have a son, seeing that no man has touched me, and that 1 am not
unchaste?" He said: "So nt will be]; your Lord says: That is easy for Me
and [W'e wish] to appoint him as a sign to men and a mercy from Us': it is
a matter decreed.,,1761The king and his dignitaries WCfe moved by the beauty o f th e text recit-
ed in Arabic. and they were even more so when me text was rranslated for
them and they understood that it announced me miraculous b irth of
Jesus. The N egus exclaimed: "Indeed, this comes fr om the same source as
what J esus brought.,,18 And he turned to the t\vo Meccan emissaries to
reject their request and inform th em that he would n O I hand o ver th e
Muslim immigrants, to whom he would continue to g rant refuge.
Arne and Abdullah \Vent out, mOSt annoyed, but Anu rnpidly decided
that he would go to th e Negus again to inform him about what chis new
message actually said o f Jesus, and which by no means coincides with
Christian beliefs. He did so the next day, and after listening to him, th e
king again scnt for J afar and his delegation and demanded to know more
about what t he Prophet said about Jesus. The Muslims were aware of the
dangers this encounter involved: an expJanation of the differences between
the £WO religions might lead th e Negus to send them back. They neverthe-
less decided to keep to the contents of the message and explain what it
said truthfully. To the Negus's direct question, "\X'hat do you profess
about Jesus, so n of Mary?" Jafar an swered no less directly: "We say what
our Prophet has taught us: he is God's servant, His messenger, H.is Spirit,
His Word that He has breath ed imo Mary, the Holy Virgin." There was
no reference to hi~ status as "son of G od," yet the Negus responded by
taking hold of a stick and exclaiming: ''Jesus, son ofi\hry, does not
exceed what you have just said by the length of this stiek."!9 The religious
dignitaries were surprised at this an swer and expressed it by cough ing dis-
creetly, but the Negus ignored them and re(juired that the [\u emissaries
from lvlecea be sem back and that they take all their presents with th em.
To the Muslims he renewed his welcome, assuring them that they would
flOd protection and security in his land.
This was a major setback for th e fo,'l eccans, whose revenge was soon to
come with the stepping IIp of reprisals against Muslims after the twO emis-
saries' return. As for Jamr and his community, they had found a predomi-
nantly Christian country where, although they were exiles and did no t