Sirah

The Letter to the Negus

The invitation reaches the Aksumite court, c. 6-7 AH / 628 CE

c. 6-7 AH / 628 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The Letter to the Negus

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

Court of the Negus, Aksum, Abyssinia

14.1212, 38.7237 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

Among the rulers to whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote after Hudaybiyyah was the Negus (al-Najashi), the Christian king of Aksum in the Abyssinian highlands across the Red Sea from Arabia. The Negus held a special place in the memory of the believers, for years before, in the Makkan years of persecution, he had received the first Muslim emigrants who fled to him, heard their case and the recitation of the Qur'an about Maryam and Isa (peace be upon them), wept, and refused to surrender them to the envoys of Quraysh (the asylum of 615, a separate scene). The letter, carried by the envoy Amr ibn Umayya al-Damri (radiyallahu 'anhu), invited the Negus to Islam, and the sources relate that he received it with honour and humility, in contrast to the pride of Khosrow. The Sunni tradition holds that the Negus accepted Islam; and when he died, around the end of this period, the Prophet announced his death to the Companions at Madinah on the very day and led them in the absentee funeral prayer (salat al-gha'ib) for him, as recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari (1245) and Sahih Muslim (951), honouring a just king who had sheltered the faith in its weakness. The tradition discusses whether the Negus who sheltered the emigrants and the one written to were one and the same righteous king, named Ashama, or whether a successor was meant; the dominant report makes him the same. This scene depicts the Aksumite court: a dressed-stone highland hall, the great carved granite stelae of Aksum rising beyond against green mountains, and the sealed letter from Arabia received with honour. In keeping with the Sirah tier no Muslim figure is shown and the envoy is kept distant.

What you see

A hall of dressed stone in a highland court, and outside it tall carved granite stelae rising against green mountains; this is the Christian kingdom of Aksum in the Abyssinian highlands, a stone-built realm of its own monumental style.

A sealed parchment letter, brought by an envoy from Arabia, is received with honour rather than scorn; its small seal reads Muhammad the Messenger of Allah.

This is the reception of the letter of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to the Negus (al-Najashi), the just Christian king of Abyssinia who years before had given refuge to the Muslim emigrants and refused to surrender them; an invitation to Islam, received graciously.

By the Sunni tradition the Negus believed; and when he died, the Prophet announced his death to the Companions at Madinah and prayed the absentee funeral prayer for him, honouring a righteous king who had sheltered the faith in its weakness (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim).

The green Abyssinian highlands and the stone city of Aksum with its great stelae set this across the Red Sea from Arabia, the refuge to which the first emigrants had sailed.

The letter to the Negus is recorded by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa'd; the absentee funeral prayer for him is in Sahih al-Bukhari (1245) and Sahih Muslim (951). This is the 628 letter, distinct from the earlier asylum of the emigrants (615).

Primary sources

Ibn Ishaq via Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya: The letter to the Negus, the envoy, and the gracious reception, set against the earlier asylum of the emigrants.

Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (9th c.): The catalogue of the envoys and recipients of the letters, including the Negus.

Sahih al-Bukhari (1245) and Sahih Muslim (951), the absentee funeral prayer: The Prophet's announcement of the Negus's death and the absentee funeral prayer for him; the Sunni basis for his standing and (in the tradition) his faith.

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