Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800

Download or read book Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 written by Khaled El-Rouayheb and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-03-02 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attitudes toward homosexuality in the pre-modern Arab-Islamic world are commonly depicted as schizophrenic—visible and tolerated on one hand, prohibited by Islam on the other. Khaled El-Rouayheb argues that this apparent paradox is based on the anachronistic assumption that homosexuality is a timeless, self-evident fact to which a particular culture reacts with some degree of tolerance or intolerance. Drawing on poetry, biographical literature, medicine, dream interpretation, and Islamic texts, he shows that the culture of the period lacked the concept of homosexuality.