ENGLISH

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

By Khaled El-Rouayheb

Book information

Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Year
2009
ISBN
9780226729909
DOI
10.7208/9780226729909
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
1 MB (1321206 bytes)
Pages
224\220
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-15 06:14:17

Description

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.

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