the mythical ghoul in arabic culture

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Mythical Ghoul in Arabic Culture

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Cultural Analysis 8 (2009): 45 - 69

© 2009 by The University of California.

All rights reserved

The Mythical Ghoul in

Arabic Culture

Ahmed Al-Rawi

Rustaq College of Applied Sciences,Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

For a long time, the idea of the ghoul preoccupiedthe lives of many people from different culturesand religions. Though the ghoul has origins asold as the Mesopotamian civilization, Arabs werelargely responsible for popularizing it. BecauseIslam incorporated this being in its doctrine, the

ghoul remained a source of fear and mystery inthe Arab culture.

Peter M. Holt and Ann Katherine argue inThe Cambridge History of Islam that Islamcame about as a ‘revolt’ and as a ‘protest against’the old Arabs’ beliefs, but that it could not changeall their existing convictions. Instead, it ‘inte-

grated’ some old practices like the yearly pilgrim-

age to Mecca (1997, 17). This study argues thatIslam could not change the belief in supernaturalbeings such as genies and ghouls, because theywere an integral part of Arab culture. This essaysheds light on the Arabic origins of the ArabianNights and suggests possible written sources

for some tales as a complement to existing argu-ments that certain tales were orally transmittedand later written down. In relation to the ghoul,the paper also discusses the fact that some Ara-

bian Nights tales contain Islamic elements andmotifs, and feature plots that are clearly similarto older written accounts found in various Arabic

books. This work traces its evolution from the pastto modern times in an attempt to give an overallunderstanding of the ghoul, and an idea of howand why its concept changed from one culture toanother.

The Pre-Islamic Ghoul

The earliest records of Arabs docu-ment their activities in Mesopota-mia, providing evidence that the

nomads of Arabia were always in di-rect contact with the more “advanced”people of Mesopotamia, mainly for thepurpose of trade. This contact producedcultural exchange between the two peo-ples, mostly in terms of life style and bor-rowed words. In ancient Mesopotamia,there was a monster called ‘Gallu’ that

could be regarded as one of the originsof the Arabic ghoul.1 Gallu was an Akka-dian demon of the underworld ‘respon-sible for the abduction of the vegetation-god Damuzi (Tammuz) to the realm ofdeath’ (Lindemans). Since Akkad andSumer were very close to the Arabiandeserts, Arab Bedouins in contact withMesopotamian cultures could have bor-rowed the belief in the ghoul from theAkkadians.

Before discussing different ideasof the ghoul, however, I will examinethe ghoul’s general depiction in a pre-Islamic context to show that the Arabicghoul is older than the religion of Islam.In some old Arabic works written beforeIslam, ghouls were regarded as devil-ish creatures. al-Mas‘ūdī (c. 896- c. 957)referred in Murūj al-Dhahab to the older books written by Ibn ‘Ishqq and WahbIbn al-Munabbih, who tackled the oldBedouins’ myth of creation. Arabs before

Islam believed that when God createdgenies from the gusts of re, He madefrom this type of re their female part, but one of their eggs was split in two.Hence, the Quṭrub,2 which looked like acat, was created. As for the devils, they


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came from another egg and settled inthe seas. Other evil creatures, such as the Mârid,3 inhabited the islands; the ghoulresided in the wilderness; the si‘lwahdwelt in lavatories and waste areas; andthe hâmah4 lived in the air in the form ofa ying snake (1986, 171).

al-Qazwīnī (c.1208-c.1283) men-tioned a different description takenfrom an old Arabic source, which saysthat when the devils wanted to eaves-drop on Heaven, God threw meteors atthem,5 whereupon some were burnt, fell

into the sea and later turned into croco-diles, while others dropped onto theground and changed into ghouls (1980,236). Such descriptions cannot be foundin Islamic texts. For instance, Abū ‘Uth-mân al-Jâhiẓ (c. 775- c. 868), who com-piled many popular beliefs in his bookal-Ḥaywân (The Animal), wrote that com-moners thought that the devil’s eyeswere upright as in images taken from theBedouins (1969, 214), whose ideas livedon for almost two thousand years.

As for popular tales, several sto-ries dealing with the ghoul circulated before Islam. For instance, ‘Umar Binal-Khaṭṭâb (c. 586-644), the second Mus-lim Caliph, was known as the man whokilled a ghoul in the desert when he wastraveling to Syria. After stopping him,the female monster asked the man: ‘Binal-Khaṭṭâb, where are you heading?’The Caliph answered: ‘This is not yourconcern,’ and the ghoul turned its head

completely around in order to frightenhim (Ibn Manẓūr vol. xxvii, 269-70).Knowing the evil intentions of the mon-ster, Bin al-Khaṭṭâb raised his sword andkilled it by striking it between its shoul-der and neck. When he returned to the

same place after few hours, however, hecould not nd the ghoul there (Ibid.).

In addition, Abū Asīd al-Sa‘dī men-tioned the story of Arqam Bin Abū al-Arqam in which a ghoul appeared andkidnapped al-Arqam’s, son who was ona desert journey. The ghoul, disguisedin the form of a woman, carried the boyon its back. When they saw al-Arqam’sfriend, the woman pretended to be the boy’s attendant (al-Wâqidī 1984, 104).This story emphasizes the well-knowndeceitful and wicked character of the

ghoul. In folktales, motif (G443.2) ‘Ogreabducts woman’s children…’ (El-Shamy1995, 149) is similar to the account givenabove. In general, the Pre-Islamic ghoulis known as a devilish female creaturethat intends to inict harm on travelersand is able to change its form. In mostcases, the ghoul is defeated by strikingit with a sword.6 The following sectiondiscusses how the ghoul has been associ-ated with Islamic practices.

The Islamic Ghoul

When Islam rstly spread in the ArabianPeninsula in the seventh century, it suc-ceeded in changing many old customs,such as ending the habit of burying re-cently born baby girls and preventingwomen from marrying more than oneman at a time. It could not, however,change other ideas such as the belief inthe ghoul or the si‘lwah (si‘lah).7 Proph-et Muhammed mentioned the ghoul inseveral of his sayings, but later Muslimscholars had conicting views about theauthenticity of these sayings, as somenegated the ghoul’s existence and othersconrmed it. Despite the rational voicesthat rejected the existence of this mon-


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ster, many Arabs (especially Bedouins)narrated tales and recited poetry thatfeatured or mentioned the ghoul. Sincethis creature originated in the desert, itwas particularly popular there from thepre-Islamic period until present time.However, the legend spread to the Ar-abs’ urban areas and became part of theculture there, which suggests that theBedouins’ beliefs were very inuential,and in some cases formed the very fabricof the Arab society. As mentioned earlier,Holt and Katherine’s argument that Is-

lam could not change all the old beliefsof Arabia is valid in the case of belief inthe ghoul.

Prophet Muhammed himself wassaid, in many instances, to comment onor conrm the existence of ghouls. Forexample, Ismâ‘īl bin ‘Umar Abū al-Fidâ’(?- c. 1372) mentioned in Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr that ghouls were the ‘demons of genies’,and cited the following famous incident:When the Prophet met his companionAbū Dharr in a mosque, the Prophetadvised Abū Dharr to pray in order to be saved from the mischief of the devilsof humans and genies. Abū Dharr wassurprised to hear the Prophet conrmedthe existence of creatures such as these,which the Prophet identied as ghouls(1980, 306-8).

In another anecdote, Abū Ayūb al-Anşârī asked the Prophet’s advice be-cause some ghouls used to eat from hisdates store at night. The Prophet told

him to say the following: ‘In the Nameof God, answer the Prophet of God’.al-Anşârī followed the advice and theghouls promised not to return. The nextday, the Prophet informed the man thatthe ghouls might come back because

they lied. His prediction was accurate.The Prophet then advised al-Anşârī torecite the ‘Âyat al-Kursī’ (Throne verse)from the Holy Quran, which proved to be useful in getting rid of the ghouls(Abū al-Fidâ’ 1980, 306-8; al-Tirmidhīn.d., 158; al-Kūfī 1988, 94; al-‘Asqalânī1959, 159; al-Naysâbūrī n.d., 519). AbuAsīd al-Sa‘dī, another of Prophet Mu-hammed’s companions, had a similar ex-perience (al-‘Asqalânī 1959, 489) thoughin this version the ghouls themselvesgave advice on how to rid humans of

their harm.To sum up, according to the ProphetMuhammed, ghouls are the demons orenchantresses of genies that hurt human beings by eating or spoiling their foodor by frightening travelers when theyare in the wilderness. In order to avoidtheir harm, one can recite a verse fromthe Holy Quran or call for prayer sincethey hate any reference to God.

Other Muslim scholars like Abī

al-Sheikh al-Aşbahânī (c.887-c.979) de-scribed the ghoul or si‘lwah as a kind ofa female demon that was able to changeits shape and appear to travelers in thewilderness to delude and harm them.He narrated the story of Aḥmed al-Dab- bâgh’s father, who went once on a tripand took a risky road that was knownto be frequented by ghouls. After walk-ing for few hours, Aḥmed al-Dabbâgh’sfather saw a woman wearing a raggeddress lying on a bed above hung lan-

terns used to illuminate the place. Whenshe saw him approaching, the womanstarted calling on the man to attracthim; however, he realized that she was aghoul, so he recited the Sūrat Yâsīn fromthe Holy Quran. As a result, the woman


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put out her lantern lights and said: ‘Ohman, what did you do to me?’ Hence, hewas saved from her harm (1987, vol. v,1652) (Motif F491.10) en-Naddâhah ‘theshe-Caller’ was described as a ‘femalespirit who calls people by name andthen leads them astray’) (El-Shamy 1995,130).8

On the other hand, an authenti-cated saying attributed to Prophet Mu-hammed by Abdullah Bin Jâbir statedthat ghouls did not exist: ‘No ghoul, no‘adwâ9 , and no ṭayrrah’10 (Ma’rūf et al.

1993, vol. iv, 251; al-Shawkânī 1973, 373;al-Jawharī 1990, 381). In addition to theghoul, the Prophet negated other falla-cies or old customs like the ‘hâma’11 (al-Ţaḥâwī 1994, 308), ‘banū’12 (al-Qushayrīn.d., 1745; al-Tamīmī 1967, 498), ‘şifr’13 (Ma’rūf et al. 1996, vol. vi, 23) and ‘naw’’14 (al-Qushayrī n.d., 1742).

Though the sayings attributed toProphet Muhammed seem to contradictone another,15 many Muslim scholars

believe that ghouls used to exist beforeIslam. For instance, Abū Asīd al-Sa‘dī(cited above) commented after narratinga story involving a ghoul that ‘ghoulslived at that time [before and at the be-ginning of Islam], but they perishedlater’ (al-Wâqidī 1984, 104). Yūsuf al- anafī shared the same view, stating that‘God could have created this creature, but later He removed its harm from hu-man beings’ (n.d., 268). According to thewritings of these scholars, the Prophet

Muhammed states ghouls no longer ex-ist because God has rid humans of theirmischief.

In brief, Islam tried to direct the peo-ple’s way of thinking to the one omni-present God as the creator and mover of

all things and did not acknowledge thatthere were other forces involved in con-trolling the universe. Conicting viewsabout the existence of ghouls, however,imply that Muslim scholars were stillstruggling to balance the widespreadpopular beliefs taken from Jahiliyya era(before Islam) with the new ideas of theIslamic doctrine. In order to understandthe further inuence of the ghoul on theArab culture, this essay will analyze thepopular beliefs expressed in different books written after the emergence of Is-

lam.

Arabic Culture

Medieval Arabic culture is mainly re-ected in literary works, especially po-etry. However, there were other outlets by which writers expressed their viewsof their culture such as books of history,science, and philosophy. For instance,the Arab encyclopedic writer al-Jâhiẓwrote about the types of animals and

other creatures in al-Ḥaywân. He saidthe ghoul was believed to attract travel-ers by setting re at night; subsequently,the travelers would lose their direction.(Motif G0412.3 ‘Ogre’s (ogress’s) relures person) (El-Shamy 2004, 1073). al- Jâhiẓ elaborated by saying that peopleviewed the ghoul as a type of genie, andthe si‘lwah was the female genie if shedid not change (tataghawal) or become aghoul by deluding travelers. If a geniechanged its shape and harassed travel-

ers, it would become a she-devil or ghoul(1969, 195). In fact, al-Jâhiẓ conrmed thecontinuous belief in the ghoul and addeda strange conviction popular among Ar-abs: the si‘lwah would die only by onemighty blow from the sword because if


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two strikes were directed to it, it wouldnot expire until one thousand blows fol-low (1969, 233 and 235). On the otherhand, Yūsuf Ibn ‘Abdulbâr al-Qurṭubī(c.978- c.1071) considered the abovemen-tioned view one of the Arab Bedouins’legends, and the author harshly criti-cized al-Jâhiẓ for citing such a popular belief and accused him of being ‘foolish’(1982, 177). Nevertheless, this belief waswidespread. The best example is prob-ably the Arabian Nights , which containsmany other popular convictions dating

back to the medieval times (Perho 2004;Shosha 2004). Also, Silvestre de Sacystresses that there are Islamic elementsin the composition of the Arabian Nights(Sadan 2004, 44). When Antoine Gal-land (1646-1715) rst translated the Ara-bian Nights into a European language, hementioned in the preface that the stories‘must be pleasing, because of the accountthey give of the Customs and Mannersof the Eastern Nations’ (1718, ‘Preface’).Furthermore, Lady Mary Wortley Mon-

tagu (1689-1762) compared the strangescenes and items found in Turkey withwhat she read in the ‘Arabian Tales’. Mon-tagu reminded her sister by saying: ‘Youforget… those very tales were written byan author of this country, and (exceptingthe enchantments) are a real represen-tation of the manners here’ (1992, 157).Despite the fact that the Arabian Nights was only a ctitious work, Galland andMontagu considered it an accurate rep-

resentation of the Arabic and Islamic cul-ture instead of viewing it as a receptacleof some popular old beliefs.

Indeed, The Arabian Nights aboundswith references to the ghoul and someof the ideas cited above. For instance,

in Richard Burton’s translation of the‘Story of Prince Sayf Al-Muluk and thePrincess Badi’a Al-Jamal’ in The Thou-sand Nights and a Night , a man and hisfellows were taken by a ghoul to its cave, but they managed to blind its eyes withhot rod and smite it with ‘the sword asingle stroke across his waist’. The ghoulcried out: ‘O man, an thou desire to slayme, strike me a second stroke’. As thisman was about to hit it again, his fel-lowman said: ‘Smite him not a secondtime, for then he will not die, but will

live and destroy us’ (1886-8, vol. 7, 361).This tale corresponds with al-Jâhiẓ’s ac-count of how to kill a ghoul by strikingit once; apparently such a belief had notfaded away from Arabic culture despitethe fact that many centuries elapsed between al-Jâhiẓ’s time and that of theArabian Nights composition. MuhsinMahdī conrms that certain storytellersof the Arabian Nights transformed someanecdotes found in the books of historyinto ction. For instance, al-Mas‘ūdī re-

corded an account similar to the tale of‘The Hunchback and the King of China’in the Arabian Nights (1995, 165-6). Thefollowing tale further suggests the link between factual written accounts andctional tales.

In a story cited by al-Aşbahânī andnarrated by Zaid Bin A’slam, two menfrom Ashjja‘ tribe wanted to provide a bride with her wedding outts, so theywent on a trip to an area where they saw

a lonely woman. Upon seeing them,the woman said: ‘What is your need?’;the men replied, ‘We want to provide a bride with her needs’. The woman saidshe could assist in this business if thetwo men promised to come back to her.


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So they made their promise. When theynished their business, the two men re-turned to the lady. She said: ‘I will fol-low you in your journey’. They madeher ride on one of their camels until theyreached a sand mound where the wom-an stopped and said: ‘I have some busi-ness here’, suggesting that she wantedto relieve herself. Unexpectedly, thewoman remained behind the mound foran hour; thus, one of the two men wentto check, yet he was delayed, too. Whenthe other man climbed the mound and

looked, he was shocked to see that thewoman was lying on the man’s bellyand eating his liver. As a result, the manran as fast as possible to escape fromthis woman, but she glimpsed him andfollowed his trace. After stopping him,she said: ‘What is wrong with you?’; hereplied: ‘There is an iniquitous devilamong us’. Despite the harm she inict-ed on the other man, the woman gaveadvice on how to avoid her mischief bysupplicating and mentioning God. The

moment the man did what he was ad-vised, a re fell from the sky and rippedthe woman in two, so he thanked Godfor killing the si‘lwah (1987, vol. v,1671-2). This tale is somehow similarto the tales of the ‘King’s Son and theOgress’ and ‘The Tale of the King’s Son& the She-Ghoul’ (Haddawy 1992, 42-55) in the Arabian Nights, which fur-ther suggests that some tales in theArabian Nights are more or less derived

from written texts. The idea that ghoulscould be driven away by reciting versesfrom the Holy Quran persisted for along time because it was recommended by the Prophet himself, as previouslyexplained. In fact, such an idea is bor-

rowed from Abū Asīd al-Sa‘dī’s accountand other anecdotes involving theProphet. For instance, Gharib, the char-acter in Richard Burton’s translation ofthe story of ‘The History of Gharib andHis Brother Ajib’ in The Thousand Nightsand a Night , was caught by a ghoul. Hestarted crying God’s name and suppli-cating. As a result, Gharib was able torelease himself from the ghoul’s gripand nally killed it (1886-8, vol. vi, 257-295). The motifs in this tale are similarto those in the one narrated by Aḥmed

al-Dabbâgh’s father cited above, whichgives an idea of the possible source ofthis Arabian Nights tale. In general, themoral of such tales is to show God’s su-premacy, which is far beyond the powerof this naïve monster. In addition, thereis a recurrent notion that ghouls showup along desolate roads asking for help.They usually ask for a ride on a camelor horse with other passengers untilthey reach a proper place to stop andcarry out their hideous plans.

Another popular aspect of the ghoulis the belief that it can change its shape;for instance, Antoine Galland translateda tale from the Arabian Nights entitled‘The Story of the Vizier that was Pun-ished’ (1798, 77-79), in which an ogre,the Western equivalent of the si‘lwah,explains: ‘The Lady was a Hogres, wifeto one of those Savage Demons, calledHogres, who stay in remote places, andmake use of a thousand wiles to surprise

and devour passengers…’ (1798, 78). The portrayal of the ogre in this story isthe typical Arabic cultural concept of theghoul that changes its shape and usually becomes an attractive woman in orderto kill human beings. Again, al-Jâhiẓ


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referred to this trait in the ghoul in his book al-Ḥaywân , as mentioned earlier.

Other fallacies about the ghoul in-clude the belief that it has ‘cloven feetsimilar to that of a goat’, according toal-Mas‘ūdī (1986, 170) or closer to thatof an ‘ass’ (al-Manâwī 1945, 318). Therewas also the cultural practice of hang-ing a paw of a rabbit around one’s neckfor the protection from the offenses ofgenies and the evil res of the si‘lwah(al-Işfahânī 2004, 316-7). Furthermore,Arabs believed that ghouls resided in

islands, for instance, al-A’drīsī (c.1100 –c.1166) mentioned that there was an is-land called ‘the si‘âlī’ (she-ghouls) wherecertain creatures that looked like womenlived, having long fangs and bright eyeslike lightening. There was no difference between the males and females exceptfor their genitals and their dress, whichwas made of tree leaves (1866, 53). Fur-thermore, Ibn Sa‘īd al-Maghribī (c.1213–c.1286) said that there were almost 100small islands called ‘the ghoul’ wherein black naked people lived and spoke anindistinct language (1970, 130). In theArabian Nights , many references to theghoul correspond with the above de-scription. For instance, Lane and Burtonnarrated the ‘Story of Fourth Voyage ofthe Es-Sindibad of the Sea’ (Lane 1865,35-49; Burton 1886-8, vol. vi, 34-48) inwhich Sindibad traveled from Bas-rah and saw many islands, but nearlydrowned when he was shipwrecked.

Sindibad managed to swim with someof his comrades to an island by using aplank from the ship. On the shore, theysaw a high building and walked towardit. Standing near the gate, a group of na-ked savage men ran toward them and

took them all to the King. Those nakedmen were the ‘Magian people’ and theirking was a ‘Ghul’ (1886-8, 36). Whoevercame to their island were required to eata certain kind of food, but unlike his fel-lows, whose minds were ‘stupeed’ and‘state became changed,’ Sindibad couldnot eat. Then Sindibad’s fellows weregiven cocoa-nut oil until they becamevery fat and stupid after which they wereroasted and presented to the King. How-ever, Sindibad succeeded in escaping es-pecially after learning that the Magians

eat raw human esh.Finally, the ghoul was thought tohave magical powers by possessing hu-man bodies. Some Western travelers toArabia in the nineteenth century docu-mented such a popular conviction;16 forexample, in Personal Narrative of a Pil- grimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (1893),Sir Richard Burton pointed out that ArabBedouins followed traditional medicalpractices based on superstitions becausethey interpreted rabies as: ‘a bit of meat[that] falls from the sky, and that a dogeating it becomes mad’. If a man was bit-ten by such a dog, his fellows must ‘shuthim up with food, in a solitary chamber,for four days’; however, if he continued barking like a dog, they would ‘expelthe Ghúl (demon) from him, by pouringover him boiling water mixed with ash-es’ (1893, 389). In other words, the Bed-ouins believed that the ghoul could pos-sess a man’s body and make him mad.

Until this day, many Arabs believe thatgenies can take over a man’s body if hedoes not practice his religion in a properway; hence, violent means are used bythe cleric to exorcize the evil spirit. In herstudy of popular Islam (unorthodox reli-


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gious practices), Gerda Sengers mentionsthe zar as an exorcising ritual well knownin Egypt in modern times. The jinn (ge-nies) and Asyad (demons) are believedto be responsible for ‘clothing’ (possess-ing) ones body, and the main method ofdriving these supernatural beings awayfrom the body is by reciting certainverses from the Holy Quran (2003, 23-4).On the other hand, in Burton’s account,Arab Bedouins think of the ghouls as akind of genie that possesses one’s bodyinstead of being an animal-like creature,

denoting that this monster has retainedits old ethereal character mentioned inIslamic texts.

Apart from the abovementionedtales, many comparisons were made inArabic poetry between ghouls and hu-man beings in order to describe an uglywoman, a forceful man, or an evil trait.For instance, ‘Âşim Bin Kharwa‘ah al-Nahshalī disparaged his wife saying:

She is the ghoul and the devil put

together…,

Whoever accompanies the ghoul andthe devil is depressed,

Even genies seek God’s protectionupon seeing her. (Hâshim 2001, 813)

The ghoul was used in many Arab prov-erbs to denote different meanings; forinstance, it referred to a repulsive hu-man being with a horrible looking face:

‘Uglier than a monkey, uglier than a pig,uglier than a ghoul’ (al-Naysabūrī, 129)or ‘uglier than the devil’, which referredsometimes to the ghoul’s repulsiveness(al-Jawzī 1983, 63). al-Qazwīnī pointedout that Arabs stressed the ghoul’s ugly

features. However, even if they did notsee a ghoul, mentioning its name in po-etry and tales brought fear to listeners(1980, 387).

In brief, the Arabs understood theghoul to be an ugly female demon thatintends to harm travelers and even tokill them in some cases. It has the abilityto change its form and become a beau-tiful woman to attract men or even tomate with them. The ghoul’s descriptionis close to that of a predatory animal thathas fangs and cloven feet, and combines

features of the snake, goat, and ass.Since Islam clearly dictated that its

followers use their rational judgments inassessing matters, there were many Arabwriters, particularly those belongingto al-Mu‘tazilah (Recluses) school, whonegated the very existence of the ghoul because they relied on reason in analyz-ing different cultural and religious is-sues. For instance, al-Jâhiẓ, who was oneof the al-Mu‘tazilah members, offered a

logical explanation for the myth of theghoul. He said that if a man sought soli-tude in the desert, he would be confused,distracted, unfocused, and would startseeing the small thing as huge. He mightalso perceive the invisible, hear the in-audible, and view minute matter as ut-terly magnicent and big (1969, 150).In other words, the desert heat and fearcaused by darkness and loneliness couldmake any man hallucinate and see illu-sions. A young person, for instance, who

grew up with ghoulish stories that werepart of his culture, might go alone to thewilderness at the dead of night and be-come delusional at the sound of the rstowl cries and voice echoes. Sir RichardBurton’s interpretation of the ghoul fell


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along similar lines. In his translation ofthe ‘Story of Fourth voyage of the Es-Sindibad of the Sea’ (1886-8, vol. vi, 34-48) in The Thousand Nights and a Night, Burton explained the word ‘Ghul’ as ‘anogre, a cannibal’ and said: ‘I cannot butregard the “Ghul of the waste” as an em- bodiment of the natural fear and horrorwhich a man feels when he faces a reallydangerous desert’ (1886-8, 36). Finally,Hasan El-Shamy suggests that one’s ‘lifespace’ contains an amalgam of ‘real’ and‘imaginary’ worlds. ‘If a child is told that

wolves swallow “kids” whole and livein old tombs, then as association is es-tablished between wolves and these actsand objects; for the child, this is whatwolves “really” do’ (1999, 7).

al-Jâhiẓ further elaborates by sayingthat after remembering the hallucination,a man would possibly write poetry ornarrate tales about seeing this monster,thus making other people believe in itsreality more than before. If that man wasa natural liar and habitually exagger-ated and overstated matters, he wouldclaim to have seen the ghoul or talkedto the si‘lwah (1969, 150). Others mightpretend that they killed the si‘lwah or ac-companied it or even married it. al-Jâhiẓstressed that some of those liars would be tempted to continue misleading oth-ers if they encountered naïve common-ers who did not question or doubt suchtales and who could not distinguish between reality and fantasy (1969, 151).

Carl von Sydow classies such accountsas memorates because they deal witha belief in superstition like stories ofghosts (Green 1997, 92-3), and El-Shamymentions similar motifs (A2909) ‘Originof jinn [genie]: generated by hallucina-

tion caused by sensory deprivation’ andmotif (F1043.1’) ‘Hallucinatory experi-ences from sensory deprivation’ (1995,58 & 143). In brief, the accounts men-tioned above suggest that human beingsimagine fearful creatures such as geniesand ghouls because of the old fancifulstories they have heard. These super-natural creatures will become more realand will ‘materialize’ when people withfeeble minds are frightened or in a stateof exhaustion.

Furthermore, the Arab philosopher

Abū al-‘Alâ’ al-Ma‘arrī (c.973-c.1057)stated in Risâlat al-Ghufrrân that someArabs ‘lied about the ghoul’ (1988, 244);he stressed that ‘whatever was contraryto reason must be a myth’ (1988, 223)such as the story Ta’abbaṭah Sharran.Another Arab writer who objected tothe popular beliefs in ghoul was al-Jawzī(c.1116-1196). In his book al-A’dhkyâ’ (TheBright Ones) al-Jawzī tells the story of a brave and strong man called al-A’drra‘in the city of Kūfah. al-A’drra‘ heardonce that there was a ghoul near one ofthe remains on the outskirts of the cityand decided to investigate the matter be-cause he believed that ‘the devil and theghoul were only illusions’. After ridingon his horse at night, he suddenly sawa ery creature decreasing and increas-ing in its size. As the horse panicked, theman was forced to walk, and he followedthe trace of re to a cellar located underthe remains. The man felt his way along

the narrow corridors because it was verydark, and when he reached its end, hecaught a person. Astonished, al-A’drra‘found out that the ery shape was onlya black woman, so he swore to kill her ifshe would not speak the truth. Instead,


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the woman asked a question: ‘Are youa genie or a human being? I have neverseen anyone else braver than you!’ Theman discovered that the lady was aslave serving a family in Kūfah who ranaway and stayed in the remains. In or-der to survive, the woman had the ideaof terrifying travelers by using a stick, acandle, and a piece of cloth. She used tohold the candle in one hand and the stickin another and place the piece of clothover the stick. By moving them all, shemanaged to create an illusion of a glitter-

ing indistinct creature. Then she woulddo the same without the stick to foolthe people by showing that the creaturechanged its size. For two decades thewoman was able to use this same trickto frighten travelers, who would throwtheir luggage and run away. After learn-ing her story, the man took the womanto her owners, and travelers were nomore harmed by the alleged ghoul (2001,107).

Finally, ‘Abdul Qâdir al-Baghdâdī(c.1620-c.1682) cited the Arab poet Kâm-il, who wrote: ‘After viewing the fellowsof my age, I found no true friend whocould stand by you at times of need/ Ihave known then that the impossiblematters are three: the ghoul, the phoenix,and a faithful friend’ (1979, 136). Theselines of poetry have become proverbialin Arabic language, which suggests thatmany Arabs believe that the existence ofthe ghoul is a mere illusion. In brief, ra-

tional interpretations of the fallacy of theghoul verify that many Arabs wanted touncover the nature of this monster to en-lighten the people in order that they not be deceived by popular tales.

In addition to the classical descrip-

tion of the ghoul in Arabic culture, thereis another type of ghoul called shiqq.In the following section, I will presentan analytical discussion of this devilish beast because of its importance in under-standing the ‘other side’ of the ghoul.

shiqq

Several Arabic sources referred to theshiqq or nasnâs which literally meant‘half’ and ‘only one half is visible’ (Mar-zolph & Leeuwen 2004, 535). In folktales,the ‘person with half a body’ and the‘one-sided man’ are well-known motifs(F525) and (F525.1) (Thompson 2002; El-Shamy 2004, 163). In pre-Islamic Arabicaccounts, there was the famous storyof ‘Allqumah Bin Şafwân Bin Umayahal-Kinânī who once rode a donkey andwent during a clear night to Mecca. Hereached a place called Yaḥūman17 wherehe met the shiqq carrying a sword;however, they both fell dead at the endof the ght (al-Qazwīnī 1980, 237; al-

Dimīrī 1978, 601-2; al-Jâhiẓ 1969, 206-7;al-Zamakhsharī 1976, 379-80). AfterIslam, the shiqq remained alive in theminds of the people who believed in itsexistence. For instance, al-Jâhiẓ said thatthis creature was known to be ‘a kind ofgenie appearing to travelers to kill themeither by frightening them or by beatingthem’ (1969, 206). However, the shapeof the shiqq was peculiar because it hadonly ‘one eye, one hand, and one leg’. al-Qazwīnī further claried that the shiqq

was ‘a devilish creature which lookedlike a half human’ (1980, 237). In the Ara-bian Nights , ‘The Story of the Sage andthe Scholar’ referred to nasnâs, denotingthat this was a common belief held byArab people.


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In spite of the pre-Islamic origins ofshiqq, Arab Bedouins held this creatureas part of their popular beliefs for manycenturies since Charles Montagu Dough-ty (1843-1926) referred in Travels in ArabiaDeserta (1888) to it. Doughty’s travelingdesert companion mentioned that therewas a genie type with ‘horrible’ looks;‘certain of them have but one eye in themidst of their faces’ (1964, 17). Doughtymet an Arab Bedouin who swore that hesaw a ‘ ghrôl’ or ‘ ghrûl’ in the desert andprovided the following description:

[It had] ‘a cyclops’ eye set in the midstof her human-like head, long beakof jaws, in the ends one or two greatsharp tusks, long neck; her arms likechicken’ edgling wings, the ngersof her hands not divided; the body

big as a camel’s, but in shape as theostrich;18 the sex is only feminine, shehas a foot as the ass’ hoof, and a footas an ostrich. She entices passengers,calling to them over the waste by theirnames, so that they think it is their

own mother’s or their sister’s voice….(1933, 53)

Doughty considered these tales ridicu-lous, saying that ‘no man, but Philemon,lived a day fewer for laughing’ (1933,53) at such stories. Nevertheless, HasanEl-Shamy classied tens of Arab folk -tales that belong to 327B (The Dwarf andthe Giant) in which Nuşş-nuşaiş (Half)and Ḥdaydūn were the main characters(2004, 1001). Also, motif (G415.1) ‘Ogressposes as man’s sister and invites him tolive in her house’ (El-Shamy 2004, 1073)is similar to the account mentionedabove. Again, the legend of the half per-son has not faded away in the popular

imagination, though the one mentionedin folktales is rather friendly and carrieshuman features unlike the devilish shiqqor nasnâs.19

To sum up, the ghoul is very pop-ular in the oral tales of Arab Bedouins.As a proof, Western travelers who vis-ited the Arab region in the eighteenthand nineteenth centuries referred to thismonster mainly when they encounteredthe Bedouins. However, when AntoineGalland translated the Arabian Nights inthe eighteenth century, he claimed that

the ghoul mentioned was of Arabic ori-gin (Al-Rawi 2009). The following sec-tion discusses the way Galland changedperceptions of the ghoul in the West byattributing it to the Arabic culture.

Galland’s Contribution

In his translation of the Arabian Nights ,Galland tried to give an authentic ren-dition of the Arabic work, but he devi-ated several times by deleting and add-

ing many details. Among the details heintroduced about the ghoul, one can befound in volume 11 in ‘The Story of SidiNouman’ (1798, 78-9). Galland men-tioned that ghouls were male monstersthat in ‘want of prey, will sometimes goin the night into burying grounds, andfeed upon dead bodies that have been buried there’ (1798, 81). In addition, heintroduced the morbid character of Am-ina. Though she was newly wed, Ami-na preferred to accompany the ghoulsin the graveyard at night. In the Arabicculture of the time, no such characterexisted, which indicates the liberty thisFrench translator took in his translation(Al-Rawi 2009). According to the Ox-


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ford English Dictionary , the word ‘ghoul’nowadays means an ‘evil spirit supposed(in Muslim countries) to rob graves andprey on human corpses’ (1989). This in-accuracy is clearly an effect of Galland’stranslation, which was not a faithful ren-dition of the Arabic original word (Al-Rawi 2009). Unfortunately, other worksfollowed Galland’s new description ofthe ghoul without further inquiry. Forinstance, the famous orientalist WilliamLane (1801-1876) suggested the ghoul‘applied to any cannibal’, as a creature

that ‘appear[ed] in the forms of variousanimals, and in many monstrous shapes’so as to ‘haunt burial-grounds and othersequestered spots; [and]… feed upondead human bodies’ (1987, 42; 1860, 227).This description corresponded with Gal-land’s account. Lane did not cite anyArabic reference to support his claim;instead, he referred to Galland’s trans-lation of the Arabian Nights rather thanoriginal Arabic sources. Lane also con-tradicted his own work because he nev-

er described the ghoul in such a mannerin his book An Arabic-English Lexicon, inwhich numerous Arabic references wereused (1980, 2311).20

Furthermore, in his classication ofArab folktales, Hasan El-Shamy men-tioned motif G20 ‘Ghouls. Persons eatcorpses’ and its subtypes by referring toVictor Chauvin (1995, vol. i, 144). How-ever, the latter only cited Galland’s ‘SidiNouman’ tale as evidence of his claim

(1902, vol. vi, 198). As in Lane’s case,Chauvin and subsequently El-Shamydepended on Galland’s ghoul. Ultimate-ly, Galland embellished the ghoul with anew feature that became a standard de-scription of this creature in the West.

In an attempt to investigate the ori-gins of Galland’s idea of the ghoul thatdigs graves and eats corpses in Arabicsources, it is necessary to compare hisdescription with some Arabic referencesto a certain animal that has similar char-acteristics. In old Arabic writings, theonly account similar to Galland’s ghoulis found in the popular description of thehyena. al-Dimīrī (c. 1341-c.1404) men-tions that hyenas ‘are fond of digginggraves due to their great appetite foreating human esh’21 (1978, vol. i, 641).

Also, al-‘Aişâmī (? –c. 1699) cited anec-dotal evidence of an event that occurredin Mecca in 1667, in which a hyena-likeanimal came close to an ass, so somemen traced it. The animal ran to a near- by house and injured the woman liv-ing there. As a result, the men killed theanimal and called it ‘ghoul’ because theydid not know what it was (2007, vol. iii,51). This tale suggests the proximity withwhich people viewed the two creatures.Furthermore, J. E. Hanauer documented

several stories about the superstitious beliefs in animals among Jews, Chris-tians, and Muslims during his journey toPalestine in the late 19th century. Accord-ing to the Arab belief, if the hyena is ‘notcontent with digging up and devouringdead bodies’, it would ‘often bewitch…the living and lures them to [its] den’,and it is believed to appear to ‘the soli-tary wayfarer, rub against him endear-ingly and then run on ahead’. According

to Hanauer, this person becomes, ‘in-stantly bewitched’ and would follow thehyena ‘as fast as he can till he gets intothe beast’s den and is devoured’ (1907,271). In folktales, Muhawi and Kanaana believe that the hyena is ‘traditionally


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linked with supernatural forces, its ef-fect on human beings being consideredsimilar to that of possession by the jinn’(1989, 43). Also, El-Shamy classies mo-tif (B14.5) ‘Ghoul (ogre) as hybrid of jin-niyyah and hyena’ (1995, 104) which cor-responds with the idea cited above. Asthe hyena is well known to eat carcassesand produce some semi-human soundslike crying and laughter, it can be eas-ily confused with the ghoul. The abovementioned accounts are almost identicalwith the description of Galland’s ghoul

since he could have heard a similar ac-count from Arab friend, Ḥannâ Dhiyâbwho inspired the orphan tales in the Ara-bian Nights , or read somewhere about the belief in hyenas in the Arab world andapplied such a description to the ghoul.In Arabic culture, the ghoul is still alive,making its appearance in its differentspectrums and retaining its old features,as discussed below.

The Ghoul TodayThe belief in the mythical ghoul is stillwidely spread in the Arab world up tothis day, particularly among elderlypeople. In almost all Arab countries, theghoul is viewed as a monster that eatshuman beings and is used as a meansof instilling fear inside children’s hearts.Many modern stories rewritten andadapted from old Arabic folktales dealwith this monster, whose description re-sembles the one mentioned in this work.

For example, the Palestinian writer, Amīlabībī, published a story called SarâyâBint al-Ghoul dealing with a girl calledSarâyâ who was kidnapped by a ghouland was imprisoned in his palace. Later,her cousin searched for her and man-

aged to rescue her (Motif G0440.1 ‘ogreabducts woman (maiden)’ and motifG0500 ‘Ogre defeated’) (El-Shamy 2004,1073 & 1074). Another Palestinian, Jamīlal-Salḥūt, published a story for chil-dren called al-Ghoul portraying a smallgirl called Khadījah who dreamt of theghoul after hearing its horrible descrip-tion from her grandmother, so she uri-nated while asleep due to her excessivefear. When she narrated the dream toher teacher at school, the grandmotherwas criticized for narrating such old leg-

ends. Furthermore, the famous Egyptianlm actor ‘Âdil Imâm starred in al-Ghoul (1981) in which he appeared as a jour-nalist trying to discover the truth abouta fearful and cruel tycoon who harmedpeople and exploited them. The ghoulin this lm referred to a hideous persondue to his ugly behavior, as is the casein old Arabic proverbs. In the followingsection, a more empirical discussion ofthe ghoul is made in an attempt to un-derstand how this creature came to exist

in Arab people’s lives.

Alternate Account

In view of the details given earlier, ghoulscan merely be real human beings carry-ing birth defects. The mouth of the ghoulis believed to have the shape of a cat’s, orwhat is now medically called a ‘cleft lip’and ‘cleft palate’. In addition, a ghoul isthought to have deformed legs or handsthat look like that of an ass which is

medically called ‘ankylodactylia’, and ithas hair covering a great deal of its body.In fact, many children around the worldare born with such defects every yeardue to environmental factors and ge-netic aws (Carinci et al. 2007, 2). If one


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takes into account the fact that pregnantwomen in the desert lack basic nutritiousfood and that Arabs, until this very day,commonly practice intermarriage withintheir tribes over many generations, onecan conclude that the ghoul is a childwith serious birth defects. After giving birth, the mother might be forced to partwith her child due to his/her congenital birth deformities. As a result, the childwould be ostracized from his/her tribeand would seek the desert as a refuge be-cause superstitions played an important

role in the lives of Arabs before Islam.22

Hence, the Arabic stories that mentioneda marriage taking place between a hu-man being and a si‘alwah can be true inview of the above mentioned assump-tion. In brief, the ghoul could be a realhuman being born with severe birth de-fects, compelling him/her to reside inthe wilderness to avoid other humanswho would naturally loathe and fearhorrendous and ugly creatures.

Conclusion

The mythical ghoul of Arabia has preoc-cupied the Arabs for several centuriesand will certainly remain a source of in-spiration for some writers and a cause offear for many children. One of the mainreasons behind its fearful character is itsmysterious nature since there is no uni-ed agreement about its features; theghoul is thought to be a kind of devil,genie, enchantress of genies, devilish ge-

nie, and spirit. However, most accountsmention this monster as an ugly andharmful female creature. In all cases, the belief in such a supernatural being is stillsolid mainly among uneducated peoplewho are plagued by ghoulish tales from

their early childhood until their death.What is striking is that the ghoul refusesto fade away from the imagination ofsome people regardless of the great pas-sage of time and the various cultures andreligions it has encountered.

Notes

1. There are plenty of Arabic words whoseorigins are derived from the old languagesof Mesopotamia. For instance, the Arabicword ‘harem’ that is associated with women

stems from the Akkadian word ‘Harimtu’which means ‘sacred prostitute dedicatedto the godhead’ The ending ‘u’ is usual insuch an old language that was deleted inArabic. As for Ghoul, the Arabic root of theword is ‘ghâl’ which means ‘kill’; hence,the Akkadian word ‘Gallu’ explains theetymological connection.2. According to Ibn Durayd (838-933), theQuṭrub is the male ghoul (1987, 1121).3. The Mârid is a type of a devil whose namemeans ‘rebel’ because it has rebelled againstGod (al-Zubaydī 1998, 165).4. For the detailed meaning of hâmah , seenote (11).5. The Holy Quran contains a verse that de-scribes the devils eavesdropping on Heav-en in order to overhear God’s angels; thus,meteors are thrown at them (al-Şâfât (7-10)446).6. The most famous story was that of theArab poet Thâbit Bin Jâbir Bin Sufyân orTa’abbaṭah Sharran who saw a ghoul in theshape of a ram (al-Işfahânī 1983, 144). Formore details, see Aḥmed K. Al-Râwī’s ‘The

Arabic Ghoul and its Western Transforma-tion’, Folklore , Vol. 120 , Issue 3 (December2009): 291 – 306.7. The two words are used interchangeablyto refer to the same creature; however, thesi‘lwah or si‘lah is always feminine.8. The Western beliefs in the spirits of the


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wilderness, Joan the Wad, Jack o’ the lantern,and will-o’-the-wisp are similar to the de-

scription of this ghoul.9. ‘adwâ or infection here means transmis-sion of diseases. Before Islam, Arabs thoughtthat the mythical animal şifr could be trans-mitted like a disease from one person toanother (al-Nawawī 1971, vol. xiv, 215; ‘Ab-dulwahâb n.d., 373). The other interpreta-tion, according to al-Nawawī, was that theProphet stressed that diseases could not betransmitted to other people without God’swill (1971, vol. vi, 325).10. Arabs before Islam used to believe intaṭayur or portents. If any traveler attemptsto leave somewhere, he/she has to check thesigns by letting a bird y before the journeytakes place. If it goes to the right side, it is agood herald, whereas the left side is a badomen, so the traveler must postpone thewhole trip.11. Before Islam, Arabs believed that thepredatory bird hâmah or the owl had a very

bad omen. If such a bird dies near someone’shouse, the house’s owner should expect thatone of the residents will die. In addition, Ar-abs believed that the bones of the deceased

or their souls would turn later into predatory birds as one way of incarnation; as a result,the Prophet emphasized the falsity of themythical basis of such a belief (al-Nawawī1971, vol. xiv, 215; al-Mâlikī 1994, 342; ‘Ab-dulwahâb n.d., 378; al-Dimīrī 1978, vol. i,226). Until this day, the owl is viewed as a badomen by many Arabs. In addition, the hâmah was believed to be a worm leaving a man’sskull if he was killed without being avenged.It would circle around the man’s tomb say-ing: ‘water me’, asking for vengeance. Jewsin Arabia used to think that the hâmah would

circle round a man’s tomb for seven days before departing (‘Abdulwahâb n.d., 379).Hasan El-Shamy assigns for the hâmah motif(E0451.9.1) ‘hâmah ceases to appear when re-venge is accomplished’ and motif (E0473.2)‘ghost of murdered person in owl-form that

cries for revenge’ (2008, 114), but he classiesthe hâmah as part of the ‘Soul’ or ‘Self’ section

instead of being a subheading of ‘ZoologicalSupernatural Beings’ since the hâmah was be-lieved to be an animal-like creature.12.banū meant pain in the stomach thatcould infect other people (al-Tamīmī 1967,199; al-Sajistânī n.d., 520), and sometimes itwould infect livestock cattle (‘Abdulwahâbn.d., 379). Furthermore, it was believed to bethe other name of şifr , which was one of themonths in the Islamic calendar. Though Ar-abs believed that there were sacred monthsduring which ghting was prohibited, someused to change the rules of war each year.They would sanction the war once but mightallow it the next year according to their in-terests. The Prophet banned this practice(al-Tamīmī, 197-8). In addition, al-Sajistânīmentioned a third explanation of the word‘banū’ saying that Arabs used to regard şifr as an ill-omened month and the Prophet cor-rected that view (n.d., 18).13. Abū Sâdât al-Jazrī (c.1149 –c.1209) men-tioned that şifr was a kind of a serpent thatinhabited the stomach and used to sting aman when he felt hungry (1979, 35). In this

way, Arabs explained hunger pangs as şifr stinging them. In folktales, El-Shamy classi-es a similar motif (G328.1) as a ‘serpent in-side man’s body eats all his food’ (1995, 148).In fact, şifr can be simply a tapeworm, a kindof helminthiasis, that usually infects, due tocontaminated water or food, the digestivetracts of human beings, wherein it grows ra-pidly and reaches sometimes several metersin size.14.naw’ was the old belief that meteors or‘falling stars’ would certainly bring rain. TheProphet emphasized that the falling stars

had no effect, but it was God’s will that could bring rain and generate the wind (al-Ţabarī1984, 208).15. Other Muslim scholars believed thatprophet Muhammed did not negate the ex-istence of ghouls; instead, he only said that


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they had no power to change their shapes(al-Kūfī 1988, 311; al-Nawawī 1971, vol. xiv,

217; al-Sīūṭī 1996, 239; al-‘Asqalânī 1959, 159;al-‘Abbâdī 1994, 292). al-Burrūsī (?- c.1918)elaborated by saying that ghouls could notdelude people or change their visages, butthe enchantresses of genies, the si‘lwah,could if it encountered genies (1911, vol. iv,450).16. In Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, DonaldA. Mackenzie described the widespread be-lief in Babylonia that some sick people werethought to be possessed by a devilish crea-ture. ‘It had therefore to be expelled by per-forming a magical ceremony and repeatinga magical formula. The demon was eitherdriven or enticed away’ (1910, 234).17. al-Jâhiż said that the place was calledazmân wall instead of Yaḥūmân.18. al-Qazwīnī referred to another devi-lish creature called Dilhâb that appeared inthe shape of a human riding on an ostrich.It lived in sea islands and ate outcasts whowere driven by the sea after being shipwrec-ked. Also, it was reputed to have a shrill crythat would make any person faint upon hea-ring it (1980, 237).

19. Surprisingly, the Swiss psychologist CarlG. Jung (1875-1961) reported during thesummer of 1920 that while he was stayingin an old farmhouse in Buckinghamshirethat he saw a weird creature appearing, par-ticularly at night. Aside from the other de-scriptions given, Jung stated: ‘[I] opened myeyes. There, beside me on the pillow, I sawthe head of an old woman, and the right eye,wide open, glared at me. The left half of theface was missing below the eye. The sight ofit was so sudden and unexpected that I leaptout of bed with one bound, lit the candle, and

spent the rest of the night in an armchair’(1977, 323-4). Similar to al-Jâḥiż and Burton’sexplanations of the ghoul’s existence, Junginterpreted this apparition as a hallucinatoryexperience due to exhaustion, fear, and recal-ling memories of a particular lady. Jung com-

mented on the sounds he heard in the roomsaying that they were ‘probably not objective

noises, but noises in the ear which seemed tome occurring objectively in the room. In mypeculiar hypnoid state, they appeared exag-geratedly loud… My torpor was associatedwith an inner excitation probably correspon-ding to fear’ (1977, 325).20. Lane referred in Manners and Customs ofthe Modern Egyptians and Arabian Society inthe Middle Ages to the Arabs’ superstitious be-lief in ‘Ghools’, ‘Seąláh’, or ‘Saąláh’ and saidthat there was no foundation in their belief.In a chapter called ‘Demonology’ in ArabianSociety , Lane said at the end: ‘I must beg thereader to remark that the superstitious fan-cies which it describes are prevalent amongall classes of the Arabs, and the Muslims ingeneral, learned as well as vulgar’ (1987,46). Lane’s observation could be partly right

because he wrote his works at a time whenthe majority of the people were uneducated,and the Bedouins’ tribal customs and beliefswere widely spread in the society due tomany centuries of regression.21. al-Dimīrī further says that Arabs makecomparisons between humans and hyenas

to refer to ‘an ugly looking woman from de- based origins or an old witch’ (1978, 644).22. In medieval Europe, a child born withmental or physical disorder was mainly‘viewed as evil’. For instance, when Mar-tin Luther heard about such a child, herecommended that he ‘be disposed of bydrowning’ (Eberly 1991, 228 & 231). In a re-cent medical study conducted on Nigerianwomen giving birth to children sufferingfrom cleft lips and palate, seven out of six-teen women interviewed from the Yorubaethnic group believed that ‘evil spirits’ were

behind their children birth defects. Eight ofthose women considered spiritual healingthe only method of treatment (Olasoji et al.

2007, 304).


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Ma’rūf, Bashâr; al-Nūri, Abū al-Ma‘âṭī;al-Zâmilī, Aymen; ‘Ayed,Aḥmed; Khalīl, Maḥmūd (eds.).1993. al-Masnad al-Jâmi‘ , vol. iv.Beirut: Dâr al-Jīl.

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Ahmed Al-Rawi

Aref Abu-Rabia

Ben-Gurion UniversityIsrael

This article will contribute signi-cantly to the study of the Arabculture and will be of immeasur-able value to scholars in the elds offolklore, sociology and anthropology.It is an overall understanding of theghoul and traces its evolution from the

past to modern times in an attempt togive an idea of how and why its conceptchanged from one culture to another.The article adeptly deals with mythicalgure of the ghoul in Arab cultural andliterary life since the Jahiliyya until themodern period. The author correctlymaintains that this mythical gure willcertainly remain a source of inspirationfor some writers and a cause of fear formany children (and adults). I would liketo stress here that even modernist and

avant-garde Arab writers utilized (andindeed, still utilize) the ghoul in their lit-erary and poetic works in order to con-vey their political and social message ina hidden and sophisticated manner.

This is brilliantly evident in thewritings of the prominent Palestiniannovelist, Emil Habibi (1922-1996), inwhich the collective Palestinian cultureis inscribed as much in the naturalisticaccount of mundane events as in the

ight into fantasy and imagination.In his Sarâyâ bint al-Ghoul (Sarâyâ theGhoul’s Daughter, 1992), an impression-istic semi-autobiography, Habibi evokesthe image of the Palestinian fairy-taleheroine Saraya, a mystical gure which

captivates the narrator imagination. Hisquest takes him into Arab myth, his ownpersonal past and the collective psycheof the Palestinians. By using a networkof inter-textual references to the imageof the Ghoul in Arabic culture, Sarâyâ becomes an allegory to the lost Palestin-ian identity and the author’s yearningto his childhood.

Indeed, the article’s conclusion thatthe ghoul refuses to fade away from theimagination of some people regardlessof the great passage of time nds in

Habibi’s (and other Arab writers’) liter-ary works a striking validation.According to popular belief in the

Middle East, the ghouls approachesmen, women and adult children andthen kill them. One of the arguments, inthis paper is that Islam could not changeall the old beliefs of Arabs when onethinks of the ghoul. Although ProphetMuhammad mentioned the ghoul inseveral of his sayings, but later Muslim

scholars had conicting views about theauthenticity of these sayings as somenegated the ghoul’s existence and oth-ers conrmed it. At any case, Arabsare practicing some methods in orderto ward off the ghoul: one should sayloudly the name of God- Allah, or bismAllah al-Raman al-Rahim. It is worthnoting that the Qur’an refers to the attri- butes of God as God’s “most beautifulnames” (al-asmā’ al-ḥusnā ), they are tra-ditionally enumerated as 99 in number.

Some of the folk say phrases from theHoly Quran, mainly ayat al-Kursi:

“Allah! There is no god but He, theLiving, the Self-subsisting, Eternal.No slumber can seize Him nor sleep.

Responses


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His are all things in the heavens andon earth. Who is there can inter-

cede in His presence except as Hepermitteth? He knoweth what (ap-peareth to His creatures as) before orafter or Behind them. Nor shall theycompass aught of His knowledgeexcept as He willeth. His Thronedoth extend over the heavens andthe earth, and He feeleth no fatiguein guarding and preserving them forHe is the Most High, the Supreme (inglory)” (Quran 2:255).

Doctrinal Islam and Folk Islam

Amira El-Zein

Georgetown University

USA

Ahmed al-Rawi argues at the beginning of his article that“Because Islam incorporatedthis being in its doctrine, the ghoul re-mained a source of fear and mystery inthe Arab culture”. Al-Rawi erects his

whole article on the basis of incorrectcontention for which he fails to provideany support. To be “incorporated…in its doc-trine” as the author claims, the ghoulshould have been mentioned in the of-cial source of Islam, the Qur’an. Thisis not the case. The jinn and two of theirsub-species, namely marid and ifrit, arethe only kinds of spiritual entities men-tioned in the Qur’an. Thus, althoughthe belief in the concept of the jinn is notone of the ve tenets of Islam, Islamicdoctrine requires belief in their exis-tence. This, however, is not the case forthe ghoul. As for the Hadith (the Prophet’sacts and sayings) , those that pertain tothe ghoul are problematic and unreli-able, which the author acknowledges.Also, the Hadith is not sacred in thesame way as the Qur’an. The latter isthe Word of God per se for Muslims, but

the Hadith is not. It remains the wordsof a human being, even if that human being is a prophet. The only thing thatis truly central in the faith of a Muslimis the belief in the words of the Qur’an.Thus, if the ghoul is not mentioned in


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Ahmed Al-Rawi

the Qur’an and the references in the Ha-dith are questionable and contradictory,how can it be considered doctrine? This misapprehension is a result ofthe author’s greater confusion betweenArabic folklore and Islamic doctrine.The ghoul belongs to Arabic folklore, both Muslim and Christian , and thus isnot specic to either doctrinal Islam orIslamic culture in general. A lot of themedieval Arabic sources that the authormentions are simply compendiums ofanecdotes, stories, and citations from

previous sources. They do not belong tofolk Islam per se , but neither do they be-long to doctrinal Islam. Furthermore, al-Rawi misinterpretsthe most important text of Arabic folk-lore, namely, the Arabian Nights. Let meoffer the following four points. First, herefers to Silvestre de Sacy to contendthat “there are Islamic elements in thecomposition of the Arabian Nights”. Butsince Nights was written in the Islamic

empire between the ninth and eigh-teenth centuries, it is a truism to assertthat they contain Islamic elements andthat they have “elements going back tomedieval times,” as the author writes.

Second, the author should have usedmore recent scholarship to conrm theIslamic identity of the Arabian Nightsrather than depending on the opinionsof Europeans, such as Silvestre de Sacy,who wrote centuries ago. Along thesame lines, one wonders why the he

didn’t use the more recent translation ofthe Nights by Husain Haddawy (1990) instead of the outdated translation byRichard Burton (1886-1888)? In fact, al-Rawi’s article is lled withreferences to the Orientalist corpus in-

cluding works by Richard Burton, An-toine Galland, and Silvestre de Sacy.Instead of revisiting or questioning theOrientalists’ contentions on ghouls,however, he simply takes them for grant-ed, and even follows in their footsteps.As a third point, I would like to closelyfollow al-Rawi’s text to illustrate someof the ways in which it simply re-hashesOrientalist views. To begin the sectionentitled “Arabic Culture” he writes:

When Antoine Galland (1646-1715)

rst translated the Arabian Nights intoa European language, he mentionedin the preface that the stories ‘must bepleasing, because of the account theygive of the Customs and Manners ofthe Eastern Nations’ (1718, ‘Preface’).

Here, the author accepts Galland’s as-sertions without probing them. Is ittrue that the Nights’ stories give an “ac-count…of the Customs and Manners ofthe Eastern Nations”? (ibid). Shouldn’t

al-Rawi scrutinize Galland’s assump-tions? How could these folk tales be rep-resentative of the manners and customsof various whole nations? Isn’t Gallandgeneralizing about the East? What didGalland know about the customs andmanners of the East? He never trav-eled to any Arab country. It was fromhis desk in Paris that he wrote aboutthe East. His only contact was an ArabChristian from Aleppo who happenedto be in Paris at that time.

Al-Rawi, however, is not satisedwith just one example form the Orien-talist corpus. After Galland he cites LadyMary Wortley Montagu, de Sacy andBurton all of whom, he believes, wereaccurate in their interpretations of Arabsuperstitions.


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He seems to be unaware of the dan-gers of accepting the opinions of otherswithout scrutinizing them. He seems tocompletely ignore the groundbreakingwork of the late Edward Said, preciselyentitled Orientalism (1978), which hasforcefully demonstrated how the sameOrientalist writers that al-Rawi cites inhis article created a hegemonic discoursethat de-valued rich and fundamentalcultures, peoples, and religions into anarray of demeaning stereotypes. His incorporation of these sources

is not supercial; it is an outgrowth ofhis basic methodology. Throughoutthe article al-Rawi proceeds in a simi-lar manner, rst citing a Western sourceand then compiling anecdotes from Ar-abic sources in order to prove that theWestern source is correct. This lack ofa critical stance toward sources is rifethroughout the piece. For example, hewrites:

Peter M. Holt and Ann Katherine ar-

gue in The Cambridge History of Islam that Islam came about as a ‘revolt’and as a ‘protest against’ the oldArabs’ beliefs, but that it could notchange all their existing convictions.Instead, it ‘integrated’ some old prac-tices like the yearly pilgrimage toMecca (1997, 17). This study arguesthat Islam could not change the beliefin supernatural beings such as geniesand ghouls, because they were an in-tegral part of Arab culture.

But Holt and Katherine’s assertiondeserves some analysis. Is it true thatIslam couldn’t change old customs andthus integrate them? Most importantly,why did Islam keep some of these

customs and reject others? What are thearguments used by these two scholarsto convince us that Islam integrated theghoul in its beliefs? What are the sourcesthey used to back up their thesis? Inkeeping with his awed methodology,the al-Rawi again merely cites a fewstories from the Arabic corpus and thenquickly concludes that, “As mentionedearlier, Holt and Katherine’s argumentthat Islam could not change all the old beliefs of Arabia is valid in the case of belief in the ghoul”.

Fourth, in addition to al-Rawi’s un-critical acceptance of Western sources,he also asserts that, “The followingtale further suggests the link betweenfactual written accounts and ctionaltales”. But, this statement shows a mis-understanding of folkloric texts, suchas the Nights , which went through a lotof variation during their circulation. Itis almost impossible to say that a tale“suggests a link between factual writ-ten account and ctional tales” becausethe tales of the Nights were written overa period of almost eight centuries andkept changing form and content untilprinting appeared in the Arab world.The tales of the Nights were trans-formed through time by the narrativeoral act and thus could not possibly ac-curately reect factual accounts.

Works CitedHaddawy, Husain, trans. 1990. The

Arabian Nights, Norton CriticalEditions. Mushin Mahdi, ed.New York: W. W. Norton &Company.

Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. NewYork: Pantheon Books.

the mythical ghoul in arabic culture

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