Page:Early Christianity in Arabia.djvu/31

Shamar was succeeded by his son Abu Malêc, who, delaying to seek revenge for his father's death, perished in a useless expedition into Africa.^[1] After his death the crown passed from that branch of the family of Saba who traced their descent from Hamyar, to the descendants of Cahlân. The successor of Abu Malêc, and the first of this dynasty, was Amran, who had the reputation of being a great diviner or prophet.^[2] He was succeeded by his brother Amrou, who was surnamed Mozaikia, or the tearer, because he every evening tore in pieces the clothes which he had worn during the day, that they might not be used a second time;^[3] he died in the reign of Ali, between Yaman and Hedjaz.^[4] The sceptre then again reverted to the descendants of Hamyar, in the person of Al Akran, the son of Al Malêc, who was contemporary with the Persian king Bahman, about a.a.c. 465.^[5] This tobbaa immediately undertook to revenge the death of his grandfather Shamar. He marched to Samarcand, part of which he is said to have rebuilt, and proceeding perhaps in the steps of Shamar's army, of which remains might, it is suggested, still be found on the road, entered China, destroyed its capital, and founded there a city, in which he left a colony of thirty thousand Arabians, whose descendants

1. Nuweir, p. 58. Hamza, p. 28. Abulfeda, p. 8.
2. Abulfeda, ibid.
3. Abulfeda, ibid.
4. Eichhorn, Monument. Antiq. Hist. Arab. p. 152.
5. Abulfed. p. 8. Hamza, p. 28.