*********************************************************** A starting-point for research into Arabic traditions of male-male erotic/sensual/sexual relationships. ************************************************************* Version 1, May 1995. @nticopyright - please freely distribute this text This is just a compilation of information I've had lying around. I put some of it together in a letter for a fellow scholar, then thought it should be worked up into a short resource guide. It reflects my interests in literature and poetry. I'm not an Arabist, so this isn't comprehensive, and is just meant as a 'launch-pad' for those unfamiliar with the subject and who can't read arabic... Contact: ianthe@duende.demon.co.uk ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ **The work of NORMAN ROTH is well worth following... Roth, Norman. Deal Gently With The Young Man - love of boys in Medieval Hebrew Poetry of Spain. SPECULUM, 57, 1982. pp.20-51 Roth, Norman. "My Beloved is Like a Gazelle" - imagery of the beloved boy in Hebrew Religious Poetry. HEBREW ANNUAL REVIEW, 8, 1984. pp.143-165 Roth, Norman. "The Care and Feeding of Gazelles" - medieval Hebrew and Arabic Love Poetry. IN: Lazar, M. and Lacy, N. (Eds) Poetics of Love in the Middle Ages, Fairfax, VA, 1989. Roth, Norman. Fawn of My Delights - boy-love in Hebrew and Arabic Verse. IN: Sex in the Middle Ages, New York, 1991. pp.157-172. Roth, Norman. Boy-love in Medieval Arabic Verse PAIDIKA - Journal of Paedophilia, Vol 3, No.3, Winter 1994. pp.12-17 'Paidika', even though it is a scholarly journal, may be hard to obtain through normal academic library channels in the USA, what with politically-correct library stock policies. The subscription address is... Paidika - journal of paedophilia Postbus 15463 1001 ML Amsterdam The Netherlands Single copies 17 dollars to the USA, subscription 68 dollars for four issues. Well worth subscribing to. **See also a recent article in 'perversions - the international journal of lesbian and gay studies... Sikand, Yoginder. A Martyr for Love - Hazrat Sayed Sarmad, a Sufi gay mystic. PERVERSIONS, Spring 1995, Issue 4, pp. 149-157 perversions - international journal of lesbian and gay studies. BM perversions LONDON WC1N 3XX England United Kingdom More material on sacred pederasty in the Sufi tradition can be found in: Wilson, Peter Lamborn. Scandal : essays in Islamic heresy. Brooklyn, New York, Autonomedia, c1988. 224 p. Biblio. the address of the publisher is (was?)... Autonomedia Box 568 Brooklyn, New York NY 11211 Anarchist and similar radical mail-order booksellers usually carry Autonomedia books - enquire at the Spunk Press WWW page if you have trouble finding it. It is also in some large University libraries in the USA (eg Washington) **Hakim Bey translated a selection of the poetry of Abu Nuwas... Bey, Hakim (Ed and Trans.) Nuwas, Abu. O Tribe The Loves Boys - adaptations by Hakim Bey. Gay Men's Press, London, 1993. (Also published in USA I think.) Bey has also written many anarchist pamphlets, so he may know where to purchase 'Scandal', or know the new Autonomedia address if they've moved. He has his own Web-page (lucky him!) at... http://www.uio.no:80/~mwatz/bey/ **An ABU NUWAS SOCIETY has existed since 1990, to cover all aspects of sexual culture in the Middle East (inc. the Maghreb), and concentrates on homosexuality. Abu Nuwas Society - for the study of sexual culture in the Middle-East. (The Advisory Board looks pretty heavyweight...) Abu Nuwas Society PO Box 85394 3508 AK Utrecht The Netherlands **Several books are forthcoming on Arabic homosexuality - see the Lesbigay Scholars Listing (enquire in Listserv list QSTUDY-L if you havn't got a copy of this vital document) **Some anthologies... Christman, Henry. M. (Ed.) Gay Tales and Verses from the Arabian Nights. Edward-William Publishing Company/Banned Books, USA 1989. 104pp 0-934411-27-1 Trade Paper $7.95 Lacey, E. A. (Translator) The Delight of Hearts: Or, What You Will Not Find in Any Book. Gay Sunshine Press, 1988. 240pp, illus. ISBN/Price: 0-940567-08-3 Library Binding $25.00 0-940567-09-1 Trade Paper $14.95 [Al-Tifashi, Ahmad (Compiled by, Preface by); Lacey, E. A. (Introduction by, ); Khawam, Rene R. (Introduction by). An anthology of Arabic gay literature - is a translation of a translation of a translation, so has probably lost something in the process...] Reid, Anthony. (Ed.) The Eternal Flame - a world anthology of homosexual verse, 2000 B.C.- 2000 A.D. Volume 1 - Greece, Italy, Islam, France. New York, Dyanthus Press, 1992. [Available mail-order in the EC from Prinz Eisenhart, Berlin - ask for the poetry list. In USA try Ariel's Pages mail-order. New translations] **Richard Burton's 1850's Arabian Nights can be had from Project Gutenburg, though in the copy I have, the Terminal Essay is missing. As Burton is hard to find in paper form, you can find lengthy sections of 'Terminal Essay' reprinted in: Reade, Brian. (Ed.) Sexual Heretics; Male Homosexuality in English literature from 1850-1900 - an anthology. London, Routledge, Keegan and Paul, 1970. A paper "Beyond the Sotadic Zone: Colonization and Sexuality in Richard Burton's Terminal Essay" was presented Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) meeting, Aug. 1993, by John Hollister: e-mail bb05246@bingsuns.cc.binghamton.edu (John Hollister) **************************************** A couple of examples of Arabic poetry... Anon (9th Century Arabic) SURPRISE, SURPRISE (Trans. Derek Parker) Nizam the pederast, whose delight in boys Was known throughout Bagdad, one afternoon In a secluded place saw in a clearing The flash of limbs behind a nearby bush, And looking closer came upon a youth Who seemed more lovely than his dreams had promised, Lying asleep in shade, his head pressed deep Into crossed arms, his long slim body Quite naked, the firm buttocks firmly offered. Quick as a jackal pouncing, Nizam jumped Upon the lad, his robe about his waist, The startled boy pierced by his lusty cock Before you could say knife. Not until later, When boy lay panting on the flattened grass, Did Nizam, pausing to embrace his love, Discover him a her, surprised but pleased At having been given such pleasure at a source No previous lover seemed to know about. Nizam converted ? Never. But the girl Now gives her lovers strange instruction. Abu Nuwas 94 I said as the narcissus-boy came ambling by, a peach twirled in his hand: 'What a pity to wait until we offer cash! Give love its proper due!' 'More pitiful still,' he replied, and chuckled, 'is a penniless flop at the door.' 98 Make many deletions, Jinan, when you write, and delete the word, when you do, with your tongue and, passing deletingly over a word, draw it close to your beautiful lips; for I hold, when running over the lines, the cancelled somethings for a lick: That - is a kiss from you from afar which I steal while keeping here to my room. 99 A boy at blush of dawn silver in the absolute in whom the eye beholds beauty in infinite poised perfection, eclipsed in re-creation launching - so beauty moves in orbits reborn and unregenerate. ianthe@duende.demon.co.uk **************************************************** ends