Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 by Khaled El-Rouayheb

Acknowledgments
     
    The present work is a revised version of a PhD dissertation submitted at the University of Cambridge. I would like to thank Corpus Christi College, the Cambridge European Trust, and the Board of Graduate Studies of the University of Cambridge for jointly funding my PhD research. Without their generous support, the present study would not have been possible.
    My supervisor, Basim Musallam, was a constant source of support and advice during the years spent writing my dissertation. Abd al-Rahim Abu-Husayn of the American University of Beirut first supported me in my belief that a study such as this would be feasible, and introduced me to the sources of the period. Michael Cook, Geert Jan van Gelder, James Montgomery, Samir Seikaly, and Tarif Khalidi kindly read earlier versions of this work, and their comments and suggestions saved me from many a mistake and oversight. Two anonymous reviewers for the University of Chicago Press also wrote detailed and helpful reviews of the penultimate version. My thoughts on the topic have benefited from discussions with David M. Halperin, Saleh J. Agha, Joseph Massad, Martha Mundy, Annabel Keeler, Jacob Skovgaard-Petersen, Emran Mian, Frédéric Lagrange, and Mohammad Rihan. Douglas Mitchell of the University of Chicago Press gave crucial support to the idea of publishing this work. Russell Harper carefully edited the manuscript I submitted, correcting or pointing out a number of stylistic infelicities and obscurities. Christine Schwab conscientiously supervised the book through the proof reading stage. My work is much the better for the kind contributions of everyone mentioned. I have, however, undoubtedly failed to do justice to all comments and suggestions, and the remaining shortcomings are my own.
    My research would not have been possible were it not for the resources of the following libraries, kindly made available to me by their curators, librarians, and staff: Cambridge University Library; the Library of the Faculty of Oriental Studies in Cambridge; the British Library; the Jafet Library of the American University of Beirut; the Library of the London School of Oriental and African Studies; the Berlin Staatsbibliothek (Preussischen Kulturbesitz) ; the Princeton University Library; and the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. During my research trips, I enjoyed the hospitality of family and close friends: Mona El-Rouayheb, Marwan El-Rowayheb, Malek Shareef, and Nisreen Salti. Maher Jarrar, Samer Traboulsi, Suleiman Mourad, and Amal Ghazal kindly helped me to obtain out-of-the-way books and copies of manuscripts.
    Special thanks to Manja Klemenčič, for her support and patience; and to my parents, for ... everything.

Introduction
     
    The present study is an attempt to reconstruct the way in which male homosexual behavior and feelings were conceived and evaluated in the Arab-Islamic Middle East between 1500 and 1800, the centuries immediately preceding the beginnings of modernization and westernization in the nineteenth century. My central contention is that Arab-Islamic culture on the eve of modernity lacked the concept of “homosexuality,” and that writings from the period do not evince the same attitude toward all aspects of what we might be inclined to call homosexuality today. An appreciation of this point is crucial to understanding attitudes toward homosexuality in the premodern Arab-Islamic world.

Overview of the Present Study
     
    The present study is conceived as a work of cultural and intellectual history. The focus will not be on homosexual behavior in the past, but on how such behavior was perceived and represented. I should perhaps emphasize this point. In particular, I do not wish to suggest that the sexual behavior of individuals must conform in a straightforward way to the dominant sexual categories or concepts used in their society. For example, I shall be arguing that biographical and bawdy works from the period tend to distinguish conceptually