Ghoul

The English word ghoul is from the Arabic {{lang|ar|غُول}} ({{transl|ar|ghūl}}), from {{Lang|ar|غَالَ}} ({{transl|ar|ghāla}}) {{gloss|to seize}}.{{cite book|author=Robert Lebling|title=Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKL3AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT96|date=30 July 2010|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-0-85773-063-3|pages=96–}}"Ghoul, N." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2239227052.{{efn|Earlier etymologies have also suggested the word comes from an Arabic word meaning {{gloss|to kill}}. Scholar Ahmed Al-Rawi writes: "Abū al-Fail Ibn Manūr (1232–1311 C.E.) in Lisān al-‘Arab states that the term 'ghoul' stems from a verbal root 'ghāl' meaning 'to kill', and al-‘Ābād mentions in al-Mu ī fī ’l-Lughah that the term ghoul means 'death' as it is originally derived from the Arabic verb ightāl, which means 'to murder'."}} The term was first used in English literature in 1786 in William Beckford's Orientalist novel Vathek,{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-ghoul.html|title=Ghoul Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about Ghoul|publisher=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=23 March 2011}} which describes the {{transl|ar|ghūl}} of Arabic folklore. This definition of the ghoul has persisted into modern times, with ghouls appearing in popular culture.

In early Arabic, the term is treated as a feminine word. Later, the term became treated as a masculine word, and ghouls became perceived as masculine creatures with Si'lat as feminine counterpart.Jones, Alan. "Early Arabic poetry: select poems." (No Title) (2011) p. 243

In Arabic folklore, the ghul is said to dwell in cemeteries and other uninhabited places. A male ghoul is referred to as ghul while the female is called ghulah.{{Cite book|title=The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings|last=Steiger|first=Brad|author-link=Brad Steiger|publisher=Visible Ink Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-57859-367-5|location=Canton, MI|page=121}} Scholar Dwight F. Reynolds identifies the Arabic ghoul as a female creature – sometimes called "Mother Ghoul" (ʾUmm Ghulah), "Our Aunt Ghoul", or a similar relational term – in tales told to girls and young women. In these tales, the ghoul appears to men as a long-lost female relative or an unassuming old woman; she uses this glamor{{efn|In the older sense of a spell or illusion which makes the user appear fascinating or appealing.“

"Glamour, N." Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, December 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7392208089.}} to lure the hapless characters, who are usually husbands or fathers, into her home, where she can eat them. The male characters' female relatives can often see through the illusion and warn them of the danger; the men survive if they believe the women (and are eaten if they do not).{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Companion to Modern Arab Culture|last=Reynolds|first=Dwight F.|editor1-first=Dwight F|editor1-last=Reynolds|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2015|isbn=978-0-521-89807-2|location=Cambridge|page=260|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-modern-arab-culture/597D82150476C82529398F46BA2B2C32 |doi=10.1017/CCO9781139021708}}

An example of this can be found in a Syrian folktale, The Woodcutter's Wealthy Sister or The Woodcutter's Weary Wife, which was adapted into an animated story in the series Britannica's Tales Around the World. A poor, arrogant and spiteful woodcutter encounters a beautiful, wealthy princess who claims to be his long-lost sister, even though he had no sisters at all. The woodcutter accepts the mysterious princess's invitation to bring him, his abused wife and their numerous children to her palace to live in luxury. However, the wife discovers that the "princess" is in fact a female ghoul (simply referred to as a "monster" in the Britannica adaptation) who is planning to eat the woodcutter and his family. After narrowly escaping the ghoul's attempts to eat them, the wife and her children flee the palace in the night and leave the woodcutter to be devoured by the ghoul.[https://pressbooks.library.upei.ca/artsreview-xii/chapter/woodcutters-weary-wife/ The Woodcutter’s Weary Wife]

The ghoul is said to lure unwary people into the desert wastes or abandoned places to slay and devour them. The creature also preys on young children, drinks blood, steals coins, eats the dead,{{cite web|title=ghoul|website=Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary|url=http://webster.com/dictionary/ghoul|access-date=22 January 2006}} and takes the form of the person most recently eaten. One of the narratives identified a ghoul named Ghul-e Biyaban, a particularly monstrous character believed to be inhabiting the wilderness of Afghanistan and Iran.{{Cite book|title=The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead|last=Melton|first=J Gordon |author-link=J. Gordon Melton |publisher=Visible Ink Press|year=2010|isbn=978-1-57859-281-4|location=Canton, MI|page=[https://archive.org/details/vampirebookencyc00melt/page/291 291]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/vampirebookencyc00melt/page/291}} A hyena who attacked a woman in Mecca in 1667 was referred to by locals as a ghul, possibly due to a perceived similarity to the creature of folklore.{{cite book |last1=Wetmore Jr |first1=Kevin J. |title=Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters |date=16 September 2021 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=978-1-78914-445-1 |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TZCEAAAQBAJ |language=en}}

Al-Dimashqi describes the ghoul as cave-dwelling animals who only leave at night and avoid the light of the sun. They would eat both humans and animals.{{cite book|last=Nünlist|first=Tobias|year=2015|title=Dämonenglaube im Islam|trans-title=Demonic Belief in Islam|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=978-3-110-33168-4|language=de|page=189}}

It was not until Antoine Galland translated One Thousand and One Nights into French that the Western concept of ghouls was introduced into European society. Galland depicted the ghoul as a monstrous creature that dwelled in cemeteries, feasting upon corpses.

In ancient Mesopotamia, there were demonic entities known as Gallu, which scholar Ahmed Al-Rawi believes may have influenced the Arabic ghoul via early contact between Bedouin traders and Akkadians.{{efn|Arab traders have been attested in Mesopotamian cuneiform, and there is evidence of cultural exchange between Arabs and their neighbors.}} The Gallu was an Akkadian underworld demon, associated with the stories of Dumuzid and Inanna.{{cite web|last1=Black|first1=Jeremy|last2=Cunningham|first2=Graham|last3=Flückiger-Hawker|first3=Esther|last4=Robson|first4=Eleanor|last5=Taylor|first5=John|last6=Zólyomi|first6=Gábor|author-link1=Jeremy Black (assyriologist)|author-link4=Eleanor Robson|title=Inana's descent to the netherworld|url=http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr141.htm|website=Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature|publisher=Oxford University|access-date=22 June 2017}}{{Cite journal|last=Al-Rawi |first=Ahmed |title=The Mythical Ghoul in Arabic Culture |url=https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalanalysis/volume8/pdf/ghouls.pdf |journal=Cultural Analysis |volume=8 |pages=45–69 |year=2009 |archive-date=25 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225084402/https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalanalysis/volume8/pdf/ghouls.pdf |url-status=live}}Al-Rawi, Ahmed. Supernatural Creatures in Arabic Literary Tradition. Taylor & Francis, 2023. pp. 19–36.

Ghouls belong to the jinn attested in pre-Islamic Arabic poetry.Jones, Alan. "Early Arabic poetry: select poems." (No Title) (2011). p. 241 A famous poem narrates about a fight between Ta'abbata Sharra and a ghoul.Jones, Alan. "Early Arabic poetry: select poems." (No Title) (2011). p. 241 Belief in ghouls was not universally accepted in Islam, the Mu'tazilites denied their existence.Jones, Alan. "Early Arabic poetry: select poems." (No Title) (2011). p. 241 Al-Jahiz denounced Ta'abbata Sharra for boasting about his victory over the ghoul.Jones, Alan. "Early Arabic poetry: select poems." (No Title) (2011). p. 241

Although not mentioned in the Quran, ghouls appear in hadith. Al-Masudi reports that on his journey to Syria, Umar slew a ghoul with his sword.{{cite book|editor1-last=Böttcher|editor1-first=Annabelle|editor2-last=Krawietz|editor2-first=Birgit|editor1-link=Annabelle Boettcher|editor2-link=Birgit Krawietz|title=Islam, Migration and Jinn: Spiritual Medicine in Muslim Health Management|page=29|year=2021|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|series=The Modern Muslim World|location=Cham|isbn=978-3-030-61246-7|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-61247-4|s2cid=243448335|edition=1st|url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-61247-4|access-date=3 May 2022|issn=2945-6134|language=en-gb}} In one{{which?|date=August 2022}} hadith it is said, lonely travelers can escape a ghoul's attack by reciting the adhan (call to prayer).{{sfn|Böttcher|Krawietz|2021|p=28}} Unlike demons, a ghoul may convert to Islam when reciting the Throne Verse.{{sfn|El-Zein|2009|p=140}}

The ghoul could appear in male and female shape, but usually appeared female to lure male travelers to devour them. According to History of the Prophets and Kings, the rebellious (maradatuhum) among the devils and the ghouls have been chased away to the deserts and mountains and valleys a long time ago.{{cite book|editor1-last=Abedinifard|editor1-first=Mostafa|editor2-last=Azadibougar|editor2-first=Omid|editor3-last=Vafa|editor3-first=Amirhossein|title=Persian literature as world literature|year=2021|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-1-5013-5422-9|page=38|url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/persian-literature-as-world-literature-9781501354229/|access-date=3 May 2022|language=en}} A ghoul is said to have stolen dates from the house of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. When she was caught, she told him that reciting Ayat Al-Kursi will protect his house from devils and other misfortune. In return for this information, he released her. Muhammad told him that the ghoul spoke the truth, although she is a liar. Other Muslim scholars, like Abī al-Sheikh al-Aşbahânī, describe the ghoul as a female jinn that was able to change its shape and appear to travelers in the wilderness to delude and harm.

According to some exegetes of the Quran (tafsir) ghouls are jinn and devils (shayatin) (devils), who were burned when angels threw meteors at them.{{Cite web|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/%e1%b8%a0UL|title=Welcome to Encyclopaedia Iranica|first=Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Foundation|website=iranicaonline.org}}

{{seemain|Ghouls in popular culture}}

The word ghoul entered the English tradition and was further identified as a grave-robbing creature that feeds on dead bodies and children. In the West, ghouls have no specific shape and have been described by Edgar Allan Poe as "neither man nor woman... neither brute nor human."{{cite web|title=Ghoul|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ghoul|website=britannica|date=4 October 2024 }}

File:Weird Tales v10n04 - Pickman's Model.png"]]

In "Pickman's Model", a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, ghouls are members of a subterranean race. Their diet of dead human flesh mutated them into bestial humanoids able to carry on intelligent conversations with the living. The story has ghouls set underground with ghoul tunnels that connect ancient human ruins with deep underworlds. Lovecraft hints that the ghouls emerge in subway tunnels to feed on train wreck victims.{{cite web|last1=Lamb|first1=Robert|title=How Ghouls Work|date=11 October 2011|url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/ghoul.htm}}

Lovecraft's vision of the ghoul, shared by associated authors Clark Ashton-Smith and Robert E. Howard, has heavily influenced the collective idea of the ghoul in American culture. Ghouls as described by Lovecraft are dog-faced and hideous creatures but not necessarily malicious. Though their primary (perhaps only) food source is human flesh, they do not seek out or hunt living people. They are able to travel back and forth through the wall of sleep. This is demonstrated in Lovecraft's "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" in which Randolph Carter encounters Pickman in the dream world after his complete transition into a mature ghoul.

Ghouls in this vein are also changelings in the traditional way. The ghoul parent abducts a human infant and replaces it with one of its own. Ghouls appear entirely human as children but begin to take on the "ghoulish" appearance as they age past adulthood. The fate of the replaced human children is not entirely clear but Pickman offers a clue in the form of a painting depicting mature ghouls as they encourage a human child while it cannibalizes a corpse. This version of the ghoul appears in stories by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Brian Lumley, and Guillermo del Toro.

• Lists of legendary creatures
• {{annotated link|Bogeyman}}
• {{annotated link|Ogre}}
• {{annotated link|Pop (ghost)|Pop}}
• {{annotated link|Preta}}
• {{annotated link|Vrykolakas}}
• {{annotated link|Wendigo}}
• {{annotated link|Jikininki}}
• Ghoul (miniseries)

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Horror fiction}}

{{Fantasy fiction}}

Category:Arabian legendary creatures

Category:Islamic legendary creatures

Category:Jinn

Category:Mythological anthropophages

Category:Mythological monsters