Read Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 Online
Authors: Khaled El-Rouayheb
Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (17 page)
Mīqātī, who was initiated into the Naqshbandī mystical order, concluded by rejecting the love of humans as such for the love of God.
A summary of the claims advanced on behalf of the beardless or downy-cheeked youth in such tracts is not really possible for the simple reason that they consist of a string of poetic similes and metaphors depicting the charms of one or the other, rather than coherent arguments. The most that can be done is to give a sample of the style. The following are extracts from the tract of Mīqātī:
[The beardless: ] In being free of a beard he is akin to the people of paradise [a reference to a well-known tradition according to which the people of paradise will be beardless] ... The Creator is pleased with him and so did not bring forth what would disfigure his cheeks, thus the mirror of his face is clear, as the cloudless sky ... He says: I have a sleek freshness, and am of a tender and smooth cheek, my face is favored, and my beauty is soft, and who would hold thorns and lush silk equal? [The downy-cheeked:] If you see him with his temples wrapped in musk thus bringing out his attractiveness and rousing the eyes of his lovers from their drowsiness, you would say: Is a garden attractive without its vegetation? ... and the moon is seen at its most attractive when its periphery is enclosed with blackness.
Such uses of similes and metaphors reverberate throughout the poetry of the period. At times, beard-down signals the end of love and the freeing of the lover from captivity, at others it is the lover’s reason for “throwing off all restraint”
(khaʿl al-ʿidhār);
it is the blackness that indicates the mourning of bygone beauty, or the halo of the moon that makes it shine all the more brightly; it is compared to a feathered wing which beauty uses to take flight, or chains of musk that keep it bound and prevent it from levitating. Two couplets should suffice to give an impression of the poetry in question; the first is by the Aleppine poet Muṣṭafā ibn Bīrī (d. 1735/6):
(khaʿl al-ʿidhār);
it is the blackness that indicates the mourning of bygone beauty, or the halo of the moon that makes it shine all the more brightly; it is compared to a feathered wing which beauty uses to take flight, or chains of musk that keep it bound and prevent it from levitating. Two couplets should suffice to give an impression of the poetry in question; the first is by the Aleppine poet Muṣṭafā ibn Bīrī (d. 1735/6):
They said: He has become downy-cheeked so abandon him. I said: Stop your reproof, his charms have become all the more attractive.For the moon is not luminous except if coupled with the darkness of night.
84
The second is by another Aleppine poet, Muṣṭafā al-Bābī (d. 1681):
God has clothed the dawn of his cheeks with night, and painted the whiteness black.The sap on the side of his face has dried up, and the ember of beauty has become ashes.
85
It could perhaps be argued that the search for summarizable arguments beneath the glitter of stylized literary images is fundamentally misguided. The contributions to the genre of
mufākharah
were written in verse or rhymed prose, and were clearly intended as polished, belletristic works rather than straightforward polemics. The tone of most contributions suggests that their authors’ aims were not necessarily to voice sincere convictions or advance substantial arguments, but simply to muster an arsenal of similes and metaphors in favor of one position or the other. The same person may even have verses in support of two contrasting positions, and these may appear directly after each other in the poetic anthologies, the anthologist simply announcing, “He has [the following] in praise
(madīḥ)
of beard-down,” and then “and he has [the following] in dispraise
(dhamm)
of it.”
86
Other disputations were apparently little more than word play. Poets could, for instance, debate such questions as whether “east”—the direction and not any geographical region—was better than “west,” adducing such “arguments” as “the sun arises from it” and “the sun seeks toward it”
87
The Iraqi scholar and belletrist ‛Uthmān al-‛Umarī (d. 1770/1) composed a lengthy disputation in rhymed prose consisting of the respective boasts of candle, star, moon, water, and glass.
88
It is perhaps natural to ask whether there are any reasons for believing that the disputations concerning women and boys, or beardless and downy-cheeked youths, should be taken any more seriously. The question is an instance of a more general question about the historical relevance of the belletristic evidence presented in this section. To what extent is it legitimate to regard love poetry and belletristic disputations as historical sources that reveal certain values and tastes within the real-life milieu of belletrists and their audience?
Belles-Lettres: A Source for Real-Life Attitudes?mufākharah
were written in verse or rhymed prose, and were clearly intended as polished, belletristic works rather than straightforward polemics. The tone of most contributions suggests that their authors’ aims were not necessarily to voice sincere convictions or advance substantial arguments, but simply to muster an arsenal of similes and metaphors in favor of one position or the other. The same person may even have verses in support of two contrasting positions, and these may appear directly after each other in the poetic anthologies, the anthologist simply announcing, “He has [the following] in praise
(madīḥ)
of beard-down,” and then “and he has [the following] in dispraise
(dhamm)
of it.”
86
Other disputations were apparently little more than word play. Poets could, for instance, debate such questions as whether “east”—the direction and not any geographical region—was better than “west,” adducing such “arguments” as “the sun arises from it” and “the sun seeks toward it”
87
The Iraqi scholar and belletrist ‛Uthmān al-‛Umarī (d. 1770/1) composed a lengthy disputation in rhymed prose consisting of the respective boasts of candle, star, moon, water, and glass.
88
It is perhaps natural to ask whether there are any reasons for believing that the disputations concerning women and boys, or beardless and downy-cheeked youths, should be taken any more seriously. The question is an instance of a more general question about the historical relevance of the belletristic evidence presented in this section. To what extent is it legitimate to regard love poetry and belletristic disputations as historical sources that reveal certain values and tastes within the real-life milieu of belletrists and their audience?
The love of boys loomed large in the Arabic belles-lettres of the early Ottoman period. Passionate love was by far the most favorite theme in belles-lettres, and the portrayed beloved seems more often than not to have been a teenage boy. The idea—still widespread among modern specialists in Arabic literature—that premodern Arabic love poetry as a rule portrayed a female beloved may be true when it comes to pre- or early Islamic poetry. It is not true of Arabic poetry from the ninth to the nineteenth century.
89
As far as the early Ottoman period is concerned, the gender of the portrayed beloved, when it is indicated by the poem itself or by the supplementary remarks of the anthologist or redactor, is more often male than female.
90
The question remains, however, what one is entitled to conclude from this fact. It may be natural to see the frequent and sympathetic portrayals of boy-love in belles-lettres as reflecting one strand in the culture of belletrists and their audiences. Just as, say, the homiletic and juridical discourse reflects a strand of religiously motivated hostility to fornication and sodomy, so the belletristic literature might be assumed to reveal another cultural strand which idealized and sympathized with the refined and chaste love for women or boys.
91
Such a position is, I believe, ultimately defensible. However, it is important to address a possible objection, according to which love poems and disputations should be understood as time-honored literary exercises which belletrists participated in simply with the aim of displaying their erudition and poetic skills. They should not, according to this view, be seen as particularly revealing of what belletrists and their audience actually thought of the passionate love of boys. Some modern scholars faced with sympathetic portrayals of boy-love in the poetry of Renaissance England or the Judeo-Arabic poetry of medieval Spain have argued as much. Alan Bray, for example, maintains that such poetry in Elizabethan and Jacobean England amounted to little more than “exercises which on analysis turn out to be based on classical models” and reveal nothing about the poets’ inclinations or experiences.
92
89
As far as the early Ottoman period is concerned, the gender of the portrayed beloved, when it is indicated by the poem itself or by the supplementary remarks of the anthologist or redactor, is more often male than female.
90
The question remains, however, what one is entitled to conclude from this fact. It may be natural to see the frequent and sympathetic portrayals of boy-love in belles-lettres as reflecting one strand in the culture of belletrists and their audiences. Just as, say, the homiletic and juridical discourse reflects a strand of religiously motivated hostility to fornication and sodomy, so the belletristic literature might be assumed to reveal another cultural strand which idealized and sympathized with the refined and chaste love for women or boys.
91
Such a position is, I believe, ultimately defensible. However, it is important to address a possible objection, according to which love poems and disputations should be understood as time-honored literary exercises which belletrists participated in simply with the aim of displaying their erudition and poetic skills. They should not, according to this view, be seen as particularly revealing of what belletrists and their audience actually thought of the passionate love of boys. Some modern scholars faced with sympathetic portrayals of boy-love in the poetry of Renaissance England or the Judeo-Arabic poetry of medieval Spain have argued as much. Alan Bray, for example, maintains that such poetry in Elizabethan and Jacobean England amounted to little more than “exercises which on analysis turn out to be based on classical models” and reveal nothing about the poets’ inclinations or experiences.
92
Some modern specialists on Arabic literature have made comments which suggest they would indeed be skeptical of the legitimacy of using love poetry of boys as a source for reconstructing cultural attitudes toward boy-love. For instance, J. C. Bürgel, confronted with eleventh- and twelfth-century Arabic love poetry of boys composed by Islamic religious scholars of impeccable repute, argued that such poetry was intended and understood to be fictive.
93
Presumably his position is that one must turn to non-belletristic sources to find out what such religious scholars “really” thought about the phenomenon of boy-love. Franz Rosenthal also concluded his overview of the literary theme of “disputation” between the lover of boys and the lover of women in classical Arabic literature by noting that “true feeling is obviously absent from the genre as such.”
94
More generally, Suzanne Enderwitz claimed that after the early Abbasid period (i.e., from the ninth century on), the continuity between “life” and “work” in Arabic love poetry was severed, and the genre developed into “entertainment poetry which made no claims to be authentic.”
95
It is not entirely clear just how strong a claim Burgel, Rosenthal, and Enderwitz are making. It is possible that they are merely emphasizing the point that the love portrayed in poetry was
often
fictive, and that one must therefore be wary of making inferences about the experiences and attitudes of a particular poet on the basis of his poetry alone. That claim is uncontroversial. Hardly anyone would deny that Arab poets—and indeed poets of any culture or period—could compose love poetry without necessarily being in love. It is also possible, however, that they are making the stronger and more controversial claim that love poetry after the early Abbasid period is simply irrelevant for a historical study of attitudes toward boy-love. More specifically, the claim would be that it is not legitimate to suppose that the frequency, openness, and sympathy with which belletrists portrayed the passionate love of boys supports the idea that the passionate love of boys formed a visible and condoned part of the real-life milieu of belletrists and their audience.
93
Presumably his position is that one must turn to non-belletristic sources to find out what such religious scholars “really” thought about the phenomenon of boy-love. Franz Rosenthal also concluded his overview of the literary theme of “disputation” between the lover of boys and the lover of women in classical Arabic literature by noting that “true feeling is obviously absent from the genre as such.”
94
More generally, Suzanne Enderwitz claimed that after the early Abbasid period (i.e., from the ninth century on), the continuity between “life” and “work” in Arabic love poetry was severed, and the genre developed into “entertainment poetry which made no claims to be authentic.”
95
It is not entirely clear just how strong a claim Burgel, Rosenthal, and Enderwitz are making. It is possible that they are merely emphasizing the point that the love portrayed in poetry was
often
fictive, and that one must therefore be wary of making inferences about the experiences and attitudes of a particular poet on the basis of his poetry alone. That claim is uncontroversial. Hardly anyone would deny that Arab poets—and indeed poets of any culture or period—could compose love poetry without necessarily being in love. It is also possible, however, that they are making the stronger and more controversial claim that love poetry after the early Abbasid period is simply irrelevant for a historical study of attitudes toward boy-love. More specifically, the claim would be that it is not legitimate to suppose that the frequency, openness, and sympathy with which belletrists portrayed the passionate love of boys supports the idea that the passionate love of boys formed a visible and condoned part of the real-life milieu of belletrists and their audience.
Such a wholesale, skeptical dismissal of the historical relevance of the pederastic themes in the belles-lettres of the period would in my opinion be unwarranted. It would be so even if it were true—and I will argue below that it is not—that belletrists hardly ever expressed their own amorous experiences and feelings in their work. The lyrics of modern pop songs are not expected to reflect the real-life experiences of their singers or composers, but this does not imply that there is not an intimate connection between the lyrics and the values and assumptions of contemporary culture. One can hardly imagine a Frank Sinatra or a Tom Jones singing about his love for a downy-cheeked boy of fourteen, and their audience would hardly react positively if they did. The fact that the audience knows that singers and songwriters may not be expressing their own feelings and experiences is simply beside the point. One might at the very least conclude from the profuseness of explicitly pederastic poetry in the premodern Middle East that images of an adult man pining for a teenage youth and begging for a rendezvous or a kiss did not arouse disgust or derision among listeners. One might furthermore presume that the popularity of love poetry, pederastic or “heterosexual,” indicates that it sometimes struck a chord among those who listened to it. The Meccan jurist Ibn Hajar al-Haytami
(d. 1566) specifically stated that it was forbidden for a person in love with a boy or a woman (other than his wife or concubine) to listen to love poetry since doing so would arouse the listener and cause him to pursue what is prohibited by law.
96
A love poem could, in other words, be related to genuine feelings and aesthetic tastes, even if they were not the poet’s. The Yemeni poet Shaʿba
n al-Ru
mi
(d. 1736), who composed many love poems of boys, at one time made a living by selling his services to less articulate people who would commission him to compose “some verses on their beloved.”
97
(d. 1566) specifically stated that it was forbidden for a person in love with a boy or a woman (other than his wife or concubine) to listen to love poetry since doing so would arouse the listener and cause him to pursue what is prohibited by law.96
A love poem could, in other words, be related to genuine feelings and aesthetic tastes, even if they were not the poet’s. The Yemeni poet Shaʿba
n al-Rumi(d. 1736), who composed many love poems of boys, at one time made a living by selling his services to less articulate people who would commission him to compose “some verses on their beloved.”97
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