Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (20 page)
Read Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 Online
Authors: Khaled El-Rouayheb
BOOK: Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
2.04Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
Some of the explicatory comments appended to the poetry are short and do not specify the identity of the beloved boy or the other characters involved, except of course the poet himself. Examples of such comments are: “he said of a boy with a mole on his cheek...” or “a boy greeted him with a rose, so he said ...”
112
In such cases, the suggestion that the comments are themselves fictional, and were not intended by authors (or believed by readers) to depict actual occurrences or liaisons, may not be too outrageous. However, the explicatory comments are often much more detailed and specific than that, and to construe them as literary fictions that made no truth-claims is wildly implausible. It is difficult to believe that Jabarti
would have said that his friend Isma
ʿi
l al-Khashsha
b fell in love with and composed love poetry of a young handsome scribe working for the French during the brief Napoleonic rule of Egypt unless he in fact believed, or wanted his readers to believe, that this was true. The biographer Muh
ibbi
would hardly have specified that the verses of Ibra
hi
m al-Batru
ni
were said of the handsome young Fathallah ibn al-Nah
h
a
s, or that Khafa
112
In such cases, the suggestion that the comments are themselves fictional, and were not intended by authors (or believed by readers) to depict actual occurrences or liaisons, may not be too outrageous. However, the explicatory comments are often much more detailed and specific than that, and to construe them as literary fictions that made no truth-claims is wildly implausible. It is difficult to believe that Jabarti
would have said that his friend Ismaʿil al-Khashshab fell in love with and composed love poetry of a young handsome scribe working for the French during the brief Napoleonic rule of Egypt unless he in fact believed, or wanted his readers to believe, that this was true. The biographer Muhibbiwould hardly have specified that the verses of Ibrahim al-Batruniwere said of the handsome young Fathallah ibn al-Nahhas, or that KhafaOther books
The Devil's Own Luck by David Donachie
Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
Something True by Malia Mallory
Mine to Take by Cynthia Eden
Alien in the House by Gini Koch
Captain Bjorn (Tales from The Compass Book 1) by Anyta Sunday, Dru Wellington
Make Out with Murder by Block, Lawrence
Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston
Alphas - Origins by Ilona Andrews
White Winter (The Black Year Series Book 2) by D.J. Bodden