Year of the Elephant

The ʿĀmu l-Fīl (Arabic: عام الفيل‎, Year of the Elephant) is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570 CE. According to Islamic tradition, it was in this year that Muhammad (Arabic: مُـحَـمَّـد‎, consonant letters: m-ħ-m-d) was born.[1] The name is derived from an event said to have occurred at Mecca: Abraha, the Abyssinian, Christian ruler of Yemen, which was subject to the Kingdom of Aksum of Ethiopia,[2][3] marched upon the Ka‘bah in Mecca with a large army, which included one or more war elephants, intending to demolish it. However, the lead elephant, known as 'Mahmud' (Arabic: مَـحْـمُـوْد‎, consonant letters: ħ-m-d),[4] is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter. It has been theorized that an epidemic, perhaps caused by smallpox, could have caused such a failed invasion of Mecca.[5] The year came to be known as the Year of the Elephant, beginning a trend for reckoning the years in the Arabian Peninsula. This reckoning was used until it was replaced with the Islamic calendar during the rule of ‘Umar.

Archaeological discoveries in Southern Arabia suggest that Year of the Elephant may have been 569 or 568, as the Sasanian Empire overthrew the Aksumite-affiliated rulers in Yemen around 570.[6]

The year is also recorded as that of the birth of ‘Ammar ibn Yasir.[7]

Events

According to early Islamic historians such as Ibn Ishaq, in honor of his ally, Negus Abraha built a great church at Sana'a known as al-Qullays, a loanword borrowed from Greek: εκκλησία "church".

Al-Qullays gained widespread fame, even gaining the notice of the Byzantine Empire.[1] The pagan Arab people of the time had their own center of religious worship and pilgrimage in Mecca, the Kaaba.[1] Abraha attempted to divert their pilgrimage to al-Qullays and appointed a man named Muhammad ibn Khuza'i to Mecca and Tihamah as a king with a message that al-Qullays was both much better than other houses of worship and purer, having not been defiled by the housing of idols.[1]

Ibn Ishaq's Prophetic biography states:

Ibn Ishaq further states that one of the men of the Quraysh tribe was angered by this, and going to Sana'a, slipped into the church at night and defiled it; it is widely assumed that he did so by defecating in it.

Abraha, incensed, launched an expedition of forty thousand men against the Ka‘bah at Mecca, led by a white elephant named Mahmud[8] (and possibly with other elephants - some accounts state there were several elephants, or even as many as eight[1][6]) 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. A man from the Himyarite Kingdom was sent by Abraha to advise him that Abraha only wished to demolish the Kaaba and if they resisted, they would be crushed. ‘Abdul Muttalib 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 Qur’an is rather short. According to Surah al-Fil, the next day [as Abraha prepared to enter the city], a dark cloud of small birds named 'Ababil' (Arabic: أَبـابـيـل‎) appeared. The birds carried small rocks in their beaks, and bombarded the Ethiopian forces and smashed them like "eaten straw".

Shia

According to Hadith, in al-Kafi Volume one, Imam Ali was born in the 30th year of the Elephant[9] and died in AH 40.[10]

Other sources

This event is referred to in the Qur’an, in Surah 105, Al-Fil (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,[11] with a tradition attributed to Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri in the works of ‘Abd al-Razzaq al-San‘ani placing it before the birth of Muhammad's father.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hajjah Adil, Amina, "Prophet Muhammad", ISCA, Jun 1, 2002, ISBN 1-930409-11-7
  2. ↑ "Abraha." Archived 2016-01-13 at the Wayback Machine. Dictionary of African Christian Biographies. 2007. (last accessed 11 April 2007)
  3. ↑ Walter W. Müller, "Outline of the History of Ancient Southern Arabia," in Werner Daum (ed.), Yemen: 3000 Years of Art and Civilisation in Arabia Felix. 1987. Archived 2014-10-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Marr JS, Hubbard E, Cathey, JT (2015). "The Year of the Elephant". Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. 2 (1). doi:10.15347/wjm/2015.003. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26.
    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 from the original on 2015-09-04.
  6. 1 2 William Montgomery Watt (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Azmayesh, Seyed Mostafa (2015). New Researchers on the Quran: Why and how two versions of Islam entered the history of mankind. United Kingdom: Mehraby Publishing House. p. 262. ISBN 9780955811760.
  8. ↑ Kistler, John M. ; foreword by Richard Lair (2007). "The Year of The Elephant". War elephants. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. p. 177. ISBN 0803260040. Archived from the original on 2016-01-09. The lead elephant, named Mahmud, stopped and knelt down, refusing to go further.
  9. ↑ "The birth of El Imam Ali related to the year of the elephant". balaghah.net. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  10. ↑ Al-Islam, Thiqatu (2015). Al-Kafi (Second ed.). New York: Islamic Seminary Inc. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-9914308-6-4. Archived from the original on 2017-10-27.
  11. ↑ Esposito, John L. (1995). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World: Libe-Sare. Oxford University Press. p. 154. ISBN 978-0195096149.
  12. ↑ ibn Rashid, Mamar. The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad. Translated by Sean W. Anthony. NYU Press. p. 3-5. ISBN 978-0814769638.
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