A nasnas is a monstrous creature in Arabian mythology.
Description
According to Edward Lane, the 19th century translator of The Arabian Nights, a nasnas is "half a human being; having half a head, half a body, one arm, one leg, with which it hops with much agility".
Origin
Nasnas was believed to be the offspring of a demon called a Shikk and a human being.
Art/Fiction
A character in The Story of the Sage and the Scholar, a tale from the collection, is turned into a nasnas after a magician applies kohl to one of his eyes. The nasnas is mentioned in Gustave Flaubert's The Temptation of Saint Anthony.
See also
Sources
- Robert Irwin The Arabian Nights: a Companion (Penguin, 1994)
- Jorge Luis Borges The Book of Imaginary Beasts (Penguin, 1974)