16/05/2023
Desperate Attempts to Destroy the Pyramids Throughout History!
If it were not for the ingenuity of the Pharaohs in building the pyramids and making their stones incredibly massive, Egypt would be without pyramids today and tourism revenues in this country would be minimal.
One of the funniest things mentioned in Islamic historical sources is the attempt by some Muslim rulers to demolish the pyramids of Egypt and the Sphinx, considering them idols. This contradicts what some contemporary jurists wrote in their statements directed against ISIS or the Taliban after they destroyed antiquities, saying that these great monuments remained standing despite the fact that the early companions and caliphs who ruled did not harm them. This is not only untrue, not only because of what is mentioned in the books of Muslim historians describing the destruction of ancient temples and idols, but also because of what was mentioned about attempts by some rulers and caliphs to demolish the Pharaonic pyramids in Egypt, all of which failed miserably due to the greatness, strength, and durability of those structures against time.
Ibn Khaldun says in his introduction, recalling the attempt of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma'mun to damage the smaller pyramid: "Similarly, Al-Ma'mun agreed to demolish the pyramids in Egypt, and the workers were gathered to demolish them, but they did not succeed, and they began to dig it up until they reached a passageway between the shadow wall and the walls beyond it, and that was the end of their demolition. It is still called a visible outlet to this day, and some claim that they found debris between those walls."
Among those mentioned in history as attempting to demolish the pyramids was Bahaa al-Din Qaraqush, whom Salah al-Din appointed as his deputy in Egypt. Some accounts say that this Qaraqush succeeded in demolishing many of the smaller pyramids that were within his reach and used their stones to build the Cairo Citadel.
Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi describes these events in his book "Al-Ifada wa Al-I'tibar fi Al-Umour wa Al-Mashaheer wa Al-Hawadith Al-Muayyana bi Ard Misr," describing these events: "And in (Busir) there are many of them (i.e., pyramids), some of them large, some small, some of mud and brick, and most of them of stone, some of them stepped and most of them smooth cones. There were many of them in Giza, but they were small and were demolished during the time of Saladin Yusuf bin Ayyub, by Qaraqush, who built the wall of stones surrounding Fustat and Cairo and what was between them and the castle on Al-Muqattam, and took the stones of these small pyramids and built the canals that exist today in Giza."
After the death of Saladin, his son Al-Afdal attempted to demolish the largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, but he failed miserably. The historian Al-Maqrizi reports in his book "Al-Khitat": "When Al-Afdal took over the regency of Egypt after his father's death, he started to demolish the Great Pyramid and began to dig tunnels in it, but he did not find anything of value, and he continued to dig until he reached the burial chamber, but he did not find anything in it. He then gave up the idea of demolishing it, and what he had destroyed, he rebuilt and restored."
In the Ottoman era, Sultan Selim I also tried to demolish the pyramids, but he soon gave up the idea, as the stones were too massive to be removed. The historian Al-Maqrizi reports: "Sultan Selim, when he conquered Egypt, wanted to demolish the pyramids of Giza and take their stones to Istanbul to use in the construction of the Kaaba, but when he tried to remove the stones, he found them to be too heavy and abandoned the idea."
It is clear from these historical accounts that the pyramids have been the target of destruction attempts throughout history, but they have endured and remain standing to this day, a testament to the ingenuity and engineering prowess of the ancient Egyptians.
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