Dhul-Suwayqatayn

Dhul-Suwayqatayn (Arabic: ذو السويقتين, lit. 'the man with two thin legs',[1] Amharic: ዱል-ሱወይቃታይን) is a figure mentioned in the hadith of the Islamic prophet Muhammad,[1] 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 Allah will have disappeared, so the destruction will go unnoticed.[1] Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As and Ibn Kathir interpreted that this will occur after the second coming of Isa (Jesus Christ).[2]

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.[3] The tradition is likely related to the Year of the Elephant, when the Axumite general Abraha is said to have attacked Mecca.[4]

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.[5]