Neither Sword
In the year 629 AD an envoy of the prophet Mohammed, Amr bin Al-As, brought a letter to the ruling sons of King Julanda bin Mustakbar, Abd and Jaifar. The letter matched those sent by Mohammed to the rulers of Byzantium, Persia, Ethiopia, Egypt and Yemen. In it he called upon the regents to acknowledge him as God’s prophet and to convert to Islam.
After consulting the envoys, who had already converted to Islam, and the tribal elders and legal scholars, the two princes Abd and Jaifar took up Mohammed’s offer and joined his movement. On hearing of this Mohammed is reported to have said, “God bless the people of Ghubaira. They believe in me without having seen me.” (“Ghubaira” is an old name for Oman, still used in Zanzibar.)
