I heard Anas (R.A) saying, “We travelled with the Prophet (S.A.W) from Medina to Mecca and offered two rakat...
BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Narrated Yahya bin Ishaq (R.A):
I heard Anas (R.A) saying, “We travelled with the Prophet (S.A.W) from Medina to Mecca and offered two rakat (for every prayer) till we returned to Medina.” I said, “Did you stay for a while in Mecca?” He replied, “We stayed in Mecca for ten days.”
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 2, Book 20, Number 187
Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, is credited with being the very first archaeologist and historian ever recorded.
Most people associate archaeology with dusty dig sites, ancient artefacts and modern scientists carefully brushing sand from buried treasures. Yet the roots of archaeology stretch back far further than most imagine. In fact, many historians regard Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (r. 556–539 BCE), as the world’s first recorded archaeologist and historian.
Nabonidus was an unusual ruler. While many kings devoted their attention to warfare and conquest, he developed a deep fascination with the distant past. He spent much of his reign restoring ancient temples and religious monuments across Mesopotamia, which corresponds largely to modern-day Iraq. Unlike other builders, however, he was not content merely to repair old structures. He wanted to discover their original history.
One of Nabonidus’s most remarkable projects involved the restoration of the Ebabbar Temple at Sippar. Before rebuilding the structure, he ordered excavations to locate its original foundations. During these investigations, he uncovered foundation deposits and inscriptions left by earlier rulers. Among his most significant discoveries was an inscription belonging to Naram-Sin, one of the greatest kings of the Akkadian Empire, who had ruled more than 1,700 years earlier.
What makes this discovery extraordinary is that Nabonidus did not simply recover the inscription. He studied it, attempted to determine its age and recorded his findings. Although his estimate was not entirely accurate, his effort to date an ancient object represents one of the earliest known attempts at historical investigation.
Evidence of these activities survives on inscriptions known as the Nabonidus Cylinders, clay cylinders bearing detailed accounts of his restoration projects. These texts describe how he searched for earlier foundations, examined ancient inscriptions and used the information he uncovered to guide reconstruction work. Today, some of these cylinders are preserved in the British Museum in London.
Interestingly, interest in the ancient past existed even before Nabonidus. During Egypt’s New Kingdom period, rulers restored monuments such as the Great Sphinx of Giza, which had become partially buried by sand. However, no surviving written accounts describe those restoration efforts in detail. Nabonidus is therefore the earliest known individual to leave a clear written record of excavating, studying and interpreting ancient remains. For this reason, many scholars consider him the first archaeologist in recorded history.
