The Ghoul of the Desert
In pre-Islamic Arabic folklore, the ghul (ghoul) is a demonic, shape-shifting creature inhabiting deserts and graveyards. Usually appearing female to lure unwary travelers, the ghul has donkey-like hooves, a feline head, forked tongue, and hairy skin. It calls victims by name in the voice of a loved one, then devours them. The poet Ta'abbata Sharra famously boasted of killing a ghul in single combat. Described by al-Jahiz and in the Arabian Nights, ghouls are a type of jinn that feast on human flesh and corpse meat. The word entered English through William Beckford's 1786 novel Vathek.