Year of the Elephant
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Umar_Farrukh%27s_Year_of_the_Elephant.png/220px-Umar_Farrukh%27s_Year_of_the_Elephant.png)
The ʿām al-fīl (
Archaeological discoveries in
The year is also recorded as that of the birth of ‘Ammar ibn Yasir.[5]
Events
According to early Islamic historians such as
"church".Al-Qullays gained widespread fame, even gaining the notice of the
Ibn Ishaq's
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 honored them.
Then he crowned Muhammad ibn Khuza'i, and made him
Kinana, the people of the lowland, knowing what he had come for, sent a man of Hudhayl called ʿUrwa bin 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 Kinana tribe and destroy the temple.Abraha, incensed, launched an expedition of sixty thousand men against the Ka‘bah at Mecca, led by a white elephant named Mahmud[7] (and possibly with other elephants - some accounts state there were several elephants, or even as many as eight[1][4]) in order to destroy the Ka‘bah. Several Arab tribes attempted to fight him on the way, but were defeated.
When news of the advance of Abraha's army came, the Arab tribes of the Quraysh, Banu Kinanah,
Banu Khuza'a and Banu Hudhayl united in defense of the Ka‘bah. However, this coalition was plagued by infighting and rival interests, with many other various tribes instead choosing to ally and submit with the intent of undermining their competitors. A man from the Himyarite Kingdom was sent by Abraha to advise them that Abraha only wished to demolish the Kaaba and if they resisted, they would be crushed. ‘Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather of Muhammad, told the Meccans to seek refuge in the hills while he with some leading members of the Quraysh remained within the precincts of the Ka‘bah. Abraha sent a dispatch inviting Abdul-Muttalib to meet with Abraha and discuss matters. When Abdul-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 reference to the story in
Arabic: أَبـابـيـل) appeared. The birds carried small rocks in their beaks, and bombarded the Ethiopian forces and smashed them like "eaten straw". However according to Muhammad Asad this surah does not describe birds literally carrying small rocks, he instead, referencing Al-Zamakhshari and Fakhr al-Din al-Razitranslates the above mentioned verses as:
(2)Thus, He let loose upon them great swarms of flying creatures (3) which smote them with stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained[8] According to Mohammad Asad, the words used in this verse, namely the "stones of sijjil", denote "a writing and, tropically, something that has been decreed [by God]".
Shia
According to Hadith, in al-Kafi Volume one, Imam Ali was born in the 20th year of the Elephant[14] and died in AH 40.[15]
Other sources
This event is referred to in the Qur’an, in
Arabic: الـفِـيـل, "The Elephant"), and is discussed in its related tafsir.Some scholars have placed the Year of the Elephant one or two decades earlier than 570 CE,
‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San‘ani placing it before the birth of Muhammad's father.[17]See also
- War elephant
- The Journey (2021 film) - Japanese-Saudi Arabian anime film based on the incident.
- Cultural depictions of elephants
References
- ^
ISBN 1-930409-11-7- ^ ʿAbdu r-Rahmān ibn Nāsir as-Saʿdī. "Tafsir of Surah al Fil - The Elephant (Surah 105)". Translated by Abū Rumaysah. Islamic Network. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
This elephant was called Mahmud and it was sent to Abrahah from Najashi, the king of Abyssinia, particularly for this expedition. doi:10.15347/wjm/2015.003. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015.from the original on 4 September 2015.{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
In turn citing: Willan R. (1821). Miscellaneous works: comprising An inquiry into the antiquity of the small-pox, measles, and scarlet fever, now first published; Reports on the diseases in London, a new ed.; and detached papers on medical subjects, collected from various periodical publi. Cadell. p. 488. Archived- ^ a b William Montgomery Watt (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 7.
ISBN 9780955811760.- ^
ISBN 0-19-636033-1. ISBN 978-0803260047. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016.)The lead elephant, named Mahmud, stopped and knelt down, refusing to go further.{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link- ^ The Message 8f The Quran, by Mohammad Asad, Surah 105:2-3.
sijill, which signifies "a writing" and, tropically, "something that has been decreed [by God]": hence, the phrase hijarah min sijjil is a metaphor for "stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained", i.e., in God's decree (Zamakhshari and Razi, with analogous comments on the same expression in 11:82).- ^ Ibid.
As already mentioned in the introductory note, the particular chastisement to which the above verse alludes seems to have been a sudden epidemic of extreme virulence: according to Waqidi and Muhammad ibn Ishaq - the latter as quoted by Ibn Hisham and Ibn Kathir - "this was the first time that spotted fever (hasbah) and smallpox (judari) appeared in the land of the Arabs". It is interesting to note that the word hasbah - which, according to some authorities, signifies also typhus - primarily means "pelting [or smiting"] with stones" (Qamus)- ^ Al-Qamus Al-Muhit by Muḥammad Ibn-Jaʻqūb al- Fīrūzābādī.
- ^ Ibid.
As regards the noun ta'ir (of which tayr is the plural), we ought to remember that it denotes any "flying creature", whether bird or insect (Taj al-'Arus). Neither the Qur'an nor any authentic Tradition offers us any evidence as to the nature of the "flying creatures" mentioned in the above verse; and since, on the other hand, all the "descriptions" indulged in by the commentators are purely imaginary, they need not be seriously considered. If the hypothesis of an epidemic is correct, the "flying creatures" - whether birds or insects - may well have been the carriers of the infection. One thing, however, is clear: whatever the nature of the doom that overtook the invading force, it was certainly miraculous in the true sense of this word - namely, in the sudden, totally unexpected rescue which it brought to the distressed people of Mecca.- ^ Robinson, Neal "Clay; Encyclopedia of the Qur'an Vol I" Brill, 2001, p. 340.
- ^ "The birth of El Imam Ali related to the year of the elephant". balaghah.net. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
ISBN 978-0-9914308-6-4. Archivedfrom the original on 27 October 2017. ISBN 978-0195096149. ISBN 978-0814769638.External links