The Year of the Elephant (in Arabic, عام الفيل, `Âm al-Fîl) is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570 AD. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. Events By Place Europe Spoleto becomes the capital of an independent duchy under the Lombard chieftain According to Islamic tradition, it was in this year that Muhammad was born. IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics [1] The name is derived from an event said to have occurred at Mecca in which Abraha, the Christian ruler of the principality of Saba' in Yemen (although differing accounts make him either a viceroy of the Kingdom of Axum or as having broken away and styled himself King of Saba'), marched upon the Kaaba with a large army, which included one or more elephants, intending to demolish it. Mecca ˈmɛkə also spelled Makkah ˈmækə (in full Makkah Al-Mukarramah (Arabic mækːæ(t ælmʊkarˑamæ مكّة المكرمة, literally Honored Abraha (also spelled Abreha) (died after AD 553; r 525 &mdashat least 553) also known as ' Abraha al-Ashram (in Arabic A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth A principality (or princedom) is a monarchical feudatory or Sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of Prince Sheba ( Hebrew: שבא, Sh'va, Arabic: سبأ Sabaʼ, Ge'ez, Amharic, Tigrinya: ሳባ Saba Yemen ( Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman officially the Republic of Yemen ( Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya The Aksumite Empire or Axumite Empire (sometimes called the Kingdom of Aksum or Axum ( Ge'ez: አክሱም was an important trading The Kaaba ( Arabic: ar الكعبة; 'kɑʕbɑ or 'kæʕbæ "Cube" is a Cuboidal building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the Elephants ( family: Elephantidae) are large land Mammals of the order Proboscidea. However, the elephant is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter. The year came to be known as the 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. The Arabian Peninsula (in Arabic: شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-jazīra al-ʻarabīya or جزيرة العرب jazīrat al-ʻarab) The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar ( Arabic: التقويم الهجري at-taqwīm al-hijrī; Persian: تقویم هجری قمری Umar (a=عمر بن الخطاب|t=`Umar ibn al-Khattāb c 581-83 CE &ndash 7 November, 644) also known as Umar the Great or Omar the Great
Recent discoveries in southern Arabia suggest that Year of the Elephant may have been 569 or 568, as Persians overthrew the Abyssinian regime in Yemen around 570[2]. Events By Place Byzantine Empire The King of the Garamantes signs a peace treaty with Byzantium. Events By Place Europe April 1 — King Alboin leads the Lombards into Italy refugees fleeing from them go on The Persian Empire was a series of Iranian empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland and beyond in Western Asia NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Events By Place Europe Spoleto becomes the capital of an independent duchy under the Lombard chieftain However, historians today believe that this event occurred at least a decade prior to the birth of Muhammad. [3]
The year is also recorded as that of the birth of Ammar ibn Yasir. ˤAmmār ibn Yāsir (Arabic عمار بن ياسر is one of the most famous Sahaba and was among the Slaves freed by Abu Bakr.
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Events
According to early Islamic historians such as Ibn Ishaq, in honor of his ally the Negus (the Christian Abyssinian Emperor of the Kingdom of Axum), Abraha built a great church at Sanaa, known as Al-Qulais (a transliteration into Arabic of the Greek word ekklesia (εκκλησία), meaning church). TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Yasar (محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار or simply Ibn For other uses see Negus (disambiguation Negus ( Ge'ez gez ንጉሥ, Amharic; cf Transliteration is the practice of Transcribing a Word or text written in one Writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly
The church gained widespread fame, even gaining the notice of the Byzantines. [1] The pagan Arabs of the time had their own center of religious worship and pilgrimage in Mecca, the Kaaba. Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller rustic" is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding In Religion and Spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or Search of great Moral significance The Kaaba ( Arabic: ar الكعبة; 'kɑʕbɑ or 'kæʕbæ "Cube" is a Cuboidal building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the [1] 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. al-Hejaz (also Hijaz, Hedjaz; الحجاز al-Ḥiǧāz, literally "the barrier" is a region in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia [1]
Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah (Life of the Apostle of God) 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 ibn Khuza'i 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 ibn Khuza'i, and made him emir of Mudar, and ordered him to go among the people to invite them to pilgrimage at his cathedral which he had built. Emir ( Arabic: ar أمير;, female أميرة; emira;) ( Farsi and Urdu: امیر) Mudhar or Mudar (Arabic مضر) purported Patriarch of one of two major branches of the so-called "North Arabian" ( Adnanite) tribes When Muhammad ibn Khuza'i 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 bin Hayyad al-Milasi, who shot him with an arrow, killing him. Kinana ibn al-Rabi' ( also Kinana bin al-Rabi, Kinana ibn al-Rabi'a, Kinana ibn al-Rabi ibn Abu al-Huqayq) was a Jewish leader of seventh-century 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 Kinana tribe and destroy the temple. | ” |
Ibn Ishaq further states that one of the men of the Quraysh was angered by this, and going to Sanaa, slipped into the church at night and defiled it. Quraish is also the name of a Surah in the Qur'an. Quraysh or Quraish (Arabic ar قريش
Abraha, incensed, launched an expedition of forty thousand men against the Kaaba at Mecca, led by a white elephant named Mahmoud (and possibly with other elephants - some accounts state there were several elephants, or even as many as eight)[1][2]) in order to destroy the Kaaba. Several Arab tribes attempted to fight him on the way, but were defeated.
Abraha's elephant is supposed to have refused to cross the boundary of Mecca and sat down. It could not be persuaded otherwise, either by reason or violence. The accounts state that if the elephant was turned towards Syria or Yemen it would walk without hesitation, but when it 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. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية
When news of the advance of Abraha's army came, the Arab tribes of Quraysh, Banu Kinanah, Banu Khuza'a and Banu Hudhayl united in defense of the Kaaba. Banu Khuza'a is an Arabian Tribe. Origin Khuza'a known as Haritha Amr bin Muzaqiba 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. The Himyarite Kingdom or Himyar (in Arabic مملكة حِمْيَر) anciently called Homerite Kingdom by the Greeks and the Romans Shaiba ibn Hashim (also known as `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. Shaiba ibn Hashim (شيبة ابن هاشم (c 497 &ndash 578 better known as Abdul Muttalib or Abd al-Muttalib, since he was raised by his uncle Muttalib 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. "
The next day, as Abraha prepared to enter the city, a dark cloud of small birds appeared. The birds carried small rocks in their beaks, and bombarded the Ethiopian forces, who fled in panic. Abraha was seriously wounded and he retreated towards Yemen but died on the way. However, the animals of Abraha's army are said to have been spared, and the tribes saw this as a sign of the holiness of the Kaaba.
Other historical sources
This event is referred to in the Qur'an, surat 105, Al-Fil, and is discussed in related tafsir:
- 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. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran This article is about the chapter of the Qur'an translated to English as "The Elephant Tafsir ( Arabic: تفسير, tafsīr, "interpretation" is the Arabic word for Exegesis (Qur'an, 105)
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. The Marib Dam ( Arabic:سد مأرب blocks the Wadi Adhanah (also Dhana or Adhana in the valley of Dhana in the Balaq Hills, Yemen. Historian Walter W. Muller writes:[4]
- "Towards the end of his reign, Abraha launched yet another military campaign against the North which has been preserved in the memory of the Arabs because of the elephants accompanying it. Abraha failed to take Mecca as he had intended and the operation had to be abandoned. "
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e Hajjah Adil, Amina, "Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)", ISCA, Jun 1, 2002, ISBN 1-930409-11-7
- ^ a b William Montgomery Watt (1974), p. 7
- ^ Esposito (2003). The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, ISBN 0-19-512558-4, Oxford University Press
- ^ Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia, Walter W. Muller
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