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The Elephants of Abraha.

Abraha was the ruler of Yemen back in the year 531–547. He is known to be a cruel king due to his needs to destroy the Kaaba. In fact, He solely relied on his elephants to destroy the Kaaba. His story is known by the actions of his elephants and that is why it is called “The Year of Elephants” Abraha chose Asian elephants, Indian ones to be exact, instead of African elephants because they are known scientifically that they are not aggressive in comparison to African elephants. African elephants would never obey to commands due to their natural habitants whereas the Indian elephant is known to obey the rules. Ways to distinguish between an African elephant and an Indian Elephant:

Asian elephants are known to be smaller than African elephants. They have smaller ears, drier skin, their skin color is either grey or closer to brownish. They are mostly found in India and Sri Lanka. They are very friendly and more likely to listen to any leadership. In addition, Asian elephants are the ones that they use in the circus and entertainment due to their well-known behavior.

Indian Elephants: According to J.H Williams in his book “Elephant Bill” Indian elephants are smart due to the fact that they are constantly thinking. The brain of an elephant is big, and he stated that “the bigger the brain is, the smarter the animal is”. They are fast learners and they have the ability to work on daily basis, scientists stated that an Indian elephant would only need three to four weeks to learn and understand certain words such as “sit”, “stop” or “kneel down”. Moreover, it is a fact that Indian elephants can learn a huge amount of vocabulary and they would obey any word they hear. They own a very strong memory and would never break a rule or command. However, in Abraha’s case its different. He’s been taught and trained to destroy the Kaaba and according to history studies, the elephants were ready and raged to destroy it but once they reached the place the could not, turned back, and did not listen to the rules. That event shows how much of a miracle it is to Indian elephants. Many scientists could not figure out the reason behind their actions because they are always listening to the rules. Moreover, that is the main reason why Abraha chose Indian elephants and not African ones, despite the fact that African elephants are bigger, and they could easily destroy the Kaaba way faster.

Scientifically, Asian elephants can build a relationship between the itself and the owner. Asian elephants can trust easily a person, regardless of how they are treating them. Asian elephants are the main attraction for tourists in India and Sri Lanka due to its friendly behavior towards the people in general. In addition to the previous point, Abraha spent a quite amount of time planning to destroy the Kaaba which logically means that the elephants have been trained very well to do what they are told. Eventually, it did not happen. According to history and scientific sources, it is not questionable when an African elephant becomes aggressive due to its known behavior. However, Indian elephants can never become aggressive after it build a relationship with its owners, Thus, what happened in “The Year of The Elephant” is a miracle to all scientists from different religious backgrounds.