History of sexuality in the Arabic-Islamic world

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to examine ideas about sexual morality in the premodern Arabic-Islamic world and how these ideas changed from the establishment of an Islamic sexual jurisprudence in the 10th centuries to the Ottoman conquest of the Arab Middle East in the early 16th century. It will especially look into the transmission and receptions of ideas about sexuality in some historical contexts, 10th-11th c. Iraq, 11- 12th c. Syria and Northern Mesopotamia, and late 13th-15th c. Mamluk Syria and Egypt. 

This is the first project that adopt a more comprehensive approach to the history of sexuality in the Arab world before the Ottoman era and the first study of sexual morality in this timeperiod. It will shed light at the contradictions that characterize the sources from this period, not the least the discrepancy between legal-religious norms and attitudes towards sexuality in other discourses, where legal regulations on issues such as extramarital relations and same-sex desire were ignored or even contested. 

The textual evidence that will be used include legal treatises, collections of legal opinions (fatwas) and case studies, manuals for protecting public order), books on advice and ethics from legalistic perspectives, anti-heresy writings, chronicles and biographies, poetry and belles-lettres, books on love and erotica, marriage, and sex manuals. Available documentary sources will be consulted, including archive research in the Middle East and Europe. The result will be presented in a monograph in English.