The Unbreakable Rope

Love in Bloom, an essay by Harry Seymour
Prior to the advent of Islam, homosexual
acts appear to have been commonplace
in the Arabian Peninsula amongst the
polytheistic nomadic peoples. The teachings
of the Prophet Muhammad (570 –
632 AD) effectively saw a prohibition
on such acts that spread in less than
a century from the Prophet’s journey to
Medina (622 AD) throughout the Middle
East and North Africa. Since its creation,
the Qur’an has become the way of the
word for Muslims, offering ethical, legal
and social guidance for their public and
private lives. For Muslims, the Qur’an
represents the divine word – an irrefutable
yet sacred governance.
Several times does the Qur’an condemn
homosexuality, arising from two distinct
themes. The first is regarding the story
of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah – a narrative shared with the
Judaeo-Christian Old Testament. The
second concerns the scripture regulating
the sex lives of the followers of Islam,
which sets out what is permissible and
what is prohibited with regards to sexual
intercourse (zinā). In each case, homosexuality
between men, and women
(mentioned once in in Sura 33:30) is
judged to be a base act (al-fahisha),
which can be severely punished. This
is confirmed by two often-recited passages;
“If two men among you are guilty
of lewdness, punish them both. If they
repent and amend, leave them alone,
for God is Oft-returning, Most Merciful”
(Sura 4:16), and “Of all the creatures
in the world, will ye approach males /
And leave those whom Allah has created
for you to be your mates? Nay, ye
are a people transgressing (all limits)”
(Sura 26:165-66). Exegetes interpret
these writings with varying degrees of
force, often depending on the interpretation
of the historical context in which
they were written. One explanation
for these discrepancies could be the
changes between the shorter and more
forceful Meccan verses, and the later
Sura revealed to the Prophet at Medina,
by which time Muhammad was already
the leader of a fully-flourishing society.
However, despite the Qur’an’s forbidding
of homosexual acts, during certain
periods it has played a significant role
within Islamic cultures. There is evidence
from correspondence, literature and art
to suggest that a diverse spectrum of sexuality
flourished at certain times and in
certain pockets of the empire, including
the Spanish Umayyads (756 – 1031),
the Seljuks in Persia (1037 – 1194),
the Malmuks in Egypt (1250 – 1517)
and to a certain degree, the Ottomans
in Turkey (1300 – 1923).
Abū Nuwās (756 – 814) is regarded
as one of the greatest Classical Arabic
poets (756 – 1031), who flourished
during what is seen as the Golden Age
of Islam (dar al-Islam), which consisted
of the Umayyad dynasty (661 – 750)
in Damascus and the first period of
the Abbasid dynasty (750 – 1258)
based in Baghdad. This was a culturally
lively and sophisticated period
with opulent and cosmopolitan courts.
Homosexuality was within this society,
celebrated as a variant of eroticism,
however roles (as often was the case in
Antiquity) were defined by the passive
and active participants. The older and
socially superior male would normally
adopt the active role, and typically the
passive role would be adopted by an
adolescent boy, emphasising the social
hierarchy of society. During certain periods
of this Golden Age, many chose to
shun the traditional Bedouin lifestyle of
chastity, valour and courage in battle
for a focus on wine, passionate love
and revelry. Biographers of the life of
Abū Nuwās recount his many relationships
with both women and boys, full
of the flavour of this libertine spirit. He
lived a bohemian lifestyle, especially
during the years in which al-Amīn was
caliph (809 – 13) with who Abū Nuwās
shared many experiences. His Dīwān,
a collection of lyrical prose, provides
evidence for his heady thirst for secular,
carnal life, which he said to be comprised
of four elements; “flowing water,
gardens, wine and the beautiful face of
the beloved”. The most well known and
celebrated of his erotic works are the
ghazal and the khamriyyāt, which exalt
wine and revelry. In his work ghazal,
Abū Nuwās celebrates his love boys and
young men, including epehebes (ghulām
amrtad) and fifteen year olds (khumāsi),
although both younger and older boys
are not to be discounted, even once they
have began growing facial hair (muaddir).
His work compares young males to
fawns, gazelles and kid-goats and his
descriptions of male youth-beauty conform
to those of the day: being slender
and supple with smooth skin, narrow hips
and firm buttocks, a face with moon-like
radiance, languid eyes, pink cheeks,
plump glossy lips, hair slicked back with
ambergris, a clear and pronounced
voice and musky kisses. Passages from
his work describe the seduction of young
Persian boys in taverns. Pages, prostitutes,
slaves, Christians and Zoroastrians
are all lured by presents and the clink
of gold coins. His lyrics speak of burning
carnal desires, which are sometimes
accepted but often scorned, while his
works range from euphoric and explicit
to melancholic and ironic.
Many other homoerotic Islamic authors
existed during this Golden Age, in which
homosexuality played a large part in culture,
in part explained by the fact that
Islam makes no distinction between
spirit and the flesh unlike in Christianity,
while also highly valuing sexual pleasure.
The Persian Ibn Dāwūd (868
– 909), the Andalusian Ibn Quzmān
(1080 – 1160) and the Arabic-Sicilian
Ibn Hamdīs (1053 – 1133) all wrote
skilled and beautiful prose flowered with
homoeroticism. There are also extant
practical lovemaking manuals, such as
The Perfumed Garden (Ar-rawd al-atir
fi nuzhatil khatir) written by the Tunisian
sheikh Muhammad Ibn Umar al-Nafwāzi
between 1410 and 1434, which
instructs how to enjoy sex to the fullest,
and The Book of the Respective Merits
of Maids and Youths (Kitab mufaharat
al-jawari wa-l-ghilman) written by Ūthmān
al-Jāhiz (777 – 869), which discusses
the pleasures of making love to women
versus young boys. Many texts from this
time discuss the desire of, and lovemaking
to both heterosexual and homosexual
partners, often in lively and humorous
tones.
During the Classical Age of Persian literature
beginning in the thirteenth century,
Sufism begins to gain popularity. Sufism,
recalling the teachings of Plato, is a mystical
movement that celebrates the love of
absolute beauty. In these texts the loved
one is exalted as making the pain of life
worthwhile. Some of the most prominent
Persian writers at this time were Omar
Khayyām (mid-eleventh century – 1126)
who writes about his hedonistic pursuits
of sensuality, and Sa’dī of Shiraz (1184
– 1291), who discusses his love for
young males in both spiritual and graphically
sexual terms. This same approach
is adopted by Hāfiz (1319 – 1390),
interplaying mysticism with physical
beauty to create a divine union. Much
like Abū Nuwās, Hāfiz talks of being
intoxicated with both wine and love. The
most celebrated of al poets however, is
Jalāl ad-Din Rūmī (1207 – 1273) who
writes passionately about the wandering
dervish Shams of Tarbiz. According to
the American scholar Keith Hales the
two were barely separated, deeply in
love, and often would retreat for months
at a time together in to sexual bliss.
In Islamic art, references to homosexuality
are exceptionally rare, especially as
in Orthodox Islam depictions of humans
are forbidden. Depictions of lesbian
lovers are even rarer. Some periods of
miniature painting saw homoerotic imagery
appear, particularly in Persia under
the Safavid dynasty (1502 – 1722)
and in Turkey between the sixteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Two painters
from the court of Shah Abbas the Great
(1588 – 1629) were Riza-I Abbas and
Mohammed Qāsīm Mussavir who used
explicit homosexual imagery, and in
nineteenth century Turkey Nevi Zade
Atai’s paintings contained highly explicit
imagery of penetration. However on
the whole homosexuality in Islamic art
is historically limited to young males
in salacious poses, bodies entwined
and with longing gazes. An example
of this is a ceramic commissioned by
Shah Abbas for his pleasure palace in
Isfahan in 1590, depicting four males
sat by a river in a garden gazing upon
one another whilst drinking wine. A hint
of sexual relations comes from the gentle
touching of one of the characters neck
by his counterpart. The four figures reflect
the concept of paradise as lyricised by
Abū Nuwās; “flowing water, gardens,
wine and the face of the beloved”.
With the spread of the bourgeois
throughout eighteenth century Europe,
a cultural shift happened in the Arab
empire that saw an increase in artistic
censorship (especially forbidding human
representation). Women were obliged
to wear veils and homosexuality was
scorned. In the nineteenth century the
hypocrisy of the British Victorian classes
caused homophobia to spread throughout
the Ottoman empire, and as social
tensions climaxed, sexuality became a
much less free affair. Stiffening religious
institutions, high unemployment and illiteracy
and ingrained ideas propagated
the issue throughout the decades.
Of course the situation differs historically
state to state as Islam is a body composed
of many member nations; despite
being glued by religion, these states do
not share a common political, economic
or social structure. Cultural outlooks differ
widely not only between countries, but
also provinces, towns and down to
individuals. However, homosexuality
is officially outlawed in every country
in the Islamic world and it remains a
taboo that is either silenced or denied to
exist. Sodomy is explicitly forbidden on
all sides; by the Qur’an, the hadith, the
sunna (the rules for correct behaviour),
the fiqh (jurisprudence) and the sharī’a
(the law). To the modern Arab mind,