[Footnote 1: Theophanes places the seven years of the siege
of Constantinople in the year of our Christian aera, 673 (of
the Alexandrian 665, Sept. 1,) and the peace of the
Saracens, four years afterwards; a glaring inconsistency!
which Petavius, Goar, and Pagi, (Critica, tom. iv. p. 63,
64,) have struggled to remove. Of the Arabians, the Hegira
52 (A.D. 672, January 8) is assigned by Elmacin, the year 48
(A.D. 688, Feb. 20) by Abulfeda, whose testimony I esteem
the most convenient and credible.]