Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (42 page)
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Authors: Khaled El-Rouayheb
BOOK: Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
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The Egyptian scholar ʿAbdallah al-Shabra
wi
(d. 1758) urged his beloved boy to:
wi(d. 1758) urged his beloved boy to:Grant him [i.e., the poet] what is not religiously prohibited, for he does not have any desire for the prohibited.By God, there is nothing blameworthy in granting a lover’s union
(wasl)
to someone like me.
162
The Iraqi poet Husayn al-ʿUsha
ri
(d. ca. 1781) composed a poem after having a dream in which he kissed the Prophet Muhammad. One verse of the poem said:
ri(d. ca. 1781) composed a poem after having a dream in which he kissed the Prophet Muhammad. One verse of the poem said:I became drunk from being united
(was
with the beloved
(al-h
i.e., the Prophet) and his nearness, and bliss rendered me disoriented.
163
It is inconceivable that the poet would have used the term
was
l
in this particular context if it were likely to evoke the idea of copulation.
was
lin this particular context if it were likely to evoke the idea of copulation.
Poetry as such was not necessarily chaste; as has been seen on several occasions in the present study, some of it could be positively obscene. Yet this bawdy strand coexisted with a centuries-old tradition in Arabic poetry of depicting, in the words of Andras Hamori, “a faithful, chaste and debilitating passion for unattainable objects.”
164
The relationship between lover and beloved as portrayed in this kind of love poetry was structurally incompatible with sex: the lover (the man) was invariably the subordinate partner, humbly kept in awe by the unattainable beauty of the beloved (the boy or woman), abjectly pleading for leniency and gentleness. The scholar ʿAbd al-Qa
dir al-Baghda
di
(d. 1682) spelled out this principle:
164
The relationship between lover and beloved as portrayed in this kind of love poetry was structurally incompatible with sex: the lover (the man) was invariably the subordinate partner, humbly kept in awe by the unattainable beauty of the beloved (the boy or woman), abjectly pleading for leniency and gentleness. The scholar ʿAbd al-Qa
dir al-Baghdadi(d. 1682) spelled out this principle:The composer of love poetry
(al-na
should... devote his efforts to [depicting] that which indicates ardent love, and all-powerful passion and rapture, and depletion and impatience, and other such testimonies to meekness and utter infatuation, and he should avoid that which indicates pride and confidence and toughness and endurance.
165
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