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Infolklore, aghoul (fromArabic:غول,ghūl) is ademon-like being ormonstroushumanoid, often associated withgraveyards and the consumption of human flesh. The concept of the ghoul originated inpre-Islamic Arabian religion.[1] Modern fiction often uses the term to label a specific kind of monster.
By extension, the word "ghoul" is also used in a derogatory sense to refer to a person who delights in themacabre or whose occupation directly involves death, such as agravedigger orgraverobber.[2]
The English wordghoul is from theArabicغُول (ghūl), fromغَالَ (ghāla)'to seize'.[3][4][a] The term was first used in English literature in 1786 inWilliam Beckford'sOrientalist novelVathek,[6] which describes theghūl of Arabic folklore. This definition of the ghoul has persisted into modern times, withghouls appearing in popular culture.[2]
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 withSila as feminine counterpart.[7]
In Arabic folklore, theghul is said to dwell incemeteries and other uninhabited places. A male ghoul is referred to asghul while the female is calledghulah.[8] 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 thisglamor[b] 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).[10]
An example of this can be found in aSyrian folktale,The Woodcutter's Wealthy Sister orThe Woodcutter's Weary Wife, which was adapted into an animated story in the seriesBritannica'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.[11]
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,[12] 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 ofAfghanistan andIran.[13] Ahyena who attacked a woman inMecca in 1667 was referred to by locals as aghul, possibly due to a perceived similarity to the creature of folklore.[14]
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.[15]
It was not untilAntoine Galland translatedOne Thousand and One Nights intoFrench that the Western concept of ghouls was introduced into European society.[2] Galland depicted the ghoul as a monstrous creature that dwelled in cemeteries, feasting upon corpses.
In ancientMesopotamia, there were demonic entities known asGallu, which scholar Ahmed Al-Rawi believes may have influenced the Arabic ghoul via early contact betweenBedouin traders andAkkadians.[c] The Gallu was an Akkadian underworld demon, associated with the stories ofDumuzid andInanna.[17][5][16]
Ghouls belong to thejinn attested inpre-Islamic Arabic poetry.[18] A famous poem narrates about a fight betweenTa'abbata Sharra and a ghoul.[18] Belief in ghouls was not universally accepted in Islam; theMu'tazilites denied their existence.[18]Al-Jahiz denounced Ta'abbata Sharra for boasting about his victory over the ghoul.[18]
Although not mentioned in theQuran, ghouls appear inhadith.Al-Masudi reports that on his journey toSyria,Umar slew a ghoul with his sword.[19] In onehadith mentioned byAl-Damīrī,[20] is said, lonely travelers can escape a ghoul's attack by reciting theadhan (call to prayer).[21] Unlike demons, a ghoul mayconvert to Islam when reciting theThrone Verse.[22]
The ghoul could appear in male and female shape, but usually appeared female to lure male travelers to devour them.[19] According toHistory 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.[23]
The word ghoul entered the English tradition and was further identified as a grave-robbing creature that feeds on dead bodies and children. Inthe West, ghouls have no specific shape and have been described byEdgar Allan Poe as "neither man nor woman... neither brute nor human."[24]
In "Pickman's Model", a short story byH. 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.[25]
Lovecraft's vision of the ghoul, shared by associated authorsClark Ashton-Smith andRobert 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 asNeil Gaiman,Brian Lumley, andGuillermo del Toro.
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