683 AD: Umayyad siege of Mecca and destruction of Kaaba

[Böri]

After taking Medina, Umayyads set out for Mecca, but on the way Muslim fell ill and died at Mushallal, and command passed to his lieutenant Husayn ibn Numayr al-Sakuni, for his sack of Medina, subsequent tradition remembers Muslim ibn 'Uqba as the "heathen incarnate" (J. Wellhausen). Husayn's army arrived before Mecca in September. Ibn al-Zubayr and his supporters refused to surrender, and after they were defeated in a first engagement, a siege of the city began, in which the Umayyad army employed catapults to bombard it with stones. Ibn al-Zubayr established his command post on the grounds of the Grand Mosque, on Sunday, 31 October, the Kaaba, over which a wooden structure covered with mattresses had been erected to protect it, caught fire and burned down, while the sacred Black Stone burst asunder. Many later sources ascribe the fault to the besiegers, with the result that "this siege and bombardment too figure prominently in the lists of Umayyad crimes" (G.R. Hawting), but more reliable accounts attribute the event to a torch borne by one of Ibn al-Zubayr's followers, which the wind wafted onto the building.

I learnt about this story (Harra) recently and to be honest İ was shocked. Basically a Syrian Umayyad army sent by Yazid I destroyed both Medina and Mecca, destroying also Meccan Kaaba with mangonels throwing stones and burning cloths.

[Jehan]

And god don't send help to protect the sacred black stone?

[Petros Houhoulis]

I learnt about this story (Harra) recently and to be honest İ was shocked. Basically a Syrian Umayyad army sent by Yazid I destroyed both Medina and Mecca, destroying also Meccan Kaaba with mangonels throwing stones and burning cloths.

You are incapable of learning, and in any case, Mecca was actually Petra...

[Petros Houhoulis]

And god don't send help to protect the sacred black stone?

Allah is sending some birds to protect the Kaaba and the black stone. They are utterly useless though...