In the early Islamic world, Arabic erotic compendia and sex manuals were a popular literary genre. Although primarily written by male authors, the erotic publications from this era often emphasised the sexual needs of women and the importance of female romantic fulfilment.
Pernilla Myrne here explores this phenomenon, examining a range of Arabic literature to shed fresh light onto the complexities of female sexuality under the Abbasids and the Buyids. Based on an impressive array of neglected medical, religious-legal, literary and entertainment sources, Myrne elucidates the tension between depictions of women's strong sexual agency and their subordinated social role in various contexts. In the process she uncovers a great diversity of approaches from the 9th to the 11th century, including the sexual handbook the Encyclopedia of Pleasure (Jawami' al-ladhdha), which portrayed the diversity of female desires, asserting the importance of mutual satisfaction through lively poems and stories. This is the first in-depth, comprehensive analysis of female sexuality in the early Islamic world and is essential reading for all scholars of Middle Eastern history and Arabic literature.
Author(s): Pernilla Myrne
Series: The Early and Medieval Islamic World
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: viii+232
Cover page
Halftitle page
Series page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
On translation of sexually explicit words
Part One Discourses on Female Sexuality
1 Sexuality, Pleasure and Health
Background: Islamic medical authors
Sex differences in Greek and Islamic medical theory
Seed and reproduction
Sexual health in Islamic medicine
Women’s sexual health
Women’s sexual pleasure
Conclusion: Women’s health and pleasure
2 A World of Pleasure
Medicine in the Encyclopaedia of Pleasure
Seed and harmony
Erotology in the Encyclopaedia of Pleasure
Women’s shahwa and female nature
Women’s expertise in the Encyclopaedia of Pleasure
Conclusion: Women in an erotic compendium
3 Women and Sexual Rights
Female sexuality and marriage
Men’s rights, women’s duties
Do Women have sexual rights?
Female seed and purity
Chaste and lustful: the ideal wife
Towards women’s sexual rights
Part Two Women’s Words and Preferences
4 Female Strategies and Verbal Battles
Women’s voices in poetry and prose
Women’s verbal proficiency: concluding remarks
5 Sexual Comedy and Women’s Bodies
Battle of the sexes
The vagina as a poetic motif
Sexual comedy and female authorship
Women’s bodies in satire and mujūn
Defaming women: Hubbā al-Madīniyya
Defaming women: the Abbasid courtesans
A woman’s response: ʿArīb
Concluding remarks
6 Sisters and Lovers
Female homosexuality and sahq
Lesbians speaking out
Lesbian love and comedy
Why sahq? Medical and social explanations
Al-Samaw ʾal on sahq
Concluding remarks
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
