Dhul-Suwayqatayn

Dhul-Suwayqatayn (ذو السويقتين, ዱል-ሱወይቃታይን) is a figure mentioned in the hadith of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, according to which a group of Abyssinian (Ethiopian) men are destined to permanently destroy the Ka‘aba at the end of times and remove its treasure. It will be dismantled brick-by-brick, therefore in a peaceful manner. At this time faith in God will have disappeared, so the destruction will go unnoticed. Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As and Ibn Kathir interpreted that this will occur after the second coming of Isa (Jesus Christ).

References to this are recorded in all six traditional Sunni compilations of hadith, the Kutub al-Sitta, including the earliest and the most revered ones, namely Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The tradition is likely related to the Year of the Elephant, when the Axumite general Abraha is said to have attacked Mecca.

Following the Fifth Crusade (1217–1221), this tradition was transferred to Europe when Bishop Oliver of Paderborn's Historia Damiatina described a Nubian king as an omen indicating the end of Islam.