105: The Elephant
This chapter of 5 Meccan verses
was revealed after Disbelievers (or Atheists)
109 and before Dawn 113. It has
a rhyme in -it to parallel the title word of fil or
elephant
The historic reference is to the time when the Abyssinians ruled Yaman
in
southern Arabia. In the year 570 of the Christian era, the very year when
the
Prophet was born, they invaded the territory of Mecca under their King
Abraha.
Fortunately they were repulsed, as this chapter shows, but the campaign
became
legendary as the Year of the Elephant.