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Oct 6, 2020Liked by Derek Davison

On the last bit about Heraclius, there is a rather amusing scene in the movie The Message by Mustafa Akkad. The opening scene - which is far from an accurate portrayal of history - depicts three messengers on horses delivering Muhammad's missives to the Persian Emperor, the Roman Emperor, and the Patriarch of Egypt. It shows that the Persian Khusro II insults the messenger and mocks him before tearing the message up, while Heraclius is much more reserved in his rejection. I found that hilarious because the movie was clearly trying to be a lot more muted with respect to Christianity vs. the "pagan" Persians.

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