Iraq

LHMP #240 Amer 2009 Medieval Arab Lesbians and 'Lesbian-Like'

Heather Rose Jones — Sun, 20 Jan 2019 19:39:22 +0000

Amer begins by tackling the Whorfian-tinged assertion that the lack of a specific terminology for lesbianism in medieval Europe contributed to a lack of modern scholarship about same-sex desire between women in that era, by noting that the existence of a diverse and specific vocabulary for the topic in medieval Arabic (sahq, sihaqa, musahaqat, al-nisa’, sahiqa) hasn’t resulted in a vibrant field of study. This is particularly disappointing given the significant surviving literature on the topic. Further, Amer notes, if you broaden the field of inquiry to include “lesbian-like” women (following Judith Bennett’s definition), the literature is even richer. The structure of cultural and social life in some medieval Arabic courts may contain unstudied spaces in which same-sex activity occurred that--if not “lesbian” by a strict definition--certain fall into the category of “lesbian-like.”

Medieval Arab Lesbians

The medieval Arabic vocabulary for “lesbianism” (sahq, sihaq, sihaqa) and “lesbian” (sahiqa, sahhaqa, musahiqa) arise from describing a behavior rather than an identity or orientation, coming from the root s-h-q meaning “to pound” (as with spices) or “to rub”, and thus being semantically connected to Greek tribas and Latin fricatrix.

Medieval Arabic medical theories included the idea that lesbianism was caused by an itch of the labia that could be soothed only by rubbing against another woman’s genitals. (These medical writings included versions of the 2nd century Greek writer Galen, and included a tradition that Galen’s daughter was a lesbian and had provided him with data on the topic.) This theory included humoral concepts of heat and cold to explain why sex with a man couldn’t scratch the itch in the same way. (al-Kindi, 9th c)

The scientific view of lesbianism in Arabic literature was as a medical category, with theories about the underlying cause that included maternal consumption of specific plants. (Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, 9th c) In this context, it was seen as innate, lifelong, and as morally neutral.

But although the etymology of sahq indicates an activity, the cultural context of the range of terms in medieval Arabic literature associates sahiqat with love and devotion, and in some contexts with an exclusive and supportive subculture of women who loved women. Legendary tales identify the “first lesbians” as an interfaith couple (Christian and pre-Islamic Arabic) in what is now Iraq. The earliest surviving Arabic erotic treatise (10th c) includes this tale of Hind Bint al-Nu`man and Hind Bint al-Khuss al-Iyadiyyah and places them in the 7th century. They were held up as an icon of love and loyalty.

The historicity of this story is less important than how it was presented in the Arabic literary tradition as a symbol of the greater love and devotion women have for each other than men have for women. Arabic literature embraced stories of female couples, twelve of which are named in the literary catalog Al Fihrist (al-Nadim, 10th c) although nothing except their names and the fact of their relationships is preserved. Amer provides a list of the titles of the twelve books (which are the names of the characters) with translations of what the names mean, if relevant. I’ll reproduce it here because I’ve never seen it spelled out before.

The Book of Rihana and Qoronfel (“Basil” and “Clove”)
The Book of Ruqayya and Khadija
The Book of Mo’ees and Zakiyya
The Book of Sakina and al-Rabab (“Calm” and “the Mistress of the Household”)
The Book of al-Ghatrifa and al-Dulafa’
The Book of Hind and Bint al-Nu`man (“India” and “the daughter of al-Nu`man”, the “first lesbian couple” mentioned above)
The Book of `Abda al-`Aqila and `Abda al-Ghaddara (“the Wise Slave Girl” and “the Treacherous Slave Girl”)
The Book of Lu’lu’a and Shatira
The Book of Najda and Zu’um
The Book of Salma and Su`ad
The Book of Sawab and Surur (“Justice” and “Happiness”)
The Book of al-Dahma’ and Ni`ma (“the Dark One” and “the Gift from God”)

Amer notes parallels with the Kama-sutra (from which some elements may have been borrowed) where lesbians formed groups, held meetings, and led schools of pleasure for other women. The 13th c Tunisian writer al-Tifashi offers descriptions of such a community and the teachings of its leader Rose [note: I assume this is a translation of her name]. Organized communities are also implied in the (otherwise negative) writings of Leo Africanus (15th c, from Granada but writing about Morocco) about a community of female diviners in Fez for which he uses the name suhaqiyat.

Al-Tifashi describes teachings about sexual practices, such as the a woman should “snort heartily while wiggling lasciviously” during sex and that lovemaking should be accompanied verbally by “wheezing, panting, purring, murmurs, and heartbreaking sighs.” He also includes a detailed, step-by-step description of a sexual technique called “the saffron massage.” [Note: I’ve included a translation of the full passage in this entry for mutazarrifat, the same terms applied to cultured upper-class women with lesbian-like interests. [Note: Amer doesn’t give specific examples, but if you follow the tag “

LHMP entry type:

Stand-alone

Amer, S. 2009. “Medieval Arab Lesbians and 'Lesbian-Like'” in Journal of the History of Sexuality, 18(2), 215-236.

Project ID number:

240

Introduction:

[The following is duplicated from the associated blog. I'm trying to standardize the organization of associated content.]

Even when Sahar Amer is largely recycling topics that the Project has covered from her before, there's always enough new material to provide intriguing glimpses of what's out there in the field of medieval Arabic same-sex literature. One of these years, if I continue the fiction series on the podcast, I dream of getting an own-voices story drawing on this material. (Or lots of them! But I don't want to dream too high.) The topic of women's same-sex relations in the Islamicate world has too often been treated through an Orientalizing or male-gaze lens when depicted in fiction. And as scholars like Amer note, the contemporary association within Islamic societies of homosexuality with "Western corruption" can be a bar to the exploration of these themes from within those societies. But there's such a wealth of tradition here. And it provides such a delightful contrast to the treatment of women's same-sex relations in the texts of Christian Europe in the same era.

# # #

Event / person:

The Book of Hind Nuzhat al-Albâb fîmâ lâ Yûjad fî Kitâb (The Diversion of the Hearts by What is Not to Be Found in Any Book) (Ahmad Ibn Yusuf al-Tîfâshî)Leo Africanus Qamar al-Zaman and the Princess Boudour Wallada

Blog post:

Someone Write me a Tale of Witty Elegant Lady-Lovers in Medieval Andalusia

LHMP #220 Iamblichos Babyloniaka

Heather Rose Jones — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 04:26:05 +0000

Primary Source Text: The Babyloniaka of Iamblichos

Iamblichos (or in the Latinized version, Iamblichus) was a Syrian Greek writer of the 2nd century CE. His best-known work was his Babyloniaka (Babylonian History) which was an epic romance of the lovers Rhodanes and Sinonis and their hair-raising adventures to achieve their happily ever after. A 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia indicates that the original work consisted of 39 books, but today the only surviving version is a summary by Photius, which mentions only 17 volumes. Evidently a copy of the original survived to 1671 when it was destroyed in a fire. One could wish that someone had taken the trouble to copy it, but that’s true of so many works.

Photius was a 9th century Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. Among his other endeavors, he was a compiler of Greek texts--not only religious and philosophical writings, but evidently more popular works as well. He does, however, offer his opinion of the moral and literary merit of the material, which raises the question of to what extent he may have edited texts to fit his prejudices. There’s at least a hint that he may have elided many of the details about Berenike and Mesopotamia due to disapproval, but on the other hand, he omits so much of the overall story that this may not have been a pointed choice. Many other classical Greek works are known only through his summaries and due, to later losses, this is true of the Babyloniaka of Iamblichos.

The text included below is an excerpt from a 1920 English translation by J.H. Freese entitled The Library of Photius in 5 volumes, with Iamblichos appearing in volume 1 (fortunately, since this seems to be the volume that has been made available online). Google Books has a cleaned up (though still error-filled) scan available in e-book formats and this can be proofed against a pdf scan of an original copy at archive.org (which also has a much messier OCR text). But for my purposes, I wanted to know what words were used in the original Greek (or at least in Photius’s Greek summary of the original Greek) to discuss the “love” and “marriage” between these women. The version I used is from a French website which provides parallel texts in Greek and French translation, taken from an early 19th century publication, and which conveniently separates the various authors Photius covers into individual pages. While I can’t tell if the Greek has been standardized in spelling and diacritics (likely), it presumably represents the original vocabulary. Pause for a moment to wonder at the fact that all these materials are avaialable freely and easily (at least, once you know they exist) on the internet! Truly we live in an age of riches.

The following collated version is Freese’s English translation, with the sections relevant to the story of Berenike and Mesopotamia in italics, and accompanied by the corresponding Greek. Key vocabulary is discussed (in curly braces). Freese’s footnotes are inserted in square brackets in place of the original footnote number. I’ve added some extra paragraph breaks for readability.

It’s best if you read this plot summary envisioning an ancient Greek soap opera. A really really wacky ancient Greek soap opera.

* * *

Read the Dramaticon of Iamblichus [Syrian romance-writer, probably lived about the middle of the second century A.D. The complete work is no longer extant (see Cod. LXXIII).], a narrative of love adventures. The author makes less show of indecencies than Achilles Tatius, but he is more immoral than the Phoenician Heliodorus. Of these three writers, who have all adopted the same subject and have chosen love intrigues as the material for their stories, Heliodorus is more serious and restrained, Iamblichus less so, while Achilles Tatius pushes his obscenity to impudence. The style of Iamblichus is soft and flowing; if there is anything vigorous and sonorous in it, it is less characterized by intensity than by what may be called titillation and nervelessness. Iamblichus is so distinguished by excellence of style and arrangement and the order of the narrative that it is to be regretted that he did not devote his skill and energies to serious subjects instead of to puerile fictions.

The characters of the story are a handsome couple named Rhodanes and Sinonis, united by the tie of mutual love and marriage. Garmus, king of Babylon, having lost his wife, falls in love with Sinonis and is eager to marry her. Sinonis refuses and is bound with chains of gold, while Rhodanes is placed upon the cross by Damas and Sacas, the king's eunuchs. He is taken down through the efforts of Sinonis, and the lovers take to flight, one thus escaping death, the other a hated marriage. Sacas and Damas have their ears and noses cut off and are sent after the fugitives. They take different routes to carry out the search. Rhodanes and Sinonis are nearly surprised by Damas in a meadow. For a fisherman had told him of some shepherds who, being put to the torture, at last show him the meadow where Rhodanes had discovered a treasure, revealed to him by the inscription engraved on a cippus [A monumental pillar or monument generally marking the site of a grave.] surmounted by a lion.

A spectre in the form of a goat becomes enamoured of Sinonis, which obliges the lovers to leave the meadow. Damas finds a garland of flowers dropped by Sinonis and sends it to Garmus as a consolation. In their flight, the lovers come across an old woman at the door of a hut; they hide themselves in a cave, thirty stades long and open at both ends, the mouth of which is concealed by thick bushes. Damas comes up with his companions, and questions the old woman, who is terrified by the sight of the naked sword. The horses on which Rhodanes and Sinonis had ridden are captured. The soldiers surround their hiding-place; the brazen shield of one of those who were keeping watch is broken on the cave; the hollowness of the echo discloses the whereabouts of the fugitives; the soldiers begin to dig, and Damas's shouts reach the ears of those within. They retire farther into the cave and make their way to the second opening.

Here a swarm of wild bees attacks the diggers, drops of honey falling also upon the fugitives. The bees as well as the honey are infected with poison from their having eaten certain venomous reptiles, so that the diggers whom they sting either lose a limb or die. Rhodanes and his companion, hard pressed by hunger, lick up some drops of the honey, are seized with colic, and fall on the road as if dead. The soldiers, worn out by the attack of the bees, take to flight but renew the pursuit of the lovers. Seeing Rhodanes and Sinonis prostrate in the road, they pass them by, taking them for two dead strangers. Sinonis, while in the cave, had cut her hair, and made a rope with it to draw water; Damas finds it and sends it to Garmus, as an earnest of the speedy capture of the fugitives. The soldiers who passed by where Rhodanes and Sinonis were lying in the road pay respect to them as if they were really dead, according to the custom of the country; some cover them with their tunics, others throw over them anything they have at hand, even pieces of bread and meat, and then go their way.

The lovers recover from the drowsiness caused by the honey; Rhodanes had been roused by some crows quarrelling over some pieces of meat, and woke Sinonis. Getting up, they go in the opposite direction to the soldiers, so as to be less easily recognized. They meet two asses and mount them, having first loaded them with part of what the soldiers, thinking them dead, had thrown over them, and which the lovers had carried away. They stop at an inn, but soon leave it for another, in the neighbourhood of a full market-place. Two brothers have died and they are accused of their murder, but acquitted. The elder of the two brothers, who had poisoned the younger and who had accused them, poisons himself, thereby proving their innocence. Rhodanes gets possession of the poison without being seen.

They put up at the house of a brigand who robbed passers-by and ate them. Soldiers sent by Damas capture the brigand and set fire to his house; Rhodanes and Sinonis, enveloped by the flames, with great difficulty escape with their lives, after they have killed the asses and thrown them on the fire to make a bridge across. The soldiers who fired the house, meeting them during the night, ask them who they are. "We are the ghosts of those murdered by the brigands," they reply. Their thin, pale countenances, the weakness of their voice, persuade the soldiers that they are speaking the truth, whereat they are greatly alarmed.

The lovers resume their flight, and meeting a young girl who is being carried to the grave, join the throng of spectators. An old Chaldaean comes up and stops the funeral, saying that the girl is still alive, and so it turns out to be. He predicts to Rhodanes and Sinonis that they will attain royal rank. The girl's grave is left empty, and a great part of the robes which were to be burnt and of the food and drink is left behind. Rhodanes and Sinonis make a good meal, take some of the clothes and sleep in the grave.

In the morning, the soldiers who had fired the house find they have been deceived, and set out in pursuit of Rhodanes and Sinonis, imagining that they are accomplices of the brigand. Having traced them as far as the grave and seeing them lying there motionless, overcome by wine and sleep, they imagine they are looking on corpses and so leave them, although they hesitated since their footsteps guided them thither. [Or, "being uncertain whether their footsteps led thither,”] Rhodanes and Sinonis leave the grave and cross the river, the waters of which are sweet and clear and reserved for the king of Babylon alone to drink.

Sinonis, when trying to sell the clothes she has taken, is arrested for sacrilege and brought before Soraechus, the son of Soraechus the tax-gatherer and named the Just. Owing to her beauty, he is minded to send her to king Garmus; whereupon Rhodanes and Sinonis mix a dose of poison, considering death preferable to the sight of this king. Their intention is revealed by a female slave to Soraechus, who secretly empties the cup containing the deadly potion and fills it with a sleeping draught; after they have drunk it and are in a deep sleep they are placed in a carriage to be taken to the king.

A little way from Babylon, Rhodanes is frightened by a dream and cries out; this wakes Sinonis, who takes up a sword and wounds herself in the breast. Soraechus wants to know their history, and the lovers having received a solemn promise from him, tell him everything. He sets them at liberty and shows them a temple of Aphrodite on a little island, where Sinonis can be healed of her wound.

* * *

By way of digression the author relates the history of the temple and the little island, which is formed by the surrounding waters of the Euphrates and Tigris. The priestess of Aphrodite had three children, Euphrates, Tigris, and Mesopotamia, the last, who was born ugly, being changed into a woman so beautiful that three suitors quarrelled for her hand. Bochorus, the most famous judge of the time, was chosen to decide their claims, and the three rivals pleaded their cause. Now Mesopotamia had given one of them the cup from which she drank, had crowned the second with a garland of flowers from her own head, and had kissed the third. Bochorus decided that she belonged to the one whom she had kissed, but this decision only embittered the quarrel, which ended in the death of the rivals by one another's hands.

{There is no discussion here of Mesopotamia’s relationship with Berenike, so we don’t know whether they have already met and fallen in love. I confess that my writer’s imagination has spun off a previous meeting and kiss between the two women, such that Mesopotamia eagerly agrees that she belongs to “the one whom she had kissed” envisioning Berenike. But I’ll save that for if I ever decide to write my own version.}

* * *

Ὡς ἐν παρεκβολῇ δὲ διηγεῖται καὶ τὰ περὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ τῆς νησῖδος, καὶ ὅτι ὁ Εὐφράτης καὶ ὁ Τίγρις περιρρέοντες αὐτὴν ποιοῦσι νησῖδα, καὶ ὅτι ἡ τῆς ἐνταῦθα Ἀφροδίτης ἱέρεια τρεῖς ἔσχε παῖδας, Εὐφράτην καὶ Τίγριν καὶ Μεσοποταμίαν, αἰσχρὰν τὴν ὄψιν ἀπὸ γενέσεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης εἰς κάλλος μετασκευασθεῖσαν. Δι´ ἣν καὶ ἔρις τριῶν ἐραστῶν γίνεται, καὶ κρίσις ἐπ´ αὐτούς. Βόροχος ἢ Βόχορος ὁ κρίνων ἦν, κριτῶν τῶν κατ´ ἐκείνους καιροὺς ἄριστος. Ἐκρίνοντο δὲ καὶ ἤριζον οἱ τρεῖς, ὅτι τῷ μὲν ἡ Μεσοποταμία τὴν φιάλην ἐξ ἧς ἔπιεν ἔδωκε, τῷ δὲ τὸν ἀπὸ τῆς κεφαλῆς ἐξ ἀνθέων ἀφελομένη στέφανον περιέθηκε, τὸν δὲ ἐφίλησε. Καὶ τοῦ φιληθέντος κρίσει νικήσαντος οὐδὲν ἔλαττον αὐτοῖς ἡ ἔρις ἤκμαζεν, ἕως ἀλλήλους ἀνεῖλον ἐρίζοντες.

* * *

In another digression the author gives details of the temple of Aphrodite. The women who visit it are obliged to reveal in public the dreams they have had in the temple; this leads to minute details of Pharnuchus, Pharsiris and Tanais, from whom the river is named. Pharsiris and Tanais initiated those who dwelt on the banks of the river into the mysteries of Aphrodite. Tigris died in the little island just mentioned, after having eaten of some roses in the buds of which, not yet full blown, lurked a poisonous little beetle. His mother believed she had made him a demi-god by her enchantments.

Iamblichus then describes different kinds of enchantments —by locusts, lions and mice. According to him, the last is the oldest, the mysteries being called after the name of these animals. [Deriving μυστήριον [mysterion] from μῦσ [mys].] There are also enchantments by hail, snakes, necromancy and ventriloquism, the ventriloquist being called by the Greeks Eurycles, and by the Babylonians Sacchuras. The author calls himself a Babylonian and says that, after having learnt the art of magic, he devoted himself to the study of the Greek arts and sciences. He flourished in the reign of Soaemus, son of Achaemenides the Arsacid, who occupied the throne of his fathers, and was afterwards a Roman senator and consul, and king of Greater Armenia. [A.D. 164.] At this time Marcus Aurelius was Roman emperor. When Aurelius sent Verus, his adopted brother and son-in-law and colleague in the empire, to make war against Vologaesus [Or Vologases III (148-190).] the Parthian king, Iamblichus predicted the beginning, the course, and end of the war. He also tells how Vologaesus fled over the Euphrates and Tigris, and how the kingdom of Parthia became a Roman province.

Tigris and Euphrates, the children of the priestess, were very like each other, and Rhodanes was like both. Tigris, as has been mentioned, had been poisoned by eating roses, and when Rhodanes crosses over to the island with Sinonis, the mother of Tigris, when she sets eyes on Rhodanes, declares that her son has come back to life, accompanied by Kore. [Reading Κόρην with capital K. Kore or Persephone, daughter of Demeter (Ceres), wife of Pluto, and queen of the lower world. If κόρην be read, we must translate "and bids her daughter follow him.”] Rhodanes falls in with the deception, highly amused at the credulity of the islanders.

Damas is informed of what has happened to Rhodanes and Sinonis and of what Soraechus has done for them, his informant being the physician whom Soraechus had secretly sent to attend to Sinonis's wound. Soraechus is arrested and taken to Garmus, and at the same time the informer is sent with a letter to the priest of Aphrodite, ordering him to seize Rhodanes and Sinonis. The physician, in order to cross the river, hangs himself round the neck of a camel in the usual manner, having first deposited the letter in the animal's right ear. He is drowned in the river, the camel alone reaches the island, and Rhodanes and Sinonis, taking Damas's letter out of its ear, become aware of the danger that threatens them.

They accordingly take to flight, and on the way meet Soraechus, who is being taken to Garmus, and put up at the same inn. During the night Rhodanes bribes certain persons to slay the guards of Soraechus, who takes to flight with the lovers, being thus rewarded for his previous kindness.

* * *

Damas arrests the priest of Aphrodite and questions him about Sinonis; the old man is condemned to change his ministry for the office of executioner; the manners and customs relating to this office. Euphrates, whom the priest his father takes for Rhodanes and calls him by this name, is arrested, and his sister Mesopotamia takes to flight. Euphrates is taken before Sacas and questioned about Sinonis, being taken for Rhodanes and examined as such. Sacas sends a messenger to Garmus to inform him that Rhodanes is captured and that Sinonis soon will be. For Euphrates, when questioned in the name of Rhodanes, being obliged to call his sister Mesopotamia by the name of Sinonis, declares that Sinonis fled when she saw him arrested.

{Once again, no reference to the relationship between Mesopotamia and Berenike.}

* * *

Συλλαμβάνει Δάμας τὸν τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ἱερέα, καὶ ἀνακρίνεται περὶ Σινωνίδος, καὶ τέλος κατακρίνεται δήμιος γενέσθαι ἀντὶ ἱερέως ὁ πρεσβύτης. Καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν δήμιον ἔθη καὶ νόμιμα. Συλλαμβάνεται Εὐφράτης, ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ καὶ ἱερεύς, ὡς Ῥοδάνην αὐτὸν ὑπολαβών, οὕτως ἐπεκάλει· καὶ φεύγει Μεσοποταμία ἡ ἀδελφή. Καὶ πρὸς τὸν Σάκαν ἀπάγεται Εὐφράτης, καὶ ἀνακρίνεται περὶ Σινωνίδος· ὡς γὰρ Ῥοδάνης ἠτάζετο. Ἀποστέλλει Σάκας πρὸς Γάρμον ὅτι Ῥοδάνης συνείληπται καὶ Σινωνὶς συλληφθήσεται· ὁ γὰρ Εὐφράτης, ὡς Ῥοδάνης κρινόμενος ἔφη, τὴν Σινωνίδα συλλαμβανομένου αὐτοῦ πεφευγέναι, Σινωνίδα καλεῖν κἀκεῖνος ἐκβιαζόμενος τὴν ἀδελφὴν Μεσοποταμίαν.

* * *

The fugitives Rhodanes, Sinonis and Soraechus, put up at the house of a farm-labourer. He has a beautiful daughter, who has just lost her husband, and out of her affection for him has cut her hair. She is sent to a goldsmith to sell the golden chain which Sinonis had brought from her former prison. The goldsmith, seeing the beauty of the young woman, and recognizing part of the chain which he happened to have made himself, and noticing that she has her hair cut, suspects that she is Sinonis. He accordingly informs Damas and has the labourer's daughter secretly watched. Suspecting what is afoot, she takes refuge in an empty house.

The story of the young girl named Trophime, of the slave who was both her lover and murderer, of the golden ornaments, of the lawless conduct of the slave, of his suicide, of the blood that spirted over the labourer's daughter when the murderer was committing suicide, of the fear and flight of the young woman, of the terror and flight of those who were keeping watch on her, of the young woman's return to her father, of the story of her adventures, of the departure of Rhodanes, and of the letter sent by the goldsmith to inform Damas that Sinonis has been found. To confirm his letter, he sends the chain which he has bought, and mentions the other suspicious circumstances connected with the labourer's daughter.

Rhodanes, at the moment of leaving, kisses the labourer's daughter. Sinonis is furiously jealous; at first she had only suspected this kiss, but her suspicions were confirmed when she wiped off the marks of blood with which his lips were stained. Sinonis makes up her mind to kill the young woman and hastens back like a madwoman, followed by Soraechus, who is unable to calm her passionate fury.

They put up at the house of a wealthy man of dissolute habits, named Setapus, who falls in love with Sinonis and tries to seduce her. She pretends to return his love and, at night, when Setapus is intoxicated, stabs him with a sword, orders the servants to open the door, leaves Soraechus, who is ignorant of what has happened, and sets out in haste to find the labourer's daughter.

Soraechus, when he hears of her departure, starts in pursuit, having hired some of the slaves of Setapus to accompany him, so as to prevent the murder of the labourer's daughter. He overtakes her, makes her get into a carriage which had been prepared beforehand, and turns back with her. On their return, the servants of Setapus, who had found their dead master, filled with rage rush upon them, seize Sinonis, bind her, and take her to Garmus to be punished as a murderess. Soraechus, having sprinkled his head with dust, and rent his cloak, announces the sad news to Rhodanes, who would have killed himself, but is prevented by Soraechus.

Garmus, having received the letters from Sacas and the goldsmith, informing him of the capture of Rhodanes and Sinonis, rejoices greatly, offers sacrifice to the gods, orders preparations to be made for the marriage, and issues a decree that all prisoners should be unbound and set free. Sinonis is accordingly released from her bonds by the servants of Setapus.

Garmus orders Damas to be put to death and he is handed over to the priest whom he himself had deprived of his priesthood and made executioner. Garmus was wroth with Damas, because he had allowed others to have the honour of arresting the supposed Rhodanes and Sinonis. Damas is succeeded in his office by his brother Monasus.

* * *

The story of Berenice, daughter of the king of Egypt, of her disgraceful amours, of her intimacy with Mesopotamia, who was afterwards seized by Sacas and, as Sinonis, sent to Garmus with her brother Euphrates. Garmus, hearing from the goldsmith that Sinonis has escaped, orders him to be put to death, and the guards, who had been deputed to watch the pretended Sinonis and to bring her to him, to be buried alive with their women and children.

{So here we finally bring Berenike into the story, with the clear implication that she and Mesopotamia already had a thing going on much earlier in the story.}

* * *

Διάληψις περὶ Βερενίκης, ἥτις ἦν θυγάτηρ τοῦ βασιλέως Αἰγυπτίων, καὶ τῶν ἀγρίων αὐτῆς καὶ ἐκθέσμων ἐρώτων· καὶ ὅπως Μεσοποταμίᾳ τε συνεγίνετο, καὶ ὡς ὕστερον ὑπὸ Σάκα συνελήφθη Μεσοποταμία, καὶ πρὸς Γάρμον ἅμα τῷ ἀδελφῷ Εὐφράτῃ ἀπάγεται. Γράμμα δεξάμενος Γάρμος παρὰ τοῦ χρυσοχόου ὡς Σινωνὶς διαπέφευγε, προστάσσει ἐκεῖνόν τε ἀναιρεθῆναι καὶ τοὺς ἐπὶ φυλακῇ ταύτης καὶ ἀγωγῇ σταλέντας αὐταῖς γυναιξὶ καὶ τέκνοις ζῶντας κατορυχθῆναι.

{ἀγρίων is from a root meaning “wild, fierce, savage, uncivilized” but used here as a noun, so perhaps something like “wild/uncivilized actions”? In ἐκθέσμων ἐρώτων the second word is easily recognizable as from the root “eros” (desire, erotic love). The first word, ἐκθέσμων, appears to be derived from θέσμός “law, rule, order”, so with that prefix, “unlawful” or perhaps “unnatural”. In the following phrase, συνεγίνετο with the dative can mean “to have intercourse with." Also “to be acquainted with” but this is less likely in the near vicinity of ἐρώτων! In any event, taken all together we get a clear description of an erotic relatoinship and activities.}

* * *

An Hyrcanian dog, belonging to Rhodanes, finds in the ill-omened inn the bodies of the unhappy girl and of the slave, her infatuated lover and murderer. It has already devoured the body of the slave and half eaten that of the young girl, when the father of Sinonis comes on the scene. Recognizing the dog as belonging to Rhodanes and seeing the half-eaten body of the girl, he first kills the dog as a sacrifice to Sinonis and then hangs himself, having first buried the remains of the girl and written on her tomb with the blood of the dog, "Here lies the beautiful Sinonis."

Meanwhile Rhodanes and Soraechus come up, see the dog lying dead by the tomb, Sinonis's father hanging by a rope, and the epitaph written on the tomb. Rhodanes stabs himself and adds to the epitaph on Sinonis the words: "and the handsome Rhodanes," written in his own blood. Soraechus puts his head in the noose, and Rhodanes is preparing to give himself the death blow, when the labourer's daughter rushes in, shouting loudly, "Rhodanes, she who lies here is not Sinonis." She runs and cuts the rope by which Soraechus is hanging, and snatches the dagger from the hand of Rhodanes. At last she manages to convince them by relating the story of the unhappy girl, and of the buried treasure, which she had come to carry off.

Meanwhile Sinonis, released from her bonds, hastens to the labourer's house, still furious with his daughter. Unable to find her, she asks her father where she is, and on his telling her the way she has taken, she immediately sets out in pursuit with drawn sword. At the sight of Rhodanes lying on the ground and her rival sitting alone by his side, endeavouring to staunch the wound in his breast (Soraechus having gone to fetch a physician) her rage and jealousy know no bounds and she rushes upon the young woman. But Rhodanes, forgetting his wound at the sight of her violence, musters up strength to throw himself in front of Sinonis and hold her back, at the same time snatching the sword from her hands. Sinonis, transported with rage, rushes out of the inn and running like a madwoman shouts to Rhodanes: "I invite you to-day to Garmus's wedding." Soraechus, on his return, hearing what has taken place, consoles Rhodanes, and after his wound has been dressed, the labourer's daughter is sent back with money to her father.

{As a comparative text to the following, I note that Sinonis's taunt "I invite you to-day to Garmus's wedding" renders the following Greek: Καλῶ σε σήμερον εἰς τοὺς Γάρμου γάμους. This uses the same word "γάμους" as is used for the union between Berenice and Mesopotamia in the next passage.}

* * *

Euphrates and Mesopotamia, the supposed Rhodanes and Sinonis, together with Soraechus and the real Rhodanes are taken before Garmus. Garmus, seeing that Mesopotamia is not Sinonis, delivers her to Zobaras with orders to cut off her head on the banks of the Euphrates, to prevent any one else in future taking the name of Sinonis. But Zobaras, who has already drunk at the fountain of love, is smitten with Mesopotamia; he spares her life and sends her back to Berenice, who had become queen of Egypt after her father's death, and from whom she had been taken. [By Sacas (p. 174).] Berenice is again united to Mesopotamia, on whose account Garmus threatens war.

Euphrates is handed over to his father, now executioner, by whom he is recognized, and his life is spared. He takes the place of his father, whose hands are not soiled with human blood, and afterwards, disguised as the daughter of the executioner, escapes from the prison and regains his freedom.

{This gives us a few more clues to the timeline of Berenike and Mesopotamia. I’ll try to put the whole known timeline for them together at the end.}

* * *

Ἄγεται πρὸς Γάρμον Εὐφράτης ὡς Ῥοδάνης, καὶ ὡς Σινωνὶς Μεσοποταμία· ἄγεται καὶ Σόραιχος καὶ ὁ ἀληθὴς Ῥοδάνης. Καὶ διαγνοὺς ὁ Γάρμος μὴ εἶναι Σινωνίδα τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν, δίδωσι Ζοβάρᾳ παρὰ ποταμὸν Εὐφράτην καρατομῆσαι ἵνα μή, φησί, καὶ ἑτέρα τις τοῦ τῆς Σινωνίδος ἐπιβατεύσῃ ὀνόματος. Ὁ δὲ Ζοβάρας ἀπὸ πηγῆς ἐρωτικῆς πιὼν καὶ τῷ Μεσοποταμίας ἔρωτι σχεθείς, σῴζει τε ταύτην καὶ πρὸς Βερενίκην Αἰγυπτίων ἤδη, ἅτε τοῦ πατρὸς τελευτήσαντος βασιλεύουσαν, ἐξ ἧς ἦν καὶ ἀφελόμενος, ἄγει· καὶ γάμους Μεσοποταμίας ἡ Βερενίκη ποιεῖται, καὶ πόλεμος δι´ αὐτὴν Γάρμῳ καὶ Βερενίκῃ διαπειλεῖται.

Εὐφράτης δὲ παραδίδοται τῷ πατρὶ ὡς δημίῳ καὶ ἀναγνωσθεὶς σῴζεται, καὶ πληροῖ μὲν αὐτὸς τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἔργα, ὁ δὲ πατὴρ οὐ μιαίνεται τοῖς ἀνθρώπων αἵμασιν· ὕστερον δέ, ὡς τοῦ δημίου κόρη, ἐξέρχεται τοῦ οἰκήματος καὶ διασῴζεται.

{My classical Greek consultant notes with regard to γάμους (from γάμος “marriage” in its basic sense) that “in later Greek particularly, [it] gets an extended meaning that makes it more of a euphemism for sex, including illicit sex; when it's in the plural, it's even more likely to mean prostitution, rape, or, as my dictionary delicately puts it, ‘unlawful wedlock’. So it's more along the lines of ‘Berenice has illicit sex with Mestopotamia’.” This is a bit less unambiguous than Brooten implies. We still have a sexual context, but less clearly an assertion of marriage in the sense of a formal contract. But on the other hand, the exact same word was used for the expected union between Sinonis and King Garmus. Perhaps Freese’s “united to” is at an appropriate level of ambiguity, but if so, it is an ambiguity that applies to the heterosexual relationships in the text as well. Even as a euphemism, the word clearly evokes the concept of marriage. It may be one of those cases where, if you accept the concept of marriage between women, then you can understand it as referring to a marriage between two women, whereas if you consider marriage between woman an impossibility or absurdity, you’re left interpreting it in a purely sexual sense.}

* * *

Such was the state of affairs when Soraechus is condemned to be crucified. The place of execution appointed was the meadow with the fountain where Rhodanes and Sinonis had first rested during their flight, where Rhodanes had discovered the hidden treasure of which he informs Soraechus when the latter is being led away to execution. A body of Alans, indignant at not receiving their pay from Garmus, who had halted at the place where Soraechus was to be executed, drive away the guards of Soraechus and set him free. Soraechus, having found the treasure of which he had been told, and having cleverly removed it from its hiding-place, persuades the Alans that he has learnt this and other things from the gods. Having gradually gained their confidence, he induces them to elect him their king, makes war upon Garmus and defeats him. But this happened later.

While Soraechus is on his way to execution, Garmus, crowned with garlands and dancing, orders Rhodanes to be taken to the place where he was to have been executed before, and to be placed upon the cross. While Garmus, drunk with wine and dancing round the cross with the fluteplayers, abandons himself to joy and revelry, he receives a letter from Sacas, informing him that Sinonis has just married the young king of Syria. Rhodanes is rejoiced, Garmus at first wants to kill himself, but, changing his mind, makes the unwilling Rhodanes, who would have preferred death, come down from the cross. Garmus then appoints him to the command of an army which he decides to send against the king of Syria, so as to pit the lover against the rival.

Rhodanes is treacherously received by the army in a friendly manner, Garmus having privately instructed the generals under Rhodanes that, if their army is victorious and Sinonis is captured, they are to put Rhodanes to death. Rhodanes gains the victory, recovers Sinonis, and becomes king of Babylon, as a swallow had foretold. For when Garmus in person came to see Rhodanes set out on the expedition, an eagle and a kite pursued this swallow, which escaped the eagle but became the prey of the kite. Such is the contents of the sixteen books.

* * *

So here’s a brief summary of the events from the point of view of Mesopotamia and Berenike, as best I can work it out. All the other stories have been stripped down to only the context necessary for this part.

Mesopotamia is the daughter of a priest and priestess of Aphrodite, living on an island between the Euphrates and Tigris. She has two brothers, named after the rivers, and she herself is named for the land between those rivers (meso “middle” potamos “river”). Mesopotamia was born ugly but was changed (by unspecified means) into a beautiful woman. The two brothers closely resemble each other and also resemble Rhodanes, enough that they can all be mistaken for each other. Mesopotamia (in her beautiful version) so closely resembles Sinones that they too can be mistaken for each other.

At some point in the past, Tigris has died from eating poisoned roses.

Berenike is the daughter of the king of Egypt and evidently is known for “disgraceful amours” and at some point in here has an erotic relationship with Mesopotamia. It is not specified whether that relationship is before or after the following episode.

Mesopotamia had three suitors arguing over the right to marry her. At some point in this triple courtship, she gives one of them a cup from which she drank, crowned one of them with a garland of flowers taken from her own head, and kissed the third. The famous judge, Bochorus, judged that she belonged to the one she’d kissed, but the three suitors contested the decision and fought until all three were dead.

There is an implication that at the time of the following events, Mesopotamia and Berenike are together, so presumably both are present on the island where the temple of Aphrodite is.

Rhodanes and Sinonis are sent to the temple of Aphrodite to recover from the wounds of their most recent adventure and the late Tigris’s mother believes Rhodanes is her son come back to life, accompanied by Kore (Persephone) from the land of the dead. Rhodanes is amused and goes along with the deception.

The physician who attended previously to Rhodanes’ wounds betrays his location to Damas, the servant of King Garmus, and then is sent to the priest of Aphrodite with a message ordering him to seize Rhodanes and Sinonis, but the physician drowns crossing to the island and his message falls into the hands of Rhodanes and Sinonis, giving them warning and they flee the island.

Damas arrives at the island only to learn that his instruction to the priest of Aphrodite has not been carried out and he arrests the priest. Now the visual confusion between the various characters really comes into play. The priest calls his own son Euphrates by the name of the fugitive Rhodanes, resulting in the arrest of Euphrates (in place of Rhodanes). Seeing this, Mesopotamia takes flight. When Euphrates (mistaken for Rhodanes) is interrogated about the whereabouts of Sinonis, he says that the fleeing Mesopotamia was actually Sinonis, fleeing when she saw Damas arrive.

There is some confusion over exactly when and by whom Mesopotamia (taken for Sinonis) is captured and sent as a prisoner to King Garmus, along with Euphrates (taken for Rhodanes). It’s said that Damas arrested Euphrates/Rhodanes, but then it’s said that Sacas (another servant of King Garmus) was responsible for seizing Mesopotamia/Sinonis. It doesn’t much matter. On receiving news of the capture of (the false) Sinonis and Rhodanes, King Garmus celebrates by releasing all his prisoners, including the true Sinonis.

Euphrates (taken for Rhodanes) and Mesopotamia (taken for Sinonis) as well as the real Rhodanes are all taken before King Garmus where Garmus recognizes that Mesopotamia is not actually Sinonis and orders her to be killed for “impersonating” her. But her executioner falls in love with Mesopotamia, spares her life, and sends her back to Berenike, who in the mean time has become queen of Egypt at her father’s death. Berenike and Mesopotamia are married, though King Garmus is still mad about something to do with Mesopotamia and threatens war over it (presumably against Egypt?).

The embedded family saga is concluded when Euphrates is handed over for execution only to discover that the executioner is his own father (the former priest of Aphrodite) who spares his life. Euphrates takes his father’s place and later escapes the prison disguised as “the daughter of the executioner.” (would this be “disguised as his own sister”? Unclear.)

So, all in all, is this a text that supports the idea that marriage between women was a normal, accepted event associated with Egypt in the 2nd century CE (when Iamblichos was writing)? I’d have to judge that as “not proven.” The Babyloniaka is clearly a fantastic story of improbable events, not even a pseudo-history. But conversely, a female same-sex relationship in included in the story as an unremarkable event, described with the same word "γάμους" as is used for hterosexual relatoinships. Photius, at least, clearly disapproves of the women's relationship and recall that he explicitly refers to Iamblichos’ text as “immoral.” So we can’t rely on Photius as reflecting the original author’s position. Further, when you consider how rare it is for fictional texts to introduce the idea of same-sex romance at all, then it seems meaningful that Iamblichos included this element in a context where there seems to be no direct motivation for it. (Unlike, for example, Ovid’s story of Iphis and Ianthe, where the same-sex element is the whole point of the story.) Brooten notes other texts that associate same-sex romance or marriage with Egypt in the classical era, though I think all of them have some amibiguity.

Even the most conservative reading of this text is that the 2nd century audience for the Babyloniaka would not have considered a romantic relationship--and perhaps even marriage--between a fictional Egyptian queen and a Babylonian woman to be an event that needed special pleading. The text clearly calls their relationship “erotic” in the sexual sense and uses the word gamos which at the very least evokes the concept (if not with certainty the legal status) of marriage, in parallel with how heterosexual unions are described. Within the context of the Project, we can consider this as a motif that women of the 2nd century within the Greco-Roman cultural sphere could reasonably have been aware of and used as a way to frame their own desires. The most generous reading is that marriage between women may have been an ordinary event in Egypt that has been largely erased from the historic record by later Christian writers and the prevailing misogyny of both pagan and Christian Roman culture. This, I think, goes beyond what this specific text can be considered to establish.

But I think someday I will write my own version of their story.

LHMP entry type:

Stand-alone

Photius (trans. J.H. Freese). 1920. The Library of Photius (volume 1). The Macmillan Company, New York. - Greek text from De La Rochette, S. Charon. 1812. Mélanges de Critique et de Philologie. D’Hautel, Paris.

Publication summary:

English translation, with key passages in the original Greek, of Photius' summary of the Babyloniaka of Iamblichos, including the romance and marriage(?) of Berenike, Queen of Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

Project ID number:

220

Introduction:

[The following is duplicated from the associated blog. I'm trying to standardize the organization of associated content.]

With the help of several online friends (yay twitter!) I tracked down various versions of this text in time to discuss in in my podcast on women loving women in classical Rome, so it only made sense to add it to my occasional series of LHMP entries with primary sources. I can't say that I was happy to find that the evidence in the story for women's same-sex marriage in ancient Egypt was not quite as solid as some authors (like Brooten) imply. But it's still a clear presentation of a romantic and erotic (and possibly matrimonial) relationship depicted in a fictional context by an author within the cultural scope of the Roman empire and presented using language identical to that used for heterosexual relationships.

I'm amused to find that over-the-top ancient Greek adventure-romances were evidently A Thing. Next week's entry will look at parallels between the plot stucture of Greek romances and an early Christian text "The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena" which involves a similar string of separations, abductions, rescues, devoted pining, and dramatic reunion.

Unlike Ovid, Iamblichos doesn't seem to have had any doubts that women could not only feel desire for each other but had clear ideas about how to act on it. But this text also points out how easy it is for evidence of women's homoeroticism to be erased across the ages. Photius wrote his summary of the Babyloniaka and skipped over much of the side-story of Berenike with the bare outline: The story of Berenice, daughter of the king of Egypt, of her disgraceful amours, of her intimacy with Mesopotamia. If the character of Mesopotamia hadn't been so essential to the central story of Rhodanes and Sinonis, one imagines that Photius might have eliminated it altogether as part of the unfortunately "immoral" portions of Iamblichos' work.

Wikipedia says that the last known copy of the original text by Iamblichos was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1671...but that the fate of the work hinged on a single copy speaks of a history of neglect and indifference. Mind you, based on the summary that we have, the Babyloniaka may not have been exactly a shining lamp of literature. Perhaps the characterization by Photius that it was a "puerile fiction" has merit. But there's a long history of female erasure based on which texts are considered to have merit. Perhaps we need our "puerile fictions" if that's the only place we can find ourselves reflected.

# # #

Event / person:

Babyloniaka (Iamblichos)

Blog post:

Several Funerals and Maybe a Wedding: Berenike and Mesopotamia

LHMP #194 Rowson 2003 Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court in Medieval Baghdad

Heather Rose Jones — Thu, 03 May 2018 14:17:09 +0000

One of the features of medieval Islamic societies, at least among the urban elite, was a strict segregation of the sexes. This might imply a clear distinction in gender roles however the approach to sexuality in these cultures--in particular regarding male homoeroticism--resulted in some approaches to gender roles that contrast sharply to those of Christian cultures. These approaches included significant allowance for specific classes of persons to transgress the accepted forms of gender expression within certain limits. In fact, institutionalized forms of both male and female cross-dressing can be traced in certain times and places. A closer examination of these two phenomena, however, reveals significant asymmetries in their motivation and treatment that revolve around the primacy of the sexual desires of elite men.

The article surveys some more recent ethnographic studies of cross/trans-gender roles in the Islamicate world, including the khanīths of contemporary Oman (men presenting as feminine who work as homosexual prostitutes) and male dancers in 19th century Cairo with feminine presentation. Similar medieval roles are less studied and the focus of this article is something of a catalog of specific identifiable roles.

The male cross-gender role of mukhannath, which can be traced at least as far back as the time of the Prophet (7th century) in Medina, functioned primarily as musicians. After a brief period of government suppression in the early 8th century ending with the fall of the Umayyad caliphate, they re-emerged as court entertainers in Baghdad in the late 8th century.

Moving into the 9th century, there are also references to a female cross-gender role of ghulāmīyāt. Although female cross-dressers can be found in passing mentions earlier, this is the earliest known reference to an established and named role that emerged under the `Abbāsid caliphate. The motivation for the ghulāmīyāt role is given as a strategy of the mother of one caliph, known for his sexual preference for male eunuchs, who presented him with women in male dress and hair styles to entice him to produce heirs. The word ghulāmīyāt means “boy-like” but the aesthetic that developed for the ghulāmīyāt aimed for the transition from boyhood to adulthood, including painting on false moustaches among other cosmetic idiosyncrasies like writing poetic verses on their cheeks.

In general, institutionalized cross-gender roles for both men and women did not aim for “passing” but for a blending of gender signifiers. For a ghulāmīyā, this included license to behave in masculine-coded ways, in addition to the visual presentation, as indicated in praise poetry addressed to them which mentions intellectual, musical, and sporting pursuits more usually associated with men.

Ghulāmīyāt were almost always slaves attached to the court or the aristocracy, though there are rare mentions of free ghulāmīyāt. This means that the role was normally an imposed one, rather than a personal gender expression, and it should not be confused with accounts of “masculine” free women who adopted male attire and pursued martial exploits (a category not associated with same-sex interests), or with accounts of female same-sex behavior (most typically mentioned in connection with enslaved women). There are no references to the ghulāmīyāt being associated with lesbian behavior.

The author now moves on to the male role of lūṭī, a man whose sexual preference is for penetrative sex with adolescent boys, discussing how the existence of this orientation created the impetus for the ghulāmīyāt phenomenon. That is, ghulāmīyāt were associated with same-sex desire but with male same-sex desire, not female same-sex desire. There follows a discussion of the sexuality of eunuchs and how it fit into medieval Islamicate sexual categories.

This leads into a consideration of the male feminine-performing mukhannath, which seems to have represented both a professional and personal expression in some cases. Mukhannathūn seem to have worn a mixture of female and male clothing styles, with feminine jewelry, and were treated as falling outside the category of “male” with regard to gender-segregated spaces. In addition to their traditional profession of musician, where they were associated with specific musical styles and instruments, they commonly functioned as marriage go-betweens.

Although mukhannathūn were assumed to have no sexual interest in women, they were not assumed to take a passive homosexual role. And their relationship to women was sometimes looked askance. Some were married to women, and some authority figures challenged their access to women-only spaces. One caliph during the period of their suppression ordered all mukhannathūn in Medina to be castrated. The class eventually rebounded from this persecution and re-emerged under a new dynasty in their traditional roles as musicians and entertainers. The period of suppression seems to have coincided with the emergence of a public culture of male homosexuality, and the shift back to acceptance under the Umayyads was noted as being surprisingly abrupt even at the time.

The article goes into a great deal of detail about mukhannathūn, their status, and attitudes toward them, which is not relevant to the purposes of this Project. The conclusion of the article reiterates the parallels and contrasts between mukhannathūn and ghulāmīyāt in being entertainers and being defined in reference to fashions in elite male sexual interests, but with differences in the consequence to personal reputation relating to differential gender expectations and voluntary versus non-voluntary membership in the respective categories.

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages

Rowson, Everett K. 2003. “Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court in Medieval Baghdad” in Farmer, Sharon & Carol Braun Pasternack (eds). Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. ISBN 0-8166-3893-4

Project ID number:

194

Sub-reference:

Rowson, Everett K. “Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court in Medieval Baghdad”

Introduction:

[The following is duplicated from the associated blog. I'm trying to standardize the organization of associated content.]

There is an unexamined thread in the inclusion of cross-dressing as one of the continuing motifs in the material I cover for the Project. As I've discussed on several occasions, I've included studies on cross-dressing in history and literature both because it provided a context in western literature for the experience or recognition of same-sex attraction, and because it is a popular theme in modern lesbian historical fiction (so it's useful to understand the phenomenon in the historical context). But at its heart, the homoerotic aspects of cross-dressing focus on a specific subset of erotic attraction and experience. Within the context of female homoeroticism, cross-dressing highlights a "difference" model of attraction. The "opposites attract" idea, if you will. It suggests that when a femme woman is attracted to another woman, it will be through the medium of masculine performance and appearance.

While this is one clear recurring theme across the ages--especially in contexts when a "similarity" model of attraction is less available--it is far from universal and is always understood within its specific cultural context. This means that we need to be hesitant about concluding that the female performance of masculinity will automatically result in female homoerotic possibilities. The current article is a good reminder of the complexities of social performance.

# # #

ISBN:

0-8166-3893-4

Blog post:

For Whose Gaze? Cultural Differences in Cross-Dressing

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #43 - Westphal-Hellbusch 1997 “Institutionalized Gender-Crossing in Southern Iraq”

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:03:23 +0000

This article is primarily a mid-20th century case-study of one particular woman from an upper-class clan of southern Iraq who is a poet and lives as a “mustergil”, that is, a woman living as a man. The informant reports that there are perhaps fifty women in her clan alone living as mustergils. The description of this category with its characteristics and range of variation is similar to that of the “sworn virgins” described in Dickemann 1997, except that -- as presented -- the motivation for entering this life is personal choice rather than a structural void in the family created by a lack of sons. This specific woman reported that she had felt inclined to live as a man from an early age, but there is no indication in the article that personal inclination was the universal motivation, and no real discussion of the extent to which parental permission was involved. The woman has not taken on all attributes of a male role, retaining some female garments and sticking to female religious activities. (For that reason, and based on the language of the article, I have retained female pronouns.) It is noted, however, that some mustergils pass so completely that their original sex is not known until after death.

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

Murray, Stephen O. & Will Roscoe eds. 1997. Islamic Homosexualities - Culture, History, and Literature

Westphal-Hellbusch, Sigrid (trans. Bradley Rose). 1997. “Institutionalized Gender-Crossing in Southern Iraq” in Islamic Homosexualities - Culture, History, and Literature, ed. by Stephen O. Murray & Will Roscoe. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 0-8147-7468-7

Project ID number:

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Westphal-Hellbusch, Sigrid (trans. Bradley Rose). 1997. “Institutionalized Gender-Crossing in Southern Iraq”

Introduction:

This finishes the relevant articles in Murray & Roscoe. I feel a certain wariness with regard to this article. A great deal of it is an overly-general summary of gender roles and relations in southern Iraq that is utterly devoid of nuance. The entirety of the author’s familiarity with the “mustergil” role seems to come via this one informant who may not be typical, due to class and economic privilege. After describing a gender-segregated, mysogynistic society in which girls and women were said to have no power and no say in their own lives, we are given to believe that a girl could become a mustergil purely by her own decision and that the family would support (or at least tolerate) that choice. I’m not sure I buy it. I think there are some fascinating themes buried here, and I'd love to know more about how they manifested in earlier times, but I would advice serious further research before basing a character on the information in this article.

ISBN:

0-8147-7468-7

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #67e Amer 2008 Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures - Chapter 5

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:01:49 +0000

Chapter 5

This chapter looks more deeply into motifs in L'Escoufle that show how Aelis constructs her new life as a woman alone. Once Aelis gives up the quest to travel in search of Guillaume and settles down into an urban domestic partnership with Ysabel in Montpellier, a number of boundaries are crossed. In adopting Ysabel as friend, business partner, and perhaps lover the two are leveled socially. Aelis's abandonment sets her apart from the noble rank she inherited, and her taking up a craft cements her new position in the middle class. Conversely, in giving Ysabel new, rich clothing in place of her original rags, Aelis elevates her from her lower status to becoming the equal of Aelis's new rank.

In contrast to the cross-dressing romances, Aelis's independence and enterprise cannot be dismissed as taking on a temporary male role. This makes the women's actions in some ways even more subversive, Sewing and fine embroidery are not the only trades the women take up and Amer suggests that some of their activities and the ways their success are described imply they may have established something akin to a high-class brothel. (Embroidery workshops were sometimes a cover for such establishments.) Aelis's success as a wealthy independent businesswoman stands in contrast to the economic status of most non-fictional single women of the time who were typically domestic servants or unskilled laborers, although certain cities had female-dominated guilds that provided better opportunities. In addition to the needlework, the women provided personal services such as hair washing, and their house became a fashionable meeting place for "bourgeois and knights" offering games, entertainments, and conversation. Something of a salon, in other words, or perhaps the services of a courtesan. Despite the implications of a business that focuses on providing "pleasure and delight" there is no overt suggestion of sexual activity or any impugning at Aelis's reputation. And indeed there are several episodes where she is notably careful with respect to her reputation regarding men.

It is in the context of this popular salon that Aelis notes the standoffishness of the lady of Montpellier and decides to make overtures of friendship to her. When that friendship brings Aelis entrée to the household of the Countess of Saint-Gilles, she moves into another salon-like space among the Countess's entourage. This is a woman-dominated space, but not women-only, as the Count (evidently turning away from his affair with the lady of Montpellier) is depicted hanging out with the ladies, enjoying food and company, and--in a very suggestive scene--being undressed down to his braies for comfort and lounging around with his head in Aelis's lap. This is not a clandestine affair; it occurs in the context of a group at women attending to a man's pleasure, and the Countess is present at the time. Amer notes the resonances with harem scenes in Arabic stories, a resonance that need not contradict the homoerotic potential between the women themselves, as in the tale of Princess Boudour.

Throughout the text are motifs such as this that directly contradict Christian moralizing literature of the time (e.g., warnings against maidservants taking a wife's place, or against single women wearing fine clothes and walking around looking people immodestly in the eye. In very many ways, Aelis disrupts the conventional structures of medieval society and literature. These disruptions make far more sense when examined from the point of view of contemporary medieval Islamicate social traditions.

The anomalous social and economic position Aelis inhabits can also be viewed in the context of the concepts of zarf (courtliness, elegance) and munjun (libertine) literature, and social roles such as the qaynas (singing slave-girls). Zarf encapsulates the general concepts of refinement, elegance, and courtliness, extended to one's person and environment (clothing, furnishings, grooming), behavior (conversation and debate, performance), and to the literature and themes that were the topic of that performance The zarf tradition began in pre-Islamic Medina and spread to Baghdad and later to Spanish al-Andalus, which strove to outdo earlier centers. The influence of zarf can be traced in the courtly love tradition of Occitania.

Although women of all classes participated in zarf culture (a notable example being the 11th century Princess Wallada of Spain), a prominent role fell to the class of "singing slave-girls" (qaynas) who were trained and educated to be accomplished in conversation, entertainment, games such as chess, composition of poetry, and other refined arts. Being slaves they were more free to participate in the mixed-gender gatherings devoted to zarf culture than a "respectable" free woman may have been--as well as participating in its more erotic manifestations. Amer notes the similarity to geishas and hetairae. One feature of zarf culture was the salon-like majlis, where people would gather to relax in pleasant surroundings, such as a garden, for intellectual discussion and debate. Amer provides a detailed and extensive exploration of zarf culture that is well worth reading on its own. Same-sex relationships were an integral-though not essential-part of zarf culture, that is, all relationships could be expressed in an elegant way and same-sex ones are explicitly included among the literature.

With all this as background, a different possibility emerges for understanding Aelis's salon at Montpelier, as well as the somewhat sybaritic entertainments within the Countess of Saint-Giles' household. The focus on intellectual activities within an environment of sense-pleasing luxury reflects a Majlis, even to the telling of stories and playing at chess. The scenes in the Saint-Giles household have an unmistakable air of the harem in the friendship between the women even as they attend to the same man. And, as we see in the tale of Princess Boudour, such an arrangement does not exclude the existence of erotic relationships between the women.

But just as Aelis does not fit the standard Western tropes, she does not entirely fit in the role of qaynas. She is a free and independent woman who established her own Majlis-equivalent rather than participating as a servant in one established by someone else. Amer goes into detail showing how L'Escoufle blends Western and Arabic elements, but inevitably views them through Western literary and cultural expectations, leaving the Arabic layer as exotic and sometimes confusing traces in the narrative. Then, just as we appear to be setting up a triad marriage between Aelis, the countess, and the count, the latter recalls a strange story his falconer told him about a young man's violent killing of a kite, and Guillaume is whisked back onstage to return Aelis to a standard Western narrative.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Amer, Sahar. 2008. Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-4087-0

Amer, Sahar. 2008. Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-4087-0

Project ID number:

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Chapter 5 - Crossing Social and Cultural Borders: Jean Renart's Escoufle and the Traditions of Zarf, Jawaris, and Qaynas in the Islamicate World

Introduction:

In the final chapter, Amer positions many of the apparently anomalous aspects of L'Escoufle within the Arabic tradition of zarf (refined culture) and shows how the story uses and subverts motifs from both Western and Arabic literary tradition to form a rich, but sometimes awkward blend.

Event / person:

L’Escoufle Wallada

ISBN:

978-0-8122-4087-0