num_pages: 210
description: 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.
language: English
title: Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
titlecomplete: Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
genres: Gay, History, Religion, Sexuality, Academic, Islam, Queer, Nonfiction, Feminism, LGBT
ratings_count: 126
publisher: University of Chicago Press