Ababil

Ababil, fabulous birds mentioned in the Koran, which, according to legend, were sent by Allah to attack the Abyssinians, frustrating their plans to lay siege to Mecca in the year 570, the same year of Muhammad's birth.

The episode is recorded in sura 105 of the Koran, called Al-Fil (The Elephant). The name comes from the fact that, according to tradition, the Abyssinians carried a white elephant, an animal that made such a deep impression on the Arabs that they called that year `Am al-Fil or Year of the Elephant.

الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

أَلَمْ تَرَ فَعَلَ رَبُّكَ بِأَصْحَابِ الْفِيلِ
أَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ كَيْدَهُمْ تَضْلِيلٍ تَضْلِيلٍ
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
تَرْمِيهِم بِحِجَارَةٍ سِجِّيلٍ سِجِّيلٍ
فَجَعَلَهُمْ كَعَصْفٍ كَعَصْفٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ كَعَصْفٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ مَّأْكُولٍ كَعَصْفٍ كَعَصْفٍ كَعَصْفٍ بِحِجَارَةٍ

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Merciful
Have you not seen what your Lord did to those with the elephant?
Didn't he make their plans fail?
He sent upon them birds ababil
which bombarded them with clay stones
leaving them like devoured crops

Some exegetes think that the sura metaphorically describes the Abyssinian army decimated by an epidemic, perhaps transmitted by flying insects, since the word tair used to describe the ababil and which is usually translated as "birds" or "birds", strictly designates everything that flies. The epidemic could be measles, which according to classical commentators appeared in Arabia at that time and whose Arabic name, hasba, has the original meaning of "to stone".