2009/11/06 by Ahmed Al-Rawi · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Monster #Islam #Arabic #Order (exchange) #History #Character (mathematics) #Desert (philosophy) #Literature #Ancient history #Art #Art history #Philosophy #Linguistics #Archaeology #Epistemology
paper · doi:10.1080/00155870903219730
openalex publication_date 2009/11/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
As a kind of devilish genie, the ghoul was part of beliefs held by Arabs long before the advent of Islam and was a perceived reality for most people living in Arabia. This paper discusses the nature of the ghoul as depicted in various Arabic sources from the eighth century onwards. Throughout different historical and religious periods, the character of the ghoul remained the same, being represented as an ugly human-like monster that dwelt in the desert and secluded locations, in order to delude travellers by lighting a fire and thus leading them astray. In some cases, this creature was said to have killed travellers. However, when Antoine Galland translated the Arabian Nights into French in the eighteenth century, some features were added to the ghoul in order to intensify its fearful characteristics. For example, Galland emphasised that the ghoul used to dig graves and eat corpses if it needed food, an idea that was never mentioned in any of the Arabic sources. Accordingly, numerous English writers followed Galland's description and further fantasised in their works about the viciousness of this creature.