Ghoul, Arabic Ghūl, in popular legend, demonic being believed to inhabit burial grounds and other deserted
places. In ancient Arabic folklore, ghūls belonged to a diabolic class of jinn (spirits) and were said to be the offspring of Iblīs, the Muslim prince of darkness. They were capable of constantly changing form, but their presence was always recognizable by their unalterable sign: ass’s hooves.
Considered female by the ancients, the ghūl was often confused with the sílā, also female; the sílā, however, was a witchlike species of jinn, immutable in shape. A ghul is also a desert-dwelling, shapeshifting, evil demon that can assume the guise of an animal, especially a hyena. It lures 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, and eats the dead, then taking the form of the person most recently eaten.
A ghoul may be created by one of two ways; the first being, someone who has been cursed to return after death as a ghoul needing to consume human bodies. Then the more popular belief that the ghoul has sinned some way during it's life, most likely as a prostitute. Ghouls are more intelligent than modern zombies and use trickery and deception to attract victims.
In the Arabic language, the female form is given as ghouleh and the plural is ghilan. In colloquial Arabic, the term is sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.
By extension, the word ghoul is also used in a derogatory sense to refer to a person who delights in the macabre, or whose profession is linked directly to death, such as a gravedigger.
places. In ancient Arabic folklore, ghūls belonged to a diabolic class of jinn (spirits) and were said to be the offspring of Iblīs, the Muslim prince of darkness. They were capable of constantly changing form, but their presence was always recognizable by their unalterable sign: ass’s hooves.
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| Ghouleh, female Ghoul, desert dweller |
A ghoul may be created by one of two ways; the first being, someone who has been cursed to return after death as a ghoul needing to consume human bodies. Then the more popular belief that the ghoul has sinned some way during it's life, most likely as a prostitute. Ghouls are more intelligent than modern zombies and use trickery and deception to attract victims.
In the Arabic language, the female form is given as ghouleh and the plural is ghilan. In colloquial Arabic, the term is sometimes used to describe a greedy or gluttonous individual.
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| Modern Ghoul, zombie-like, in a graveyard |
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