jackelgull
An aberration of nature
So i did some research on a part of pre Islamic history that interested me. Please don't hurt me I mean I'm only sixteen. I did the best that I could. If there's anything laughably false please let me know.
http://www.historynet.com/roman-persian-wars.htm
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/buried-christian-empire-in-yemen-casts-new-light-on-early-islam-a-874048.html
The Year of the Elephant
The Year of the Elephant is a historical component of the Islamic identity, one that occurs in pre Islamic Arabia not too long ago. It is supposedly the birth year of the Prophet, they year in which Allah protected his divine domicile.
The story of the year of the Elephant though, is really a chapter in the age old struggle between Persia and Rome for the Middle East which began ever since the Romans took Syria. The stakes in this matter were simple, survival. Neither side trusted the other and sought an advantage over the other, leading to frequent conflict. Many of Romes greatest commanders had sought to crack Persia (Caesar was planning to invade Persia through Armenia before he died), and many of Persias greatest commanders had sought to defeat Rome. The balance of power shifted from side to side and the conflict outlasted two Persian dynasties (the Parthians and the Sassanids) and outlasted the Roman Empire itself. As a general outline, the Parthians devastated the Romans militarily, there was an uneasy peace until the Parthians weakened and then collapsed after a full scale Roman invasion by Trajan. Then the Sassanids arose from the ashes of the Parthians in the third century AD. They were a greater more credible threat. The Roman Empire managed to hold on but this new dynasty was more aggressive. Then the Roman Empire coalesced into the Eastern Roman Empire during a century of peace following the Sassanid reconquest of Northern Mesopotamia. This peace didnt last and during Justinians conquest of old Roman territory, the Sassanids launched a series of hard hitting raids against major Eastern Roman cities in the Near East. In the end the Eastern Romans were forced to pay tribute to the Sassanids ending the conflict in 562 AD for a temporary respite. Thus the year of the elephant was a product of the imperial ambitions of the Romans and Persians in the Middle East.
The client kingdoms of the Eastern Roman Empire were making inroads to the desert, paving the way for missionaries to bring Christianity and empire to the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab tribes began taking sides. Christian tribes were generally allies of the Eastern Romans while Jewish tribes were mostly allied with the Sassanids.
Then in 520 CE the breaking point came when one of those Jewish tribes, Zafar, attacked its Christian neighbor Najran and burned its churches and slaughtered the Christians. The news traveled all the way back to Europe and the Byzantine Empire demanded that its ally Ethiopia do something. Here is where the forces of history-political, social and economic imbue themselves in one man: Abraha an almost ironic name for the man who would almost destroy the house of Allah.
Abraha is the Christian puppet of the Ethiopian king. He was installed after an invasion of Zafar. He would extend his empire to cover most of Southern Arabia. He would then build one of the most impressive churches in the world in Sanaa hiring engineers from the Eastern Roman Empire to do so. In 572 AD he finished and invited the tribes of the surrounding area to come and look, and marvel at the sight. He was hoping that the tribes would accept his church as their holy site, and abandon the Kabaah which until then was where the Arab tribes stored their idols for worship. Or in other words, he wanted to expand his prestige and influence. However, an angry native of Mecca relieved himself in the Sanaa church, prompting the furious Abraha to dispatch his warriors, mounted on elephants, to destroy the Kaaba. Now the actual number of elephants is unsure. It might have been as many as seventy. It might be just one. But according to a surah in the Quran there were elephants. I am Muslim, you, know. Whatever the truth about the elephants, there is evidence that devastating raids were carried out on Mecca during this time period.
However, Abraha was never destined to reach the city walls. He was killed when Allah sent forth a flock of birds to pelt the invading army with stones and the Kaaba was saved. At least, according to Islamic sources. A more plausible explanation is that the Arabs were warned in advance and came up with tactics to scare the elephants into stampeding. Whatever the truth is, the year of the elephant had powerful consequences for the Middle East. This Yemeni empire had the potential to shake up the Persian Eastern Roman dynamic, considering it had the power to send soldiers as far as northern Mesopotamia to try and free captured bishops. Had it succeeded in conquering Mecca and destroying the Kaaba there might not have been an Islam. And after the Year of the Elephant, the Yemeni empire faded into oblivion, destroyed from a variety of factors, the most important being plague and drought. It also became a powerful myth, part of the Islamic identity. Muhammed was supposedly born this year, a year in which a miracle occurred.
Alternatively, here's a different explanation.
http://www.free-minds.org/people-elephant
http://www.historynet.com/roman-persian-wars.htm
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/buried-christian-empire-in-yemen-casts-new-light-on-early-islam-a-874048.html
The Year of the Elephant
The Year of the Elephant is a historical component of the Islamic identity, one that occurs in pre Islamic Arabia not too long ago. It is supposedly the birth year of the Prophet, they year in which Allah protected his divine domicile.
The story of the year of the Elephant though, is really a chapter in the age old struggle between Persia and Rome for the Middle East which began ever since the Romans took Syria. The stakes in this matter were simple, survival. Neither side trusted the other and sought an advantage over the other, leading to frequent conflict. Many of Romes greatest commanders had sought to crack Persia (Caesar was planning to invade Persia through Armenia before he died), and many of Persias greatest commanders had sought to defeat Rome. The balance of power shifted from side to side and the conflict outlasted two Persian dynasties (the Parthians and the Sassanids) and outlasted the Roman Empire itself. As a general outline, the Parthians devastated the Romans militarily, there was an uneasy peace until the Parthians weakened and then collapsed after a full scale Roman invasion by Trajan. Then the Sassanids arose from the ashes of the Parthians in the third century AD. They were a greater more credible threat. The Roman Empire managed to hold on but this new dynasty was more aggressive. Then the Roman Empire coalesced into the Eastern Roman Empire during a century of peace following the Sassanid reconquest of Northern Mesopotamia. This peace didnt last and during Justinians conquest of old Roman territory, the Sassanids launched a series of hard hitting raids against major Eastern Roman cities in the Near East. In the end the Eastern Romans were forced to pay tribute to the Sassanids ending the conflict in 562 AD for a temporary respite. Thus the year of the elephant was a product of the imperial ambitions of the Romans and Persians in the Middle East.
The client kingdoms of the Eastern Roman Empire were making inroads to the desert, paving the way for missionaries to bring Christianity and empire to the Arabian Peninsula. The Arab tribes began taking sides. Christian tribes were generally allies of the Eastern Romans while Jewish tribes were mostly allied with the Sassanids.
Then in 520 CE the breaking point came when one of those Jewish tribes, Zafar, attacked its Christian neighbor Najran and burned its churches and slaughtered the Christians. The news traveled all the way back to Europe and the Byzantine Empire demanded that its ally Ethiopia do something. Here is where the forces of history-political, social and economic imbue themselves in one man: Abraha an almost ironic name for the man who would almost destroy the house of Allah.
Abraha is the Christian puppet of the Ethiopian king. He was installed after an invasion of Zafar. He would extend his empire to cover most of Southern Arabia. He would then build one of the most impressive churches in the world in Sanaa hiring engineers from the Eastern Roman Empire to do so. In 572 AD he finished and invited the tribes of the surrounding area to come and look, and marvel at the sight. He was hoping that the tribes would accept his church as their holy site, and abandon the Kabaah which until then was where the Arab tribes stored their idols for worship. Or in other words, he wanted to expand his prestige and influence. However, an angry native of Mecca relieved himself in the Sanaa church, prompting the furious Abraha to dispatch his warriors, mounted on elephants, to destroy the Kaaba. Now the actual number of elephants is unsure. It might have been as many as seventy. It might be just one. But according to a surah in the Quran there were elephants. I am Muslim, you, know. Whatever the truth about the elephants, there is evidence that devastating raids were carried out on Mecca during this time period.
However, Abraha was never destined to reach the city walls. He was killed when Allah sent forth a flock of birds to pelt the invading army with stones and the Kaaba was saved. At least, according to Islamic sources. A more plausible explanation is that the Arabs were warned in advance and came up with tactics to scare the elephants into stampeding. Whatever the truth is, the year of the elephant had powerful consequences for the Middle East. This Yemeni empire had the potential to shake up the Persian Eastern Roman dynamic, considering it had the power to send soldiers as far as northern Mesopotamia to try and free captured bishops. Had it succeeded in conquering Mecca and destroying the Kaaba there might not have been an Islam. And after the Year of the Elephant, the Yemeni empire faded into oblivion, destroyed from a variety of factors, the most important being plague and drought. It also became a powerful myth, part of the Islamic identity. Muhammed was supposedly born this year, a year in which a miracle occurred.
Alternatively, here's a different explanation.
http://www.free-minds.org/people-elephant
