Abraha al-Ashram

Abraha al-Ashram was the Abyssinian (Aksumite) viceroy who governed Yemen on behalf of the Negus. Envious of the pilgrimage the Arabs made to the Kaʿbah, he raised the great cathedral of al-Qullays in Sanʿa to draw them to himself; when an outraged Arab defiled it, he swore to destroy the Kaʿbah and marched on Mecca with an army led by the elephant Mahmud. His host was annihilated by flights of birds hurling stones of baked clay, and he died on the road back to Yemen, the event the Qurʾan records in Surat al-Fil, after which the Year of the Elephant is named.