Case file · Cryptid
Ta'abbata Sharran fights the ghoul
The pre-Islamic outlaw poet Ta'abbata Sharran ('he carried evil under his arm') boasted in verse of meeting a ghoul in the desert at night, fighting it and beheading it.
540 CE · 20.00, 41.50 · status: legend
The account
His poem is one of the earliest Arabic sources on the ghul, a shape-shifting desert being that leads travellers astray. One story explains his nickname by a ghoul or snakes he carried home in a sack.
The sceptical view
The poem is a heroic boast; his dates (6th century) and location in the Hejaz/Tihama are approximate.