Qulyabanı
Azerbaijani · numen · Azerbaijani traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Qulyabanı is the wilderness ghoul of Azerbaijani folk demonology, a towering, shaggy-haired being that roams desolate country, cemeteries and lonely roads by night. It leads solitary wayfarers astray, springs onto their shoulders to be carried, and preys on the unwary; some accounts give it reversed feet or the habit of devouring the newly buried. Like the Al demon and the wildman, it can be mastered by ritual means, most often by driving a needle or pin into its head or collar, after which it must serve until the pin is drawn out. Its name and character come directly from the Persian ghūl-e biyābānī, and it overlaps in the popular imagination with the jinn and with the forest wildman Ağac kişi.
Domains
- wilderness and night
- graveyards and roads
Powers
- misleads and rides night travellers
Sources
- Qulyabanı is a tall, hairy wilderness demon of Azerbaijani folklore that haunts deserts, roads and graveyards at night, misleads and burdens travellers, and can be tamed by driving a needle into its head.: Celal Beydili, Türk Mitolojisi Ansiklopedik Sözlük, Ankara, 2005, s.v. 'Gulyabani' (secondary); Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. 'Ḡūl', by Mahmoud Omidsalar (secondary)