Arabic-L:GEN:Comments on ghoul

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 30 Jan 2001
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: Comments on ghoul

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1)
Date: 30 Jan 2001
From: mughazy <mughazy at students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Comments on ghoul

Having read all these insightful comments about the ghoul, I could not help
but post these comments.
(1) The ghoul is a mythical character that was frequently mentioned and
described in the Arab Nights. It is a dark furry giant with one big red eye in
the middle of its head, and it has goat-like legs with hoofs i.e., some sort
of a Cyclope adapted from Greek mythology.
(2) The term ghoul applies only to the male members of this species. I can not
remember the word for the female ones, but I will look it up (it is a frequent
question in the crossword puzzle in el-akhbar newspaper). Therefore, ummina
el-ghoula is an Egyptian adaptation just like the story of esh-shaTer Hassan.
These stories or fairy tales differ from one community to the other because of
their oral nature and susceptibility to change.
(3) The concepts of the ghoul and ummina elghoula function in certain
sub-cultures in Egypt as a way of disciplining children (something to fear).
These include el-3askary (the cop), abu regl maslukha (the man with skinned
legs), el-3aw, which is an imaginary very fierce dog-like animal, and recently
el-ashkeef among others.

I hope that helps.

Mustafa A. Mughazy
Graduate student
Depatment of Linguistics
University of Illinois
Urbana Champaign

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End of Arabic-L: 30 Jan 2001