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

by Khaled El-Rouayheb

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.

Genres: History, Islam, Religion, Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Middle East

210 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

Khaled El-Rouayheb is James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and of Islamic Intellectual History at Harvard University.

Khaled El-Rouayheb’s research interests include: the intellectual and cultural history of the Arabic-Islamic world in the Mamluk and early-Ottoman periods (1200-1800); the history of Arabic logic; Islamic theology and philosophy. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), a MA in Middle Eastern History from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), and a PhD (2003) from the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).

His publications include three monographs: Before Homosexuality in the Arabic-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (University of Chicago Press, 2005), Relational Syllogisms & the History of Arabic Logic, 900-1900 (Brill, 2010), and Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He has also prepared an edition of Kashf al-asrar ‘an ghawamid al-afkar, a summa of logic by Afdal al-Din al-Khunaji (d.1248) (Iranian Institute for Philosophy, 2010). He is the co-editor (along with Sabine Schmidtke of the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton) of The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy (2016).

Reviews

[lady h · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main thrust of this book is simple enough to grasp. It is that, in the Arabic-speaking parts of the Ottoman Empire, between 1500 and 1800, "homesexuality" did not exist as such; rather, there existed a multiplicity of conflicting themes, ideas, and social behaviors. Essentially, things that we may or may not place under the "homosexual" umbrella today were in this period divided into specific acts: pederasty, effeminate male passivity, the passionate but chaste love of boys, same-sex intercrural intercourse, and sodomy. The author espouses a constructivist rather than an essentialist view of human sexuality; that is, that sexuality is not ontological and our understanding of it and relationship to it shifts over time according to social values.

While I appreciated the thesis, I had some issues with the book's structure and style. I thought the author quoted waaaaaaay too many translated Arabic poems to make all of his points. In doing so his arguments became repetitive. I lost interest after the first chapter, when the author went into meticulous detail. Then again, this is probably a positive for other folks, particularly those in the academe who likely value such attention to detail.

Also, on another personal note, it was very interesting to see the thriving tradition of love poetry addressed to young boys that existed during his time. I had no idea it was a thing! The author touches on why this might be, actually, that in modern times there's a lot of censorship of this particular aspect of the Ottoman era, so I guess it makes sense that growing up in Cairo I never heard a whiff of this (heard way too much virulent homophobia, though).

[Abdulmalik · Rating 5 out of 5]

حقيقةً،.الكتاب تطلب مني جهد كبير لإنهائه وهو كتاب غاية في الروعة والاتقان وفي أصله رسالة دكتوراه أعدها المؤلف خالد الرويهب لنيل تلكم الدرجة كما أن الترجمة بديعة والتي قامت بها مشكورة الدكتورة هناء خليف غني حيث أجادت وبشدة في نقلها لمحتوى الكتاب بلغة علمية رصينة مفهومة
أما بالنسبة للكتاب فهو أعده أول كتاب اقرأه في هذا الباب من حيث الموضوعية والرصانة لذلك لا يسعني سوى مديحه لأنه تطرق كثيرًا للممارسات الجنسية عمومًا والمثلية خصوصًا في العالم العربي والإسلامي. والمؤلف ذكر في كتابه بشكل شامل عن المثلية الجنسية وممارستها وكيفيتها والاختلافات اللفظية بين المسميات المختلفة لها وردود الفعل الثقافية أيضا.
الفصل الأول: ذكر وبشكل غاية في التفصيل اللواطة والمرضى بإعتبار أنها مرض مع استشهادات أدبية واسعة
الفصل الثاني:الجماليون، وهو يذكر وببراعة كيفية النظر للغلمانية بأعتبارها شيء جمالي وقصائد تتغنى في الغلمان المرد.
الفصل الثالث والأخير : بعنوان اللواطيون يذكر فيه الاختلافات الفقهية للنطر في الفعل الجنسي المثلي في المذاهب الأربعة والشيعة الأمامية.
الكتاب جدًا مهم ومفصلي لكل من يهتم في تلك الحقبة أو طبيعة المثلية الجنسية عند العرب والمسلمين مع استشهادات طريفة وقصائد معبرة

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent- scholarly, authoritative, and very thorough engagement with the historiography of sexuality, as well as a thoughtful reading of Arabic-language sources. Highly recommended.

[justanepigraph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right from the beginning of Khaled El-Rouayheb's book Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800, El-Rouayheb states what he seeks to illustrate, a few being:
1. To reconstruct the way in which same-sex acts and behaviors were conceived in Arab-Islamic Ottoman society.
2. To illustrate how many modern historians gloss over the native distinctions made in such society, such as between liwāṭ (sodomy, anal-intercourse) and passionate kissing, non-anal sexual acts, et cetera. Along with distinctions between the active partner (top) and passive partner (bottom), the difference between love and infatuation compared to sexual lust, and so on. And from that
3. To rest the case that no overarching phenomenon could be translated to 'homosexuality' or 'homosexual', as references to the psycho-sexual orientation.

He engages in a discourse with a variety of people: Bernard Lewis & Marshall Hodgson's point of the display of and commonality of same-sex acts, in spite of religious ruling (a questionable point, El-Rouayheb notes), Mary McIntosh's precursor to an attack on an essentialist idea of sexuality (which El-Rouayheb seems to argue in support of, drawing on others such as Foucault), to J.C. Bürgel's assertion of love-poetry of boys being fictive and literary (which I will expand on later).

El-Rouayheb references many sources to support his claims, including: poems, belles-lettres, judicial opinions and rulings, biographies and anecdotes, oneiromancy handbooks, and so on.

Overall, I enjoyed reading through the arguments presented by El-Rouayheb and the vast amounts of literature that he cites. He clearly shows the connection between the textual evidence he cites and his arguments, along with addressing both potential questions and previously-made claims in discourse. I did find myself losing some interest with some examples, as many points were often repeated and the examples used were extensive: for example, when addressing claims like J.C. Bürgel's, El-Rouayheb goes into the specifics of three cases illustrating otherwise, along with mentioning the accounts of Western travelers, touching on the surface of the nature of poetry and historiography of biography and anecdotes, and so on. While there were many cases where a point might've been over-illustrated, it's always better to have more than enough evidence than not enough.

[arafat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meticulous study of Ottoman Arabic sources that basically affirms Foucault's thesis about pre-modern sexuality. El-Rouayheb's constructionist interpretation is likely to offend essentalists like Samar Habib, but remains quite compelling.

[Ikmal Fitri (iikmalreads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku yang akan bukak minda hg.

Buku yang terbahagi kepada 3 bahagian. Pederasts and Pathics, Aesthetes, dan Sodomites. 2 bahagian pertama akan menceritakan tentang gejala-gejala homo pada zaman dahulu (selepas kedatangan Islam ye). Bagaimana orang Middle East dulu mengangkat rasa cinta mereka terhadap lelaki yang kebanyakkan diangkat menjadi puisi. Sehinggkan orang Western pun terkejut bila tengok puisi orang Middle East (ni zaman sebelum eropah terima homo dan menganggap homo benda yang pelik). Dan korang akan tahu apa beza sodomi, liwat, homosexual, dan sexual inclination. Jangan jadi pemalas dengan anggap semua perkataan ni termaktub dalam perkataan LGBT.

Bahagian ketiga pula akan membincangkan tentang pandangan sodomi/liwat dari Islamic law (terutamanya dari pandangan 4 Imam Besar dan juga dari Syiah). Aku suka part ni. Kita boleh tengok bagaimana hukuman hudud untuk setiap mazhab berbeza. Ada yang berat, ada yang tak berat. Dan dari aspek liwat, kita lihat perbuatan apa yang membenarkan si pelaku layak dihukum hudud.

Bila aku baca buku ni aku terus teringat kes lesbian disebat di khalayak ramai. Aku ada judgement yg tersendiri. Korang baca buku ni, dan korang fikir la sendiri.

Tetapi ada benda yang mengganggu aku. Aku tak tahu persepsi Islam terhadap pedofilia. Sebab berdasarkan buku ni, mostly puisi yang dibuat, menunjukkan cinta kepada golongan remaja atau 'beardless boys'. Dan terang-terang penulis menggunakan perkataan paedistric. Ibarat, pedo merupakan benda biasa dan tak berdosa. Entah la, aku pun keliru.

Apapun aku suka buku ni. Otak aku rasa berat dan puas.

[Mustafa Bilal · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend recommended it to me and I started it after finishing Édouard Louis's "History of Violence" and I don't regret the decision. The book is a very nuanced and thorough study of the attitudes of Arabs in Ottoman Empire between 1500 and 1800 towards pederasty, mainly. It shatters the concept of Homosexuality as a label that is enough to incorporate the complexity of the Arab culture. The author stands by the argument that homosexuality is a modern construction. The research is commendable in the way it takes into consideration various texts apart form literature/poetry that is usually used as an argument for the existence of the theme. Loved it! Highly recommended

[Pazuzu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Published a whole two years before Desiring Arabs (Joseph Massaad) and Female Homosexuality in the Middle East (Samar Habib), I'm surprised this book doesn't have more attention. It is a very good book and argues very well the point of historical anachronism of the term "homosexuality". Also, without giving spoilers, reading this book, you may find yourself pondering god's sexuality. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Persuasively argued and meticulous account that challenges the imposition of anachronistic identities onto the premodern world. Well-organized, coherent, and cogent. Worth reading.

[kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Read for my Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Middle Eastern History class, not going to review.

(Also the last book I have to read for this class, I can't believe I survived).

[Nabilah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masyarakat Islam-Arab sebelum zaman moden tidak mempunyai konsep binari homo dan hetero- seksualiti seperti yang didefinisikan oleh Barat TETAPI hubungan sama jenis di dalam masyarakat ketika itu telah wujud dengan toleransi yang bersyarat (sudah tentu) mengikut bukti-bukti yang dilampirkan di dalam buku ini. Buku ini juga melihat perbezaan persepsi dahulu dan sekarang terhadap hubungan gay. Rumusan penulis, Khaled El-Rouayheb di akhir buku ini mungkin akan mengejutkan para pembaca.

Jadi, selamat membaca.

[Dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking his specialties in intellectual and cultural history of the Arab-Islamic world, El-Rouayheb seeks to develop an understanding of queerness before the period of Ottoman reform and westernization in the nineteenth century. El-Rouayheb argues, through three chapters, that the Arab-Islamic world lacked the concept of “homosexuality.” Rather, people operated within different, and often separate, sets of concepts that regulated and shaped understandings of male sexuality. Each chapter delves into one of these three cultural strands that helped to evaluate sexual behaviours. The first chapter considers the passive/active dichotomy. While the Ottoman Arab world was a gender-segregated culture it allowed for intergenerational mixing. However, and importantly, the transgenerational relationship was not as a result of the gender-segregated culture as prostitutes were available to men interested in such desires. Age was not only the factor that determined these relationships. Men taking on the active role may act out of passion or anger. While the active role is presented as normal the passive role is considered peculiar and an illness that doctors may prescribe medicines to treat. The second chapter considers the aesthetic appeal of romance and attraction to youthful men and/or women. While poems and literary works that describe the beauty of youthful beardless men were culturally appropriate, rather it was lustful attraction that was considered a major sin. This leads to the final chapter that considers how schools of religious jurists interpreted Islamic law. Jurists often focused on the acts themselves and prescribed strong punishments against anal sex and lustful activity. This allowed space for non-anal interactions and the aesthetic poems of beauty to operate within the culture.

[Nomen est Omen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A respectable scholarly work. It analyze the discourse of "homosexuality' in the Ottoman Empire from 1500 until the 1800. It sheds light into the complexity of the so-called homoeroticism. Because it is easy to project modern, Western perception of what homosexuality is into past historical phenomena of man-to-man love.

His approach is very Foucauldian and relies on diverse and numerous texts to support his proposition. An entertaining read for sure.

He never really defines the phenomenon that he is writing about, he does not give it a name, he only deconstructs it and demonstrates that the common understanding of homoeroticism in the Arab world (in that aforementioned time period) is no less than misapprehension.

A good scholarly work never needs to provide answers, as long as it raises questions.

[Mahmoud Hassino · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is good research about same-sex literature in that period. I am still uneasy with accepting the approach and the conclusion. Many resources and elements were overlooked in order for the author to maintain what seems to be predetermined opinion about how the "region" viewed same-sex relationships during the researched period.

[Egor Breus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great topic and thorogh research, but it might have been better to tighten it up a little when turning it from a dissertation into a book. Some parts were very dense, and I would've appreciated a clearer overall narrative. But of course, so interesting, which is why I kept reading and it's well worth it anyways!

[Mishari · Rating 4 out of 5]

تلعب المصطلحات دورًا ناسخًا للظواهر، حيث تستبدل تمثيلًا بآخر، موسعةً حدودها أو مغيرةً نسقها فارضة سلطتها المعرفية.
‏يقدم الرويهب مقاربة للجنسانية العربية في العصر العثماني، من خلال حفرية معرفية في الفقه والآداب لفهم موقفها الملتبس من المثلية ومزيلًا غبش مصطلح المثلية ذاته.

[Maged Mossalam · Rating 5 out of 5]

وجبة ثقافية مدهشة و على المستوى الأدبي كتاب خرافي تشعر انك تسمع و ترى و تلمس و تشم مدن عربية عريقة خاصة القاهرة و دمشق في الفترة من ال
1500
لل
1800

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeks to undo anachronisms: before the modern concepts of sexuality and of homosexuality – this latter ‘new and indiscriminate’ so that in its hindsight Islamic societies seemed to have an inconsistency or illogic on the subject. They made sense to themselves in their own terms, and this explains the different distinctions then in use. A chaste passion for beauty, whether of woman or boy, might be defended by religious jurists, idealised as divine by Sufis and considered a polite acquirement. The act of anal intercourse, with man or woman, was condemned – but not an identity attached to the act, which they didn’t have. Social ethics such as decently concealing the vices of others (instead of denunciation as a virtue) and the call to think no ill of a fellow Muslim, are examined as factors too.

[Abdul Vajid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulously researched book on the lack of concept/binary of homo-hetero in pre-modern Arab world. Drawing from legal/juristic literature and poetry author make striking conclusions. Reference and citation of a pre-modern literature can be seen in almost every page.It is commonplace today to say that Islam, as a religion, disapproves of “homosexuality.” In fact, the author points out that it was only in the early part of the 20th century that Western attitudes toward same-sex love began to be internalized by the intellectual classes in the Middle East. Thus, even the works of famous poets might be expurgated to eliminate references to male to male erotic feeling. Yet, oddly, as gay movements have claimed their rights and been acknowledged in the West, attitudes enunciated in the Middle East often remain tied to the Victorian attitudes of an earlier era.

[J.L. Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un interesante estudio del mundo arabe antiguo, no existía la palabra homosexualidad, claro que sí la conducta. Era penada por el islam, pero protegida y practicada con apertura. Espero que el islam deje su edad media.

[Mano Chil · Rating 3 out of 5]

And Islamo-Arabs think today that homosexuality is a 'vice' brought from the West, while the book says it was the West that tried to clean this out from the Middle East culture especially poetry.

[Ummzahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic