Overview

Al-Qullays: the church Abraha built in Yemen and called the Yemeni Ka'ba, to divert the Arabs' pilgrimage to it — the preface to the Elephant campaign.

The story

Once Abraha held Yemen's government, he began spreading the Christian religion with the fullest energy and widest scope, to the point that he built a church in Yemen called the Yemeni Ka'ba, intending to divert the Arabs' pilgrimage to it and to demolish God's House at Mecca ².

For young visitors

Al-Qullays is a great church Abraha built to rival the Ka'ba at Mecca; his plan failed as the Qur'an recounted in Surat al-Fil.

The Killing of al-Aswad al-Ansi

In al-Baladhuri: al-Aswad ibn Ka'b ibn Awf al-Ansi soothsaid and claimed prophecy, Ans and others followed him, and he styled himself Rahman of Yemen as Musaylima styled himself Rahman of al-Yamama; he had a trained donkey which would kneel and prostrate at his command whence he was called Dhu al-Mar — others say Dhu al-Khimar for being ever veiled and turbaned, and some Yemenis told al-Baladhuri his face was black, hence al-Aswad, his name being Ayhala; the Prophet sent Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Bajali to him in the year of his death calling him to Islam — some transmitters deny the mission — and he came to San'a, took it and expelled the Prophet's agent Khalid ibn Sa'id ibn al-As (al-Nu'man ibn Yazid of the Abna' says Aban ibn Sa'id), who withdrew toward Ziyad ibn Labid; he humiliated the Abna' — the sons of the Persians whom Kisra had sent to Yemen with Ibn Dhi Yazan under Wahriz — used them as labour and wronged them, and married the Marzbana, Badham their king's widow; the Prophet sent Qays ibn Hubayra al-Makshuh al-Muradi — so called for a cautery on his waist from an ailment — ordering him to win over the Abna', and sent with him Farwa ibn Musayk al-Muradi; reaching Yemen as the Prophet's death was reported, Qays feigned accord with al-Aswad until he entered San'a with a company of Madhhij, Hamdan and others, then won over Fayruz ibn al-Daylami of the Abna', who had embraced Islam, and the two came to Badham, chief of the Abna' — some say Badham was already dead and a successor named Dadhawayh converted and met Qays and won him over, spreading his missionaries among the Abna' until they converted; so they all agreed to kill and assassinate al-Aswad, and secretly informed his wife the Marzbana who, hating him, showed them a water-channel into his house — some say they pierced a hole in the wall of his chamber of vinegar — and entered on him at dawn while he lay drunk asleep, and Qays slaughtered him, his bellowing like a bull's startling the guards who asked 'what ails the Rahman of Yemen?' — his wife answered 'revelation descends on him' and they calmed; Qays cut off his head, stood on the city wall at dawn, magnified God and testified that al-Aswad was a liar and God's enemy, and when his followers gathered he cast the head to them and they scattered save a few, the sword falling on the remnant until none escaped but those who embraced Islam; some transmitters say Fayruz ibn al-Daylami killed him with Qays only striking off the head, and when Qays and Fayruz both claimed the killing in Medina Umar said 'this lion killed him' meaning Fayruz; some scholars date the killing five days before the Prophet's death — the Prophet saying in his illness 'God has killed al-Aswad al-Ansi; the righteous man Fayruz ibn al-Daylami killed him' — with the report reaching Abu Bakr ten nights into his caliphate; Qays was then accused of killing Dadhawayh and it reached Abu Bakr that he meant to expel the Abna' from San'a, which angered him, so he wrote to al-Muhajir his agent there to bring him, made him swear fifty oaths at the Prophet's minbar that he had not killed Dadhawayh, then released him and sent him to Syria.

al-Qullays (the Yemeni Kaaba)

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The Killing of al-Aswad al-Ansi