Editing Year of the Elephant (section)

== Events ==
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Siege of Mecca
| partof            = 
| date              = {{circa|570}}
| place             = [[Mecca]]
| result            = [[Quraysh]] Victory
| combatant1        = [[Quraysh]]
| combatant2        = [[Kingdom of Aksum]]
| commander1        = [[Abd al-Muttalib]]
| commander2        = [[Abraha]]
| strength1         = 
| strength2         = 
| casualties1       = 
| casualties2       = 
}}
According to early Islamic historians such as [[Ibn Ishaq]], in honor of his ally, Abraha built a great [[Church (building)|church]]  at [[Sana'a]] known as ''[[Al-Qalis Church, Sana'a|al-Qullays]]'', a [[loanword]] borrowed from [[Wiktionary:εκκλησία|εκκλησία]] "church".

Al-Qullays gained widespread fame, even gaining the notice of the [[Byzantine Empire]].<ref name="Hajjah" /> Other [[Arab people]] of the time had their own center of religious worship and [[Hajj|pilgrimage]] in Mecca, the Kaaba.<ref name="Hajjah" /> Abraha attempted to divert their pilgrimage to al-Qullays and appointed a man named Muhammad ibn Khuza'i <ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=b. Ishaq |title=The Life of Muhammad |publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 1967|isbn=0-19-636033-1 |editor-last=Guillaume |location=New York |pages=22 |language=English}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Hajjah" />

Ibn Ishaq's [[Prophetic biography]] states:{{cquote|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 [[emir]] of [[Adnanites|Mudhar]], and ordered him to go among the people to invite them to pilgrimage at his cathedral which he had built. When Muhammad ibn Khuza'i got as far as the land of [[Banu Kinanah|Kinana]], the people of the lowland, knowing what he had come for, sent a man of [[Banu Hudhayl|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.}}<ref name=":0" />

Abraha, incensed, launched an expedition of sixty thousand men against the Ka‘bah at Mecca, led by a white elephant named ''Mahmud''<ref>{{cite book|last=Kistler|first=John M.; foreword by Richard Lair|title=War elephants|year=2007|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln|isbn=978-0803260047|page=177|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5RHK4Ol15QC&pg=PA177|chapter=The Year of The Elephant|quote=The lead elephant, named [[White elephant|'''Mahmud''']], stopped and knelt down, refusing to go further.|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109135635/https://books.google.com/books?id=-5RHK4Ol15QC&lpg=PA177&pg=PA177|archive-date=2016-01-09}}</ref> (and possibly with other elephants - some accounts state there were several elephants, or even as many as eight<ref name="Hajjah" /><ref name="Watt">William Montgomery Watt (1961). [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.29762 ''Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman''], Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.&nbsp;7.</ref>) 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. [[Abd al-Muttalib|‘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 [[Qur’an]] is rather short. According to [[Sura]]h [[al-Fil]], the next day [as Abraha prepared to enter the city], a dark cloud of small birds named '[[Ababil (mythology)|Ababil]]' ({{langx|ar|أَبـابـيـل}}) appeared. The birds carried [[Pebble|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-Razi]] translates the above mentioned verses as:
{| class="wikitable"
|(2)Thus, He let loose upon them great swarms of flying creatures (3) which smote them with stone-hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Message 8f The Quran, by Mohammad Asad, Surah 105:2-3}}</ref>
|}
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]".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibid M. Asad, Commentary on Surah 102, see note 2|quote=Lit., "with stones of sijjil". As explained in note [114] on 11:82, this latter term is synonymous with ''[[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).}}</ref> He further explains that this decree by God was a very sudden epidemic outbreak, which, according to Ibn Ishaq, caused fever (in arabic hasbah) and smallpox (arab. judari). This, as Asad concludes, points to the fact that the "stone hard blows of chastisement pre-ordained" were a very sudden virulent epidemic due to the fact that the word for fever "hasbah" primarily means "pelting [or smiting] with stones" in the famous arabic dictionary ''al-Qamous'' (القاموس) by [[Fairuzabadi]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibid|quote=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)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Al-Qamus Al-Muhit by Muḥammad Ibn-Jaʻqūb al- Fīrūzābādī}}</ref> The word ta'ir can denote any "flying creature, whether bird or insect (Taj al-'Arus)".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ibid|quote=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.}}</ref> However, some scholars like Neal Robinson disagree with Asad method of translation and interpretation.<ref name="Robinson">Robinson, Neal "Clay; Encyclopedia of the Qur'an Vol I" Brill, 2001, p. 340.</ref>