m. ii. p. 247,) date this
embassy in the viith year of the Hegira, which commences A.D. 628, May
11. Their chronology is erroneous, since Chosroes died in the month of
February of the same year, (Pagi, Critica, tom. ii. p. 779.) The count
de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 327, 328) places this embassy
about A.D. 615, soon after the conquest of Palestine. Yet Mahomet would
scarcely have ventured so soon on so bold a step.]

[Footnote 6811: Khoosroo Purveez was encamped on the banks of the
Karasoo River when he received the letter of Mahomed. He tore the letter
and threw it into the Karasoo. For this action, the moderate author
of the Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh calls him a wretch, and rejoices in all his
subsequent misfortunes. These impressions still exist. I remarked to a
Persian, when encamped near the Karasoo, in 1800, that the banks
were very high, which must make it difficult to apply its waters to
irrigation. "It once fertilized the whole country," said the zealous
Mahomedan, "but its channel sunk with honor from its banks, when that
madman, Khoosroo, threw our holy Prophet's letter into its stream; which
has ever since been accursed and useless." Malcolm's Persia, vol. i. p.
126--M.]

[Footnote 69: See the xxxth chapter of the Koran, entitled the Greeks.
Our honest and learned translator, Sale, (p. 330, 331,) fairly states
this conjecture, guess, wager, of Mahomet; but Boulainvilliers, (p.
329--344,) with wicked intentions, labors to establish this evident
prophecy of a future event, which must, in his opinion, embarrass the
Christian polemics.]

At the time when this prediction is said to have been delivered, no
prophecy could be more distant from its accomplishment, since the first
twelve years of Heraclius announced the approaching dissolution of the
empire. If the motives of Chosroes had been pure and honorable, he
must have ended the quarrel with the death of Phocas, and he would have
embraced, as his best ally, the fortunate African who had so generously
avenged the injuries of his benefactor Maurice. The prosecution of the
war revealed the true character of the Barbarian; and the suppliant
embassies of Heraclius to beseech his clemency, that he would spare the
innocent, accept a tribute, and give peace to the world, were rejected
with contemptuous silence or insolent menace. Syria, Egypt, and the
provinces of Asia, were subdued by the Persian arms, while Europe, from
the confines of Istria to the long wall o