Invoking the Name of God, he went in, removed the black garments he was wearing and put on white ones. He then took his staff, came out before the Romans in the church and proclaimed:
“O people of Rome! A letter has reached us from Ahmad, calling us to God. I testify that there is no deity worthy of worship but God and that Ahmad is His servant and Messenger.”
They leapt upon him as one man and beat him until they killed him.
When Dihyah returned to Heraclius and told him what had happened, he said, “Did I not tell you? We fear them for our own lives. By God, Daghātir enjoyed greater prestige among them and his word carried more weight than mine.”
Al-Ṭabarānī (1) relates—through the chain of Yaḥyā ibn Salamah ibn Kuhayl, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād—that Dihyah al-Kalbī said:
“The Messenger of God (ﷺ) sent me to Caesar, ruler of Byzantium, with a letter. I said, ‘Seek permission for the messenger of the Messenger of God (ﷺ).’
Caesar was informed, ‘At the door stands a man who claims to be the messenger of God.’ They were alarmed, but he said, ‘Let him in.’ I was admitted to him while his grandees were present, and I handed him the letter, which began:
‘In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful. From Muhammad, the Messenger of God, to Caesar, ruler of Rome.’
A fair-skinned, red-haired, blue-eyed nephew of his snorted and said, ‘Do not read the letter today; he has put his own name first and written “ruler of Rome,” not “king of Rome.”’
The letter was nonetheless read to the end. Caesar then ordered everyone to leave, and they withdrew. He later summoned me; I entered, he questioned me, and I answered him. He sent for the archbishop—the man whose opinion governed their affairs—who came in, and when he read the letter he said, ‘By God, this is the one about whom Moses and Jesus gave glad tidings, the one we have been awaiting.’
Caesar asked, ‘What do you advise me to do?’
The archbishop replied, ‘As for me, I believe in him and shall follow him.’
Caesar said, ‘I know he is indeed so, but I cannot do it; if I did, my kingdom would be lost and the Romans would kill me.’
Similarly, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (2) reported—from Khālid ibn Yasār, from an early inhabitant of Syria—that when Heraclius decided to leave Syria for Constantinople because of what had reached him concerning the Prophet (ﷺ), he gathered the Romans and said:
‘O people of Rome! I am going to put some matters before you; consider what I intend.’
They asked, ‘What are they?’
He said, ‘By God, you know that this man is a Prophet who has been sent; we find him in our Book and recognize him by the description that has reached us. Come, then, let us follow him and both our worldly life and our Hereafter will be safe.’
They replied, ‘Shall we live under the authority of the Arabs when we are the greatest of nations in sovereignty, the most numerous in men and the farthest-flung in lands?’
He said, ‘Then come, let us pay him jizyah each year; that will blunt his spear against me and spare me from war by what I give him.’
They said, ‘Shall we submit to the Arabs, disgraced and humbled by a tax they take from us, when we are the most numerous of peoples, the greatest in dominion and the hardest to attack? By God, we will never do that.’
He said, ‘Then come, let me make peace with him on the basis that I give him the land of Syria and he leaves me and the rest of Greater Syria alone.’
(He explained that the land of Syria comprised Palestine, Jordan, Damascus, Ḥimṣ and what lay below.)