Year of the Elephant

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The Year of the Elephant (عام الفيل `Âm al-Fîl) is estimated at 570 CE and reported in Muslim historical accounts as the same year as that of the birth of their prophet Muhammad.^[1] It is so named for an event that occurred at Mecca, in which it is reported that Abraha, a Christian King of Yemen, marched upon the Kaaba with elephants in order to demolish it.^[2]

1 History
- 1.1 Abraha
- 1.2 Birth year
2 Sources
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Abraha

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According to early Islamic historians such as Ibn Ishaq:

Abraha, the governor or King of Yemen built a great church at Sanaa in honor of his ally the Negus, a Christian Abyssinian Emperor. The church gained widespread fame, even gaining the notice of the Byzantines. ^[3]. The pagan Arabs of the time had their own center of religious worship and pilgrimage in Mecca, the Kaaba. ^[4]Abraha then proceeded to attempt to divert their pilgrimage to his new cathedral and is reported to have appointed and sent a Muhammad Khuza'i to Mecca and the Hijaz as a king with a message that his church was both much better than their house of worship and purer, having not been defiled by the housing of idols.^[5]

Ibn Ishaq's "The Life of Muhammad" states:

“

With Abraha there were some Arabs who had come to seek his bounty, among them Muhammad ibn Khuza`i ibn Khuzaba al-Dhakwani, al-Sulami, with a number of his tribesmen including a brother of his called Qays. While they were with him a feast of Abraha occurred and he sent to invite them to the feast. Now he used to eat an animal's testicles, so when the invitation was brought they said, 'By God, if we eat this the Arabs will hold it against us as long as we live.' Thereupon Muhammad got up and went to Abraha and said, 'O King, this is a festival of ours in which we eat only the loins and shoulders.' Abraha replied that he would send them what they liked, because his sole purpose in inviting them was to show that he honoured them. Then he crowned Muhammad and made him amir of Mudar and ordered him to go among the people to invite them to pilgrimage at his cathedral which he had built. When Muhammad got as far as the land of Kinana the people of the lowland knowing what he had come for sent a man of Hudhayl called `Urwa b. Hayyad al-Milasi who shot him with an arrow, killing him. His brother Qays who was with him fled to Abraha and told him the news, which increased his rage and fury and he swore to raid the B. Kinana and destroy the temple.:

”

Ibn Ishaq further states that one of the men of the Quraysh was angered by this and went to Sanaa. He slipped into the church at night and defiled it.

Abraha, incensed, launched an expedition of 40,000 men against the Kaaba at Mecca led by a white elephant named Mahmoud (and possibly with other elephants) in order to destroy the Kaaba. Several Arab tribes attempted to fight him on the way, but were defeated.

Other sources state that Abraha's elephant couldn't make further steps into Mecca. Neither force nor dissuasion would make it advance towards Mecca. If they turned him towards Syria or Yemen, it would walk in haste but when he was turned towards the Kaaba, it would kneel on its knees as if it would adore the city that its master was intent on destroying.

As Abraha neared Mecca, he sent them an emissary, telling them that he would not fight them if they did not resist his destruction of the Kaaba. Abdul Muttalib, the chief of Quraysh, responded that he would defend his own property, but God would defend His house, the Kaaba, and withdrew with his people. The next day, as Abraha prepared to enter the city, swarms of birds carrying small rocks came and bombarded the Ethiopian forces; each man that was hit was killed, and they fled in panic, as Abraha died a horrible death. The tribes saw this as a sign of the Kaaba's holiness.

According to Islamic tradition - in particular, tafsir (exegesis) of surat al-Fil, the Ethiopian governor of Yemen, Abraha al-Ashram, envied the Kaaba's reverence among the Arabs and, being a Christian, he built a cathedral in Sanaa and ordered pilgrimage be made there. The order was ignored and someone desecrated the cathedral. Abraha decided to avenge this act by demolishing the Kaaba and he advanced with an army towards Mecca.

There were many elephants in Abraha's army and the year came to be known as 'Amul-Fil (Year of the Elephant), beginning a trend for reckoning the years in Arabia which was used until it was replaced with the Islamic calendar during the rule of Umar.

When news of the advance of Abraha's army came, the Arab tribes of Quraish, Banu Kinanah, Banu Khuza'a and Banu Hudhayl united in defense of the Kaaba. A man from the Himyar tribe was sent by Abraha to advise them that Abraha only wished to demolish the Kaaba and if they resisted, they would be crushed. `Abdu'l-Muttalib told the Meccans to seek refuge in the hills while he with some leading members of Quraish, remained within the precincts of the Kaaba. Abraha sent a dispatch inviting `Abdu'l-Muttalib to meet with Abraha and discuss matters. When `Abdu'l-Muttalib left the meeting he was heard saying, "The Owner of this House is its Defender, and I am sure He will save it from the attack of the adversaries and will not dishonor the servants of His House."

It is recorded that when the Abraha's forces neared the Kaaba the soldiers of Allah appeared in the form of a dark cloud of small birds who destroyed Abrah's army with raining pebbles from their beaks. Abraha was seriously wounded and he retreated towards Yemen but died on the way.

This event is referred to in the Qur'an, chapter 105 Al-Fil:

Have you not seen how your Lord dealt with the companions of the Elephant? Did He not make their treacherous plan go astray? And He sent against them birds in flocks, striking them with stones of baked clay, so He rendered them like straw eaten up. (Qur'an, 105)

The birds are called the "ebabil" same root as "veba" (bubonic plague) which suggests that Abraha's elephant mounted armies suffered from plague and retreating, sinterpreting as a sign of divine intervention, (Source from a private conversation with Hüseyin Sayram 1908-1988)

[edit] Birth year

It is recorded as the birth year of:

[edit] Sources

The incident is recounted allusively in surat al-Fil in the Qur'an. It is also described in a poem attributed to the pre-Islamic poet Nufayl ibn Habib.

The existence of Abraha is confirmed from various inscriptions, notably one on the Marib Dam, and he is known from another inscription (Ryckmans 506) to have undertaken expeditions against northern Arabian tribes. Walter W. Muller, a specialized researcher in ancient Arabian history, writes about this event in his Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia:

"Towards the end of his reign, Abreha launched yet another military campaign against the North which has been preserved in the memory of the Arabs because of the elephants accompanying it. Abreha failed to take Mecca as he had intended and the operation had to be abandoned."

Noêl DesVergers published his sources in 1857 from various Arabic historians. He released Arabia in 1847 and he published Abyssinia.