Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (9 page)
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Authors: Khaled El-Rouayheb
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The theoretical justification for the practice of contemplating handsome youths in some mystical circles will be dealt with at greater length in the following chapter. However, it is worth emphasizing at this point that relations with beardless boys within Sufi orders were not always thought by outsiders, as is evident from the cited condemnations, to conform to the Platonic ideal. A couplet by the Meccan judge Ahmad al-Murshidī (d. 1638) also associated the Sufis of his age with gluttony, drinking wine, sodomy, and the playing of musical instruments:
The Sufis of the age and time; the Sufis of the wine-press and the eating-tray. They have outdone the people of Lot by adding the beating of drums to fornication.
115
A proverb quoted in Yūsuf al-Shirbīnīʾs satirical
Hazz al-quhūf,
dating from the late seventeenth century, is more straightforward: “A youthʾs chastity is safeguarded in his father’s home, and if he becomes a dervish, the buggers (
al-nāʾikūn
) will queue up behind him.” In this connection, Shirbīnī related anecdotes involving heretical dervishes in Egypt who get their way with youths by pretending to be saints willing to transmit their powers by means of “a beam of light,” “the water of life,” or “the miraculous drop.” These turn out to be references to the semen of the “saints,” as the desired boys eventually discover.
116
A similar story was related by the (intensely anti-Sufi) Shīʿi scholar Niʿmatallah al-Jazāʾirī (d. 1702) as having occurred in Isfahan (in Persia) during his lifetime: a man supposedly entrusted his handsome son to a Sufi master, who went on to sodomize the boy, using as pretext the desire to transmit some of his “light” to the new novices.
117
The purpose of such anecdotes is of course satirical or defamatory rather than descriptive, and they should accordingly be handled with caution. Yet it is interesting to note that the Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck observed a widespread belief in early twentieth-century Morocco that the blessings
(barakah)
of a saint could be transmitted through hetero- or homosexual intercourse.
118
It is possible that related ideas circulated in some circles in the Arab East in the early Ottoman period. Writing in Egypt in the 1830s, E. W. Lane specifically stated, while speaking of the “holy fools”
(majādhīb)
widely venerated in the premodern Arab-Islamic world, that “the women, instead of avoiding them, sometimes suffer these wretches to take any liberty with them in the public street; and, by the lower orders, are not considered disgraced by such actions.”
119
One sixteenth-century Egyptian saint would, according to a contemporary (and sympathetic) source, make advances to beardless boys he met and fondle their behinds, “in front of the boy’s father and others,” apparently without impairing his saintly reputation.
120
Hazz al-quhūf,
dating from the late seventeenth century, is more straightforward: “A youthʾs chastity is safeguarded in his father’s home, and if he becomes a dervish, the buggers (
al-nāʾikūn
) will queue up behind him.” In this connection, Shirbīnī related anecdotes involving heretical dervishes in Egypt who get their way with youths by pretending to be saints willing to transmit their powers by means of “a beam of light,” “the water of life,” or “the miraculous drop.” These turn out to be references to the semen of the “saints,” as the desired boys eventually discover.
116
A similar story was related by the (intensely anti-Sufi) Shīʿi scholar Niʿmatallah al-Jazāʾirī (d. 1702) as having occurred in Isfahan (in Persia) during his lifetime: a man supposedly entrusted his handsome son to a Sufi master, who went on to sodomize the boy, using as pretext the desire to transmit some of his “light” to the new novices.
117
The purpose of such anecdotes is of course satirical or defamatory rather than descriptive, and they should accordingly be handled with caution. Yet it is interesting to note that the Finnish anthropologist Edward Westermarck observed a widespread belief in early twentieth-century Morocco that the blessings
(barakah)
of a saint could be transmitted through hetero- or homosexual intercourse.
118
It is possible that related ideas circulated in some circles in the Arab East in the early Ottoman period. Writing in Egypt in the 1830s, E. W. Lane specifically stated, while speaking of the “holy fools”
(majādhīb)
widely venerated in the premodern Arab-Islamic world, that “the women, instead of avoiding them, sometimes suffer these wretches to take any liberty with them in the public street; and, by the lower orders, are not considered disgraced by such actions.”
119
One sixteenth-century Egyptian saint would, according to a contemporary (and sympathetic) source, make advances to beardless boys he met and fondle their behinds, “in front of the boy’s father and others,” apparently without impairing his saintly reputation.
120
Worries about the nature of relationships between men and boys in Sufi orders were expressed by many religious scholars, who often pointed out the proprieties that had to be maintained and denounced the orders, such as the Muṭawiʿah, which flouted them. For example, the prominent Palestinian jurist Khayr al-Dīn al-Ramlī (d. 1671), when asked about the religious-legal status of Sufi gatherings for listening to music (
samāʿ
)
,
answered that such gatherings were permissible, but only if certain conditions were met, and gave as the first such condition the absence from these sessions of beardless boys.
121
On the other hand, several Sufi writers of the period were themselves eager to warn their fellows against the dangers posed by regular mixing with boys. The Egyptian Sufi ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (d. 1565), for example, quoted his own mentor as warning disciples against frequenting beardless boys or sharing cells in a convent
(zāwiyah)
with them “as much as possible,” and to avoid looking at them when participating in the communal rites of the order. Shaʿrānī also described how another of his Sufi progenitors would not allow handsome beardless boys to reside in his convent, and he exhorted his (fellow Sufi) readers to defer to their master or his lieutenant should he decide on a similar policy.
122
Shaʿrānīʾs remarks are a testimony both to the rich possibilities for intergenerational contact within convents, and to the anxiety caused by such possibilities.
samāʿ
)
,
answered that such gatherings were permissible, but only if certain conditions were met, and gave as the first such condition the absence from these sessions of beardless boys.
121
On the other hand, several Sufi writers of the period were themselves eager to warn their fellows against the dangers posed by regular mixing with boys. The Egyptian Sufi ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī (d. 1565), for example, quoted his own mentor as warning disciples against frequenting beardless boys or sharing cells in a convent
(zāwiyah)
with them “as much as possible,” and to avoid looking at them when participating in the communal rites of the order. Shaʿrānī also described how another of his Sufi progenitors would not allow handsome beardless boys to reside in his convent, and he exhorted his (fellow Sufi) readers to defer to their master or his lieutenant should he decide on a similar policy.
122
Shaʿrānīʾs remarks are a testimony both to the rich possibilities for intergenerational contact within convents, and to the anxiety caused by such possibilities.
Given such warnings by prominent legal scholars and Sufi authors, one might suppose that the mystical contemplation of boys was confined to more “unorthodox” or “antinomian” Sufis. Nevertheless, such a judgment has to be qualified. As has been pointed out by for example Michael Winter, the distinction between so-called orthodox and unorthodox Sufis was not always clear-cut.
123
Moreover, speaking of “unorthodox” or “antinomian” Sufis in this context tends to conceal the fact that there was a certain amount of disagreement regarding what the “orthodox” or “nomian” position was. As will be shown in the next chapter, there were defenders of the mystical practice of adoring handsome boys in the early Ottoman Arab East, and some of these were well-versed in religious law, and belonged to orders that are usually regarded as thoroughly “orthodox.”
Slavery and Servitude123
Moreover, speaking of “unorthodox” or “antinomian” Sufis in this context tends to conceal the fact that there was a certain amount of disagreement regarding what the “orthodox” or “nomian” position was. As will be shown in the next chapter, there were defenders of the mystical practice of adoring handsome boys in the early Ottoman Arab East, and some of these were well-versed in religious law, and belonged to orders that are usually regarded as thoroughly “orthodox.”
Many jurists of the period, when discussing sodomy, took pains to emphasize that it was prohibited even with one’s male slave, a specification that should be seen in light of the permissibility of concubinage with a female slave in Islamic law. Again, the Meccan scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytamī provides a—somewhat strongly worded—example of this concern:
The community has reached a consensus (
ijmāʿ
) that he of the criminal, depraved, and accursed sodomites who commits sodomy with his male slave, upon him is the curse of God ... and this has become common among the merchants and the affluent, who acquire handsome male slaves, black and white, for this [purpose]. So may the most severe, everlasting, and manifest curse befall them, and the greatest shame, ruin, and torment be their lot in this world and the next, as long as they persist in these vile, repugnant, and abominable acts.
124
A. Russell, an English physician in mid-eighteenth-century Aleppo, who in general was a careful and sympathetic observer of the customs of the inhabitants of the city, noted in his
Natural History of Aleppo
that “the beauty of a male slave enhances the value as much as it does that of a female, occasioned by the frequency among them of a crime not to be mentioned.”
125
Russell’s remarks about the effect of physical beauty on the price of a slave is supported by evidence from native writers. For instance, the Damascene scholar and mystic ‘Abd al-Ghani
al-Nābulusi
noted that the notables of his city “seek to buy handsome slaves (
al-mama
li
k al-hisa
n
) and purchase them at high prices (
yatgha
lawna fīhim bi-al-athma
n
), and dress them up in various clothes, and make them stand before them as brides (
ka-al- ‘ara
is
)”.
126
The above-mentioned Egyptian scholar and mystic ʿAbd al-Wahha
b al-Sha‘ra
ni
urged his readers not to think ill of the political rulers and judges “for spending large sums in buying male slaves of handsome countenance ... for it is the habit of rulers to love beauty and derive pleasure from looking at it in their houses and clothes and servants, without this leading to committing sins.”
127
Sha‘ra
ni
’s urgings suggest, however, that his contemporaries often
were
suspicious of the habit. He himself wrote that he would indirectly admonish those amongst the political elite
Natural History of Aleppo
that “the beauty of a male slave enhances the value as much as it does that of a female, occasioned by the frequency among them of a crime not to be mentioned.”
125
Russell’s remarks about the effect of physical beauty on the price of a slave is supported by evidence from native writers. For instance, the Damascene scholar and mystic ‘Abd al-Ghani
al-Nābulusinoted that the notables of his city “seek to buy handsome slaves (al-mama
lik al-hisan) and purchase them at high prices (
yatgha
lawna fīhim bi-al-athman), and dress them up in various clothes, and make them stand before them as brides (
ka-al- ‘ara
is)”.
126
The above-mentioned Egyptian scholar and mystic ʿAbd al-Wahha
b al-Sha‘raniurged his readers not to think ill of the political rulers and judges “for spending large sums in buying male slaves of handsome countenance ... for it is the habit of rulers to love beauty and derive pleasure from looking at it in their houses and clothes and servants, without this leading to committing sins.”127
Sha‘ra
ni’s urgings suggest, however, that his contemporaries oftenwere
suspicious of the habit. He himself wrote that he would indirectly admonish those amongst the political elite
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