Nasnas

Common card · No. 391013

In Arab culture, the nasnās (Arabic: نسناس, romanized: nasnās, plural نَسَانِيس nisānīs) is a monopod, a monstrous creature. According to Edward William Lane, the 19th-century translator of One Thousand and One 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". In Somali mythology, there is a similar creature, the xunguruuf (Somali pronunciation: [ħunguruːf]), that can kill a person by just touching them, stripping them of their flesh in mere seconds. It was believed to be the offspring of a jinn called shiqq (الشق) and a human being. Although the nasnās has not been found in any Sunni Islam interpretation of the Quran, they are sometimes mentioned in Shiʿi sources. Mention of the nasnās revolves around Surah 2:30, when God announces to the angels to create humans as a successor on earth. Accordingly, while the angels lived in heaven, jinns and nisānīs lived on earth. After 70,000 years, God lifted the veil...

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