ^ "the original of the letter was discovered in 1858 by Monsieur Etienne Barthelemy, member of a French expedition, in a monastery in Egypt and is now carefully preserved in Constantinople. Several photographs of the letter have since been published. The first one was published in the well-known Egyptian newspaper Al-Hilal in November 1904" Muhammad Zafrulla Khan, Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1980 (chapter 12). The drawing of the letter published in Al-Hilal was reproduced in David Samuel Margoliouth, Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, London (1905), p. 365, which is the source of this image.
9. ^ Margoliouth, D. S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 365). New York; London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons; The Knickerbocker Press.