Around 571 ac, the Abyssinians organized an army in Yemen to raid Makkah and destroy the Kaaba, God’s holy house. The army included several elephants, which were to be used in combat for the first time in Arabia.

The news left the Arabs of Makkah despondent, totally unprepared to resist such an attack. Many of them took flight to the mountains, leaving the Ka’bah as well as their own homes to their fate. For the Christian Abyssinians, the whole campaign was a misguided and pointless one. There was no justification for it, since they had a cathedral in Sana’a, where they used to worship, and could have left the Arabs to worship at the Ka’bah.