sahq

LHMP #382 Omar 2012 From Semantics to Normative Law

Heather Rose Jones — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:26:17 +0000

This paper looks at the structure of legal arguments in medieval Islamic law that covers male and female homosexual acts. The author examines how different schools of law structured their analysis regarding categorization and punishment either through analogy to illicit heterosexual sex or with regard to the social roles of those involved in the sex act. This is not an analysis of how same-sex sexuality is treated in literature or poetry but specifically within the genre of legal argumentation. The analysis also looks at why and how jurist came to different conclusions about the appropriate punishments for male and female homosexuality. The historical literature is far more concerned with male activity than that of women, and there has been less scholarly interest in exploring the treatment of female homosexuality.

Legal argumentation focused around several general topics. One is analogy to the concept of zina, the label for illicit sex between a man and a woman. Another is the definition of sexual intercourse as being specifically an act of penetration by a male organ. The third factor is the relevance of the social status of the individuals involved in their relationship to each other. Within the commentary on these legal concepts there are also discussions regarding whether the technical legal terms involved or being used literally in their formal sense or metaphorically in a non-binding sense.

There are relatively few legal judgments and opinions relating to sex between women. The three hadith that appear to touch on the subject include one that refers to sihaq (“rubbing”) between women as being zina. Another indicates that skin to skin contact between two women lying next to each other is forbidden that they must be wearing clothing for fear the contact would excite them. The third hadith is related to cross-dressing and forbids men who dress like women and women who dress like men but that’s not specifically touch on sex.

Another key element of the legal reasoning is the assignment of offenses and therefore of punishments to two different levels of severity, those that are specifically forbidden in the Qur’an which are punished more severely, and those that are not mentioned in the Qur’an where the punishment is at the judge’s discretion.

One key question in determining the appropriate approach to unlawful sex is whether it is categorized as zina, which in its narrowest interpretation refers to the vaginal penetration by a man of a woman he does not have legal rights to. Appropriate punishment for zina also depended on the context of the act with regard to the age, social status, marital status, and mental competence of the participants. as well as a very technical definition of what constituted penetration.

When the participants in an illicit sex act were a man and a woman there were clear definitions of how to apply these rules. Where legal approaches differed was in whether those rules applied by analogy to same-sex acts and if so how they applied. One school of thought argued that because different words existed for zina and liwat, where the latter indicated anal penetration, regardless of the sex of the participants, that they could not be treated the same under law because what is named differently cannot be identical. By this reasoning, because liwat was not forbidden in the Qur’an, any punishment was at the judge’s discretion. Another school of thought viewed liwat as being a subcategory of zina and therefore subject to the more severe punishments. However, both categories were defined in terms of penetration and therefore were viewed as something that only a man could perform. This meant that for both types of acts punishment was determined with regard to the individual status and relationship of the participants, but sexual acts between women were entirely excluded from consideration.

The word sihaq does not appear in the Qur’an. Some have interpreted a word in a Qur’anic passage non-specifically meaning “lewdness” as referring to sex between women, but this interpretation is note generally accepted. Therefore, those who viewed erotic activity between women as criminal needed to use a different rationale. This was available in general prohibitions against immodesty, or improper contact between people who did not have a relationship that licensed such contact. The offense was transgressing against the requirement to protect your genitals. This was categorized as a sin, but not as a crime. And, in essence, the punishment treated both women as having transgressed by being the passive partner in an illicit sex act.

This inability to define sex between women as something that fell within the most forbidden categories of sexual crimes did not mean that sex between women was considered acceptable or meaningless but it did protect those who engaged in it from the most dire consequences, by virtue of the social assumptions that sexual crimes required the illicit use of a penis.

LHMP entry type:

Stand-alone

Omar, Sara. 2012. “From Semantics to Normative Law: Perceptions of Liwat (Sodomy) and Sihaq (Tribadism) in Islamic Jurisprudence (8th - 15th Century CE)” in Islamic Law and Society 19. pp.222-256

Project ID number:

382

Blog post:

The Legal Logic of Medieval Islamic Law on Homosexuality

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 #187 Rowson 1991 The Categorization of Gender and Sexual Irregularity in Medieval Arabic Vice Lists

Heather Rose Jones — Sun, 18 Mar 2018 22:23:03 +0000

Western interpretations of variant sexuality in Middle Eastern societies have often been filtered through stereotypes and Orientalism. There can be a fixation on certain key gender-related social differences, such as the harem and the veil. From an early date, Western commentaries have attributed to Islamic societies the acceptance or promotion of self-indulgence, licentiousness, and sexual deviance--views that often say more about Western attitudes than Islamic ones. This article examines certain aspects of the underlying historic reality of the cultural differences that gave rise to those stereotypes, especially as expressed in “lists of vices” in medieval Islamic literature.

Although legal and medical literature in Arabic also touches on sexual variance, these lists and discussions come from a more literary genre, which gives us better insight into everyday attitudes, at least of their literate, urban, elite, male audiences. The texts are generally encyclopedic works that include stories, proverbs, discussions of literary tropes, and other genres. Not all such works cover sexuality, but in those that do, the structure and organization of the text sheds much light on how their societies viewed gender and sexuality, especially when they strayed into irregular behavior.

The content of the volumes cannot always be assumed to reflect precisely contemporary attitudes, as material that entered the genre, for example, in the 9th century, remained in use unchanged in subsequent collections for the next millennium. New material is added over time, which can provide clues to changes in attitude, but the continuity of material is itself illuminating.

The material covered in this article falls generally under the topic of “profligacy”, that is, behavior that was considered outside societal norms. The literary texts imply a fairly indulgent attitude toward such transgressions, but this cannot be taken literally as indicating indulgence in everyday life. Furthermore, although the author of one of these works may tell stories of profligacy on himself, it can’t be assumed automatically to reflect his actual behavior. But the genre certainly gives evidence for attitudes, especially the humorous material which relies of certain social assumptions and attitudes for its “punchline”.

The humorous anecdotes give evidence for the relative importance of sexual behavior, choice of sexual object, and gender stereotyping. As humor, it pokes fun at those who deviate from approved modes, but without necessarily applying moral judgment. Inappropriate sex was funny but not necessarily immoral. As a literary genre (as opposed to a factual account), the humor could be mitigated by a contrast of desire and action. One might admit personally to inappropriate desires but retain one’s dignity by not admitting to indulging in them. When the humor was directed externally rather than internally, it was more likely to reflect an underlying hostility to the behavior.

As an illustrative example, the author reviews the contents of the 11th century work by al-Jurjānī The Book of Metonymic Expressions of the Litterateurs and Allusive Phrases of the Eloquent, an instruction manual for speaking of indecent or ill-omened topics obliquely. Nine chapters cover sexual matters, in a hierarchical fashion going from the least negative topics to the most negative. The ways that the topics are grouped within these chapters, as well as the hierarchy, give insight into underlying cultural assumptions--in particular, they point up the contrast in Western sexual assumptions with the structures implicit in this text.

The primary focus is on identifying sexually illicit topics, while there is also a cultural assumption that the book’s audience (and therefore the book’s viewpoint) is an adult male whose sexual identity is as someone who takes the active part in penetrative sex. [Note: Although only a small part of the text is relevant to the topic of women having sex with women, it’s useful to have a brief tour of the larger structure.]

The first chapter concerns fornication--that is, a man having penetrative sex with a woman he does not have legal access to. This is followed by three chapters covering other deviations from “normative” sex: failure of the sex act due to male impotence, sex with a virgin, and anal sex with a woman. The next chapter completes the possibilities for illicit penetrative sex: sex with a boy. The book then moves on to non-penetrative sexual activities with a set of topics that might otherwise seem a random collection: inter-crural sex, male masturbation, and sex between women. The common factor, however, is the absence of a penetrative sex act. (Penetration was not considered a typical part of sexual activity between women.) Moving on to less acceptable sexual modes, there is a chapter on an adult man who is the passive recipient of penetrative sex. The last two chapters cover the social context of sex: the question of sexual jealousy (and lack thereof), and the act of pandering (procuring a sex partner for a third party).

For the rest of the article, I’m only going to summarize the section of the one chapter that includes sex between women.

The usual term for sex between women was saḥq literally “rubbing, pounding.” But the metaphoric euphemisms in al-Jurjānī’s work are all male-centered and disapproving (being intended for the use of male poets): “a war in which there is no spear-thrusting”, “a shield with a shield”, “a seashell whose edges close over another seashell”. But at the same time, anecdotes are given that indicate the existence of such relationships. And other euphemisms are given that appear more neutral, such as saying that someone “eats figs” to imply sex between women. [Note: I'm going to guess that this is a image metaphor of a ripe fig that has split open, to display the pink flesh inside, and is specifically a reference to oral sex.]

Another author, al-Rāghib (The Colloquies of the Litterateurs, also 11th century?) has a few more details on the possibilities of sex between women, including the use of dildoes (though this specific element is placed in the chapter on penetrative sex, again showint the hierarchy of concerns--the point isn't the type of partner, but the act of penetration). Al-Rāghib includes an anecdote in which a woman expresses a preference for saḥq over heterosexual sex, but outweighs it with several in which sex between women is presented as a dispreferred option. There is also a general failure to distinguish between female masturbation and sex between women. In general, saḥq is framed as a rejection of men (and typically of penetration in general) and he cites a legendary origin of the practice in pre-Islamic times in a love affair between an Arab noblewoman and the wife of a Christian Arab.

Although sex between men in Arabic sources sometimes involves feminization of the passive partner, there is no indication that sex between women was associated with women taking on masculine traits or dress. Nor is there any reference to an active-passive distinction between women (where such a distinction is critical to the acceptability of male-male relations). There are literary references to women adopting masculine behaviors: wearing male clothing, carrying swords, riding horseback, etc. (more in the 7-8th centuries when the practice of seclusion was less rigorous) but this was not associated in the popular mind with sexual irregularity. One class of ritualized female cross-dressing was the ghulāmīyāt--slave entertainers who dressed like pubescent boys or young men (complete with painted mustaches in some cases)--which were popular in 9th century Baghdad. However this form of cross-dressing was associated with providing pleasure to men who enjoyed sex with boys, not to an adoption of a male role in reference to a female sexual partner. [Note: I have another article coming up in the queue that goes into this topic in more detail.]

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

Epstein & Straub 1991 Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity

Rowson, Everett K. 1991. “The categorization of gender and sexual irregularity in medieval Arabic vice lists” in Body guards : the cultural politics of gender ambiguity edited by Julia Epstein & Kristina Straub. Routledge, New York. ISBN 0-415-90388-2

Project ID number:

187

Sub-reference:

Rowson, Everett K. "The Categorization of Gender and Sexual Irregularity in Medieval Arabic Vice Lists "

Introduction:

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

I'm starting a series of four articles from a collection entitled Body Guards: The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity. After this first article, the others group nicely to cover shifts in cultural understandings of gender and sexuality categories in western Europe in the 16th through 18th centuries. If it weren't for the blog's structure of covering the contents of a collection in series, I'd pair this current article with another one I have coming up on the sexual context of cross-dressing in the medieval Middle East. So you'll have to "hold that thought" for another month until I get to it.

# # #

Event / person:

The Book of Metonymic Expressions of the Litterateurs and Allusive Phrases of the Eloquent (al-Jurjānī)The Colloquies of the Litterateurs (al-Rāghib)

ISBN:

0-415-90388-2

Blog post:

Arabic Sexual Hierarchies

LHMP #149c Velasco 2011 Lesbians in Early Modern Spain Chapter 3

Heather Rose Jones — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 04:47:07 +0000

This chapter looks at evidence regarding lesbian activity that can be found in specific court cases, as well as perceptions of the role of lesbian relations in criminal activities and contexts. The point here is not that lesbians were inherently criminal in early modern Spain (though some official opinions were that one type of deviant behavior was expected to lead to other types), but that the nature of legal records can provide a wealth of detail that is not available for other contexts.

The conflicting professional opinions on female sodomy in Spain played out in criminal prosecutions. The outcome of trials could depend both on the specific nature of the behavior and situation as well as on how successful the accused woman was in contesting the charges. The summary of this chapter will largely be brief outlines of the cases.

Ca. 1400 a woman dressed as a man served as a judicial official and married two women (presumably sequentially). She was convicted of sodomy because she used a penetrative instrument for sex, but recognition of her government service resulted in leniency. Specifically, she was hanged rather than the prescribed sentence of being burnt to death. The accusation had come from her second wife.

In 1502 in Valencia a woman passed as a man and married a woman, using an artificial penis made of lambskin for sex. She had also had sex in that way with other women. Her gender was discovered in the context of an accusation of theft. She was sentenced to hang but was pardoned on the basis of a legal technicality with regard to how the trial was handled. In a number of these cases, it is an open question whether the “femme” partner was truly ignorant of the sex of the passing woman or whether she was relying on the legal tendency to focus on gender transgressions rather than the sexual relationship per se.

In 1503, two women--Catalina de Belunçe and Matiche de Oyarzún--were accused of having sex “like a man and a woman”. No other specifics of the offence were given and there was no mention of the use of an instrument. Only one of the pair was sentenced to banishment and confiscation of her belongings, but with capital punishment if she returned from banishment. But rather than accepting this leniency, she appealed to the royal court, claiming innocence and that no evidence had been offered. The charge had been based on “public reputation” of her activities. She impugned the witness and accused the prosecutor (the local mayor) of a profit motive in pursuing the case. She was pardoned, the sentence reversed, and her possessions were returned to her. The true story behind the case is hard to decipher. Why was her partner not also accused (given that there doesn’t appear to have been a “butch-femme” dynamic in the accused behavior)? Who was the witness?

In 1560, the Inquisition in Aragon debated whether a case involving several women fell under the category of sodomy as no sexual instrument had been used, though there was genital contact (which was described in heterocentric terms). They ended up not prosecuting.

In 1656, the Inquisition in Aragon judged a case against a 28 year old widow Ana Aler and a 22 year old laundress Mariana López who were accused of sodomy by nosy neighbors (two men and three women). The specific behaviors involved were hugging, kissing, putting a hand under the skirt to touch the genitals, expressions of jealousy followed by protestations of loyalty and pledges of love. The women were said to follow each other around. It was claimed that Ana boasted of having sex with “the best woman in Zaragoza” who was willing to pay her for it, but it’s unclear if this was an actual reference to female same-sex prostitution or just boasting. The neighbors testified they overheard the sounds of passion and sex talk , “Give it to me, I can’t wait any longer!” as well as to seeing the women lying on top of each other and evidence of “emission of semen” (i.e., orgasm). Although there was no evidence of a penetrative instrument being used, the verdict was still labeled “sodomy” but the sentence was limited to whipping and exile and the women were forbidden to live in the same location in the future.

Inés de Santa Cruz and Catalina Ledesma were arrested in 1603 in Salamanca as “bujarronas” (female sodomites). They had previous sodomy convictions in Valladolid. A complex background story emerged from the trial. Inés had at one point claimed to be a nun and was soliciting donations and assembling a group of “wayward” young women to take them to a convent (the implication being a house of penitence for reformed prostitutes). The suspicion was that instead she was recruiting for the sex trade. The sexual accusations against Inés and Catalina included use of a penetrative instrument and they were given a death sentence which was appealed and reduced to whipping and banishment.

Among the details of the testimony it emerged that the two women had enjoyed a long term domestic partnership “eating at the same table and sleeping in the same bed.” Their love for each other was public knowledge. Catalina had left her husband to live with Inés. Among the witnesses was a maid from Catalina’s father’s house where the two lived for a time. The detailed testimony reveals the witnesses’ fantasies as well as facts. The existence of sexual activity was assumed from overheard activity including panting and grunting and comments like, “Does that feel good?” as well as love talk.

The defendants admitted to the sex but each tried to frame her own role as less culpable based on minor technicalities such as who was lying on top. The sexual acts they admitted to included rubbing vulvas together and manual stimulation. They were inconsistent with regard to the use of an instrument. (Witnesses said they had used an instrument made of cane, but Inés described one made of leather that they stopped using because it was painful.)

During one temporary separation, they may have had sex with other women and there was reported discussion of the advantages of lesbian sex: no pregnancy, it was more pleasurable than heterosexual sex, they found men repulsive. In this context, Catalina reported on knowing of other female couples in the convent where she stayed for a time. Much of the evidence may have come out during fights between the women. Catalina felt that Inés was stalking and harassing her to renew the relationship, though witnesses said their relationship ran hot and cold and was not one-sided. Inés seems to have been the more jealous and controlling. Neighbors described them as being so close a couple “like man and woman” that all attempts to break them up failed. All this happened over an extended period of time during which their relationship was public knowledge. The neighbors would insult them (and they each other) with terms like bujarronas (female sodomites), puta bellaca (cheating whore), somética (fem. sodomite), bellaca baldresera (dildo-wielding scoundrel). Velasco compares their reported behavior to modern patterns of domestic violence among lesbians. Inés was significantly older, more economically stable, and was the more aggressive and controlling. The trial was instigated when Catalina went to the authorities to complain about Inés’s violent behavior.

Despite the admitted use of a penetrating instrument, they were not given the death penalty and had received similarly lenient treatment in a previous trial. Velaso notes that these trial records contradict the idea that sexual relationships between women were invisible but also contradict the idea that they were tolerated or considered insignificant.

In 1745 in Colombia, two mestiza seamstresses named Margarita Valenzuela and Gregoria Franco had a long-term public romance that was disrupted by the reappearance of the father of Margarita’s child. This resulted in a conflict that came to the attention of the law. Gregoria was banished for a short term and warned not to reinitiate the relationship on penalty of permanent banishment.

In 1597, the Inquisition in Mallorca found a 30 year old single woman Esperanza de Rojas guilty of various offences, including practicing love magic to re-attract the passion of two women she’d been sexually involved with while all three were at a home for fallen women. She was sentenced to whipping and exile with the mitigating factor that she had acted in anger. The major concern was the accusation of demonic magic and the recorded testimony included specifics of the rituals. These included claims that she used Jewish and Muslim prayers as well as using a demonic statuette as a focus. The nature of the rituals was consistent with descriptions of heterosexual love magic at the time. Esperanza claimed she had learned the rituals from another woman while traveling to Rome and Naples.

Further investigations by the Inquisition at the institution where the three women had lived that took place in 1597-8 turned up other accusations of same-sex activity. Catalina Lebrés was accused of “illicit relations with other female residents.”

Velasco spends some time discussing the nature and context of female penitential institutions in early modern Spain. Their general purpose was to control women who were not successfully under patriarchal authority. There were concerns about women’s misbehavior inside the institutions, but that concern might either focus on, or be oblivious to, the possibility of lesbian sex. Overcrowding was a regular concern, as well as the potential for women to learn new forms of criminality from the other inmates.

Concerns regarding the potential for sexual relations between women were shared by religious penitential institutions and regular convents. Convent rules often proscribed sleeping together or forbade two nuns to be alone together behind closed doors. The code word for the concern was “special friendships”. Specific behaviors that were considered a sign of danger were talking together at night, sleeping together, hugging, “joining their faces together.”

Another intersection of concern is the long historic association between lesbianism and prostitution, dating as early as Roman times (Lucian, Alciphron). Velasco notes the contrast laid out in a 16th century Italian text on women’s friendships by Firenzuola, that contrasts the “chaste” love between Laudomia Forteguerra and Duchess Margaret of Austria with the lascivious love of Sappho and of “the great prostitute Cecilia Venetiana.” But within the same century, Brantôme in France imputed a more sexual relationship to Margaret and Laudomia, and grouped them with a noted Spanish prostitute in Rome, Isabella de Luna, who kept a mistress. Moving our attention back to Spain, there were conflicting opinions whether the existence of legal brothels successfully kept men away from sodomy (by making women available) or whether one sin would breed other sins and thus men who frequented brothels were more likely to move on to sodomy.

The intersection of prostitution, love magic, and “medical” manual stimulation, as well as the possibilities of sex between women appear in Fernando de Rojas’ La Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea more commonly known as La Celestina. Velasco spends some time reviewing the details and implications of this work.

There was an association of witchcraft and lesbian desire, along with aspects of heresy. Several authors repeat a description from Leo Africanus of North African sahacat witches, who seduce or pleasure other women under the guise of medical treatment. (It isn’t clear whether the repetition of this motif is in reference to Africa or gives the appearance of generalizing it to Spain. Note that sahacat is from the Arabic root sahq with the same general meaning of rubbing as fricatrix.)

The chapter concludes with one last case study in Mexico of an accusation of lesbian seduction (or predation) by a female couple of their female boarder, who then used witchcraft to try to take revenge on the couple.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8265-1750-0

Project ID number:

149

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Chapter 3: Criminal Lesbians

Introduction:

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

Using the records of court cases to research lesbian lives in history is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, they often present a wealth of detail not found in any other type of record unless--by miraculous luck--a personal diary or set of candid correspondence is unearthed. But conversely, court cases, by their nature, present a skewed view of people's lives. They show people in conflict and distress. They arise when relationships go bad, or were never particularly good in the first place. They are typcially the records of only those classes of people who aren't able to conceal their activities through priviledge, or to evade legal penalties if concealment is impossible. It would be all too easy, when looking at the trials of criminal lesbians, to conclude that lesbianism inherently leads to criminality. (Consider as a parallel how early psychiatrists studying homosexuality in their patients--patients who had come to them for help with severe problems--concluded that homosexuality was an inherently deranged condition. Because, after all, all the homosexuals they knew were people with serious emotional problems!) With that caveat, the court records studied here provide a rich and extensive (sometimes very extensive) record of the details of how some women lived together in romantic and sexual partnerships. Of what some of their sexual practices were. And how their relationships were sometimes viewed by the neighbors and family members who were aware of them.
One interesting take-away is that these romantic relationships between women were sometimes public knowledge in their communities, and sometimes apparently accepted by their families. (At least, that's the implication when they are living as a couple in a family member's house.) And although the cases that came before the law demonstrate that any sort of sexual activity between women was considered worthy of punishment, the severity of that punishment depended strongly on the specific sex acts involved. Reading between the lines, there seems to be plenty of scope to imagine lesbian relationships that never came to the interest of the law for the simple fact that they never turned sour enough to disrupt the community, and where the women lived openly as a couple with at least tolerance from family and neighbors.

# # #

Event / person:

Catalina de Belunçe & Matiche de Oyarzún Ana Aler & Mariana López Inés de Santa Cruz & Catalina Ledesma Margarita Valenzuela & Gregoria Franco Esperanza de Rojas Catalina Lebrés Laudomia Forteguerri Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma On the Beauty of Women (Agnolo Firenzuola)Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Cecilia Venetiana Sappho Isabella de Luna La Celestina (Fernando de Rojas)Leo Africanus

ISBN:

978-0-8265-1750-0

Blog post:

A Vast Wealth of Detail of Spanish Lesbian Lives

LHMP #149a Velasco 2011 Lesbians in Early Modern Spain Chapter 1

Heather Rose Jones — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 04:24:04 +0000

The identification of forbidden female homoerotic activity in early modern Spain is hampered by the deliberately vague language with which it is identified. When a “miraculous” crucifix supposedly tattled on two trysting nuns in the early 17th century, the phrase put into its voice was simply that the two were “offending me.” Similarly, in 1603 when Inés de Santa Cruz and Catalina Ledesma were arrested for female sodomy in Salamanca, the accusations came in descriptions of the sounds of passion heard through a wall and not a declaration of specific acts.

Representations of female homoeroticism in this era range from the publicly notorious, such as Catalina de Erauso and Queen Christina of Sweden [*], to those treated as criminal, as with Inés and Catalina Ledesma. That range of representations is the topic of this study.

[*] It may seem odd to treat Queen Christina of Sweden as relevant to a discussion of Spain, but she had strong ties to several Spanish individuals, especially in the context of her abdication and conversion to Catholicism, and was consequently a figure of interest there.

The historic texts under study here often focus on the presence or absence of specific acts. But the picture that emerges is not a simple “acts vs. identity” dichotomy, as Foucault would have it. Velasco chooses to use the word “lesbian” in this book, not only because of evidence for a concept of specific romantic/erotic interests, but because it is less anachronistic than “homosexual” or “homoerotic”. In 16th century France, Brantôme was using “lesbian” in a homoerotic sense, just as Chorier was in the 17th century. When playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca wrote a play based on the life of Queen Christina, he named her lady in waiting “Lesbia” with a wink and nod to Christina’s reputation, and included a motif of proposed same-sex marriage. Velasco spends a couple of pages rehearsing the usual debate over terminology in books on this history of gender and sexuality, and points out the markedness with which only non-heterosexual concepts have their terminology hedged about and policed.

Within historic documents, the absence of mention of lesbian-related topics can itself suggest meaning, as when writers such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and María de Zayas omit mention of Sappho as a literary antecedent in contexts where such an omission is notable. The absence suggests the possibility that they were anxious about how their own same-sex relations with friends and mentors were viewed.

Even when the topic of lesbianism is danced around with vagueness, the texts being studied here have no lack of language to convey female homoerotic activities. Velasco list the following: somética (sodomite), bujarrona (female sodomite), cañita (little cane), donna con donna (woman with woman), marimacho (butch), medio hombre y mujer (half man-half woman), incuba (partner who lies on top), succuba (partner who lies underneath), subigatrice (dominator, one who bounces up and down), bellaca baldresera (dildo-wearing scoundrel), terms equivalent to “tribade”, “fricatrice”, “rubster”, “Sahacat” (originally from Arabic), “Lesbian”, as well as more allusive phrases such as amistades particulares (particular friendships), “fruitless love”, “love without reward”, “not the marrying type”, “like man and woman”, “[women] making themselves into roosters”, and so forth. One somewhat telling term was the Latin peccatum mutum “silent sin”, specifically highlighting the approach of erasure by un-naming.

Velasco’s work seeks to demonstrate that representations both of romantic and erotic love between women were visible and accessible to all types of women in early modern Spain. These works not only discussed specific acts, but assumed a “type” of woman who participated in them, whether in fictional works or real life. Early modern Spanish legal writers were considered to be the “experts” in Europe on female homoerotic activity. The evidence suggests that this expertise was not merely a theoretical exercise but existed within a culture with an open interest in the topic.

Examples of this interest can be seen in the 16th century novel La Celestina in which lesbian acts are seen as part of the initiation of a prostitute, works that include erotic encounters between women, such as the pastoral novel La Diana and the chivalric romance Tirant lo Blanc, or the novellas of María de Zayas. Popular plays went beyond the erotic implications of cross-dressed women to include female homoerotic desire outside that context. And real life “celebrity” could be conferred by individuals who challenged categories of gender and sexuality, such as Catalina de Erauso “the Lieutenant Nun” and the physician Elena/Eleno de Céspedes who was charged with sodomy and bigamy after marrying while living as a man. Saint Teresa of Avila warned of the erotic potential of “particular friendships” in convents, and the truth of this concern can be found in correspondence between nuns as well as personal memoirs of convent life. Court records of prosecutions reflect a complex understanding of lesbian potentials that went beyond a simple division between legal and illegal acts.

Within all this, there is often an ignorance demonstrated by male writers of “what women can do together” apart from a vague understanding of mutual masturbation or an assumption of the imitation of heterosexual penetrative sex. It isn’t always clear whether this is genuine ignorance or a deliberate avoidance of specifics to avoid “giving women ideas” (an avoidance that is sometimes explicit in penitential manuals). But clearly the absence of such detail shouldn’t be presumed to imply an absence of activity.

The remainder of this chapter provides an overview of the topics covered in the remaining chapters.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville.

Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8265-1750-0

Project ID number:

149

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction:

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

One of the regular challenges to understanding the history of lesbians, even in as defined a scope as Europe, is the accessibility of the literature--not just the languages of the primary sources, but the languages in which research is published. I will freely confess that my own access is largely limited to material published in English, though I can work my way through a German article if need be. This means that every once in a while, I can be surprised by the wealth of information covering a topic that falls outside the usual England-France-Italy focus of English language publications, when I've previously only seen bits and cross-references that hint at what's out there.

I knew of Sherry Velasco's work on Catalina de Erauso in popular culture, but only stumbled across this title by chance when searching for something else online. This is one reason why I hunt through bibliographies to see what other publications might be out there waiting for me. (And, of course, why I spend a lot of time in the book sales room at the annual Kalamazoo medieval studies conference.) If you have an image of early modern Spain--the era of the Inquisition and the Armada and Spanish dominance throughout much of Catholic Europe--as being an unlikely place to find lesbians, this books should open your eyes as it did mine.

# # #

Event / person:

Inés de Santa Cruz & Catalina Ledesma Catalina de Erauso Queen Christina of Sweden Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)The Academy of Women (L'Academie des dames) (Nicolas Chorier)Afectos de odio y amor (Pedro Calderón de la Barca)Juana Inés de la Cruz La Celestina (Fernando de Rojas)Diana (Jorge de Montemayor)María de Zayas Elena/Eleno de Céspedes

ISBN:

978-0-8265-1750-0

Blog post:

Beyond England, France, and Italy

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102g Habib 2009 "From “Nihayat Al-Arb Fi Funoon al-Adab by Al-Nuwayri (c. 1241)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:10:38 +0000

An “origin story” whereby men turned away from God and began treating women badly, at which a devil came to the women disguised as a woman and taught them grinding. (With the implication that they wouldn’t have been tempted if the men had treated them better.)

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Nihayat Al-Arb Fi Funoon al-Adab by Al-Nuwayri (c. 1241)

Introduction:

Although the earliest texts that Habib covers tend to focus primarily on classification--on cataloging different types of sexual preference and activity--texts from the 12-14th century often focus on looking for causes. Why might a woman take up "grinding" and why might she prefer that to sex with men? This isn't to say that the shift represents a chronological development in world-view. (Keep in mind that earlier texts often come down to us as incorporations into later discussions. So the 12-14th century writers may have felt that the cataloging aspect was already covered. And the catalogs of rationales from this era often are variants of causes discussed earlier.) During this era, the texts start sounding more negatively judgmental, e.g., attributing the origin of "grinding" to demonic influence. The earlier material was not devoid of disapproval, but there's a definite shift in tone.

Event / person:

Nihayat Al-Arb Fi Funoon al-Adab (Al-Nuwayri)

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102i Habib 2009 "From “Salwat Al-Ahzan lil Ijtinab ‘an Mujalasat al-Ahdath wal Niswan” by al-Mashtoolee (c. 1787)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:10:38 +0000

A list of religious quotations prohibiting grinding as fornication.

Prohibitions on effeminate men and masculine women.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Salwat Al-Ahzan lil Ijtinab ‘an Mujalasat al-Ahdath wal Niswan” by al-Mashtoolee (c. 1787)

Event / person:

Salwat Al-Ahzan lil Ijtinab ‘an Mujalasat al-Ahdath wal Niswan (al-Mashtoolee)

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102i Habib 2009 "From “Wafi Bil Wafiyat” by Al-Safadi (d. 1787)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:10:38 +0000

A satire on a woman, accusing her of being a grinder.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Wafi Bil Wafiyat” by Al-Safadi (d. 1787)

Event / person:

Wafi Bil Wafiyat (Al-Safadi)

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #40 – Murray 1997 “Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Societies”

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:03:21 +0000

This article provides a brief historic survey of evidence regarding love between women in Islamic societies. Classical treatises on sexual transgression discuss tribadism (sahq) from a male perspective. There are occasional comparisons to male homosexuality, but in general the two are considered distinct, except generally as vices. Popular imagination, (especially in western accounts) considered lesbianism common in harems. The 16th century Venetian, Ottaviano Bey, comments that lesbianism was common (and discouraged) enough in the harem of Suleiman the Magnificent in Constantinople that the women were only allowed sliced cucumbers lest they use the vegetables to "play the wanton with each other". The mid 20th century collection of supposedly historic practices written by Allen Edwardes claims lesbianism was common in harems, including tribadism, cunnilingus, and dildos. But he fails to give sources or even specific historic contexts. A 17th century account notes that the harem of the Persian Satava shah 'Abbas went hunting with him dressed "as Amazons" though sexual activity between them is not mentioned. One modern researcher on Arabic gender variance discounts an association of sex between women with gender transgression or with the adoption of male-female or active-passive roles within the relationship. Women adopting masculine dress and activities certainly occurs but is not considered to correlate with lesbianism. Such gender transgression provoked both positive and negative reactions, and reports are more common in early sources (7-8th Islamic centuries, i.e., 13-14th centuries CE) when seclusion was less rigorous. The works of several lesbian poets are either recorded or commented on. Lesbianism is noted as being tolerated or sought as it reduces sexual demands on men and eliminates risk at pregnancy. One inspiring description by 12th century writer Sharif al-Idrisi of what is framed as a lesbian orientation (rather than situational activity) is worth quoting in full.

There are also women who are more intelligent than others. They possess many of the ways of men so that they resemble them even in their movements, the manner in which they talk, and their voice. Such women would like to be the active partner, and they would like to be superior to the man who makes this possible for them. Such a woman does not shame herself, either, if she seduces whom she desires. If she has no inclination, he cannot force her to make love. This makes it difficult for her to submit to the wishes of men and brings her to lesbian love. Most of the women with these characteristics are to be found among the educated and elegant women, the scribes, Koran readers, and female scholars. (from Walther 1981)

Just for the sake of triangulating translations, here’s the same passage as quoted in Jacqueline Murray (1996) taken from Jacquart & Thomasset 1988 as translated by Matthew Adamson:

There is a certain category of women who surpass others in intelligence and subtlety. There is a great deal of the masculine in their nature, to such an extent that in their movements, and in the tone of their voice, they bear a certain resemblance to men. They also like being the active partners. A woman like this is capable of vanquishing the man who lets her. When her desire is aroused, she does not shrink from seduction. When she has no desire, then she is not ready for sexual intercourse. This places her in a delicate situation with regard to the desires of men and leads her to Sapphism. [The final sentence from the previous version is not included in this quote.]

An 18th century western writer, de Busbecq, notes the women's baths as a reputed site of lesbian activity. Male writers (historic and modern) often framed lesbian activity as situational and due to lack of access to men. More casual references to lesbian activity can be hard to interpret, especially when recorded by cultural outsiders, and rarely are sufficient to identify a distinct social category or role. Isolated mentions of women dressing and acting socially as a man in descriptions of 20th century Islamic cultures rarely involve the social access to determine is if lesbianism is also involved. The article includes the image of a 17th century Mughal (Indian) painting depicting what one hopes is a symbolic representation of lesbian activity involving a didlo shot as an arrow. Murray also references the articles by Westphal-Hellbusch and Dickemann in this collection, which will be covered separately. The author notes that modern sexually-repressive attitudes in Islamic cultures have made discussion of lesbianism (or other transgressive sexual and gender practices) very difficult.

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

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

Murray, Stephen O. 1997. “Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Societies” 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:

Murray, Stephen O. 1997. “Woman-Woman Love in Islamic Societies”

Introduction:

I'd originally scheduled this for next Monday, but I'm tired of the little tiny scraps that are all I get from the other articles in this volume.

Of the articles in this collection, this is the only one that focuses specificially on lesbians. (The ethnographic material is more about gender transgression.) For all that historic Islamic culture was just as male-centered and misogynistic as historic Christian culture, and for all that non-heterosexual activity was just as officially frowned on, the difference in how sexual topics are discussed and treated is refreshingly different. There are, however, a number of cultural landmines to beware of around this topic. In particular, the way in which information is framed and filtered should be constantly kept in mind. The historic texts invariably work from a male gaze, and the observations of cultural outsiders carry a miasma of exoticism and orientalism (especially in the streak of prurient interest in the sexual activities of harem residents). A future blog entry (actually, probably a series of entries) will cover more of Sahar Amer's cross-cultural studies of lesbian themes in medieval Arabic and French literature (especially her book Crossing Borders: Love Between Women in Medieval French and Arabic Literatures) which I hope will help balance out the approaches to this topic.

Event / person:

Turkish Letters (Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq)Ottaviano Bon Sharif al-Idrisi

ISBN:

0-8147-7468-7

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #23 – Malti-Douglas 2001 “Tribadism/Lesbianism and the Sexualized Body in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Narratives”

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:03:17 +0000

Several of the articles in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages look outside the European sphere that the phrase “Middle Ages” normally implies. Malti-Douglas looks at the language and discorse around lesbianism in medieval Arabic texts, particularly as contrasted with the treatment of male homosexuality which is mentioned extensively in medieval Arabic/Islamic texts. The core text under consideration in this article is the 13th century Nuzhat al-Albâb fîmâ lâ Yûjad fî Kitâb (The Diversion of the Hearts by What is Not to Be Found in Any Book) by the jurist Shihâb al-Dîn Ahmad al-Tîfâshî (henceforth: al-Tîfâshî). The book is a collection of entertaining stories centering around sex, falling more in the “entertainment” side than the “sex manual” side. As such, it is part of a tradition of adab literature that combines entertaining and edifying material, often with verses from the Qur’an, poetry, and sayings of the Prophet, to form a sophisticated whole covering a topic or topics, with a traditional internal structure reflecting the social hierarchy from top to bottom. Women, therefore, and especially women’s same-sex activities come fairly late in the book. Even within the book’s section on sahq (tribadism, from a root meaning “to rub, pound, or make soft”) the material is structured into “stories and poetry”, “arguments in favor”, and “blame.” Presentation of sahq within this structure integrates and normalizes it within the literary genre as a whole.

The article provides a linguistic tour through the Arabic vocabulary for female same-sex relations. Much of it derives from the same root as sahq, such as the reciprocal verb tatasâhaq clearly implying the mutual participation of both women. A different root supplies a more intriging label zirâf, which the women call themselves, meaning literally someone who is witty, elegant, and charming, but used as a codeword. “If they say so and so is a zarîfa, it is then known among them that she is a tribade.” (This is not a fixed meaning, and elsewhere the term is used without sexual innuendo.)

Despite the topic, the material is always filtered through the male gaze and experience of the author al-Tîfâshî and many of the humorous anecdotes focus on male reactions to the women’s activities. One anecdote carries the implication that all (or most) women participate, when man curious about sahq is advised to enter his own house stealthily to learn more. Another focuses on a man’s indifference to his wife’s sexual activities with women as he considers it will better prepare her to appreciate him. But other descriptions and anecdotes build up an image of the lesbian as a distinct subculture with its own habits and practices (or at least its own stereotypes). The women are said to use perfume excessively, to be fastidious in their clothing, and to enjoy having beautiful possessions around them. They love each other more intensely than men love women, and spend large amounts of money on the object of affection. There is some implication of active/passive roles labeled as “lover” and “beloved”, with the “lover” normally taking the top position during sex. (Although an allowance is made for larger body types.)

A later article in this same collection provides more material from al-Tîfâshî.

LHMP entry type:

Paper

Parent:

Sautman, Francesca Canadé & Pamela Sheingorn 2001 Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages

Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. “Tribadism/Lesbianism and the Sexualized Body in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Narratives” in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages. ed. by Francesca Canadé Sautman & Pamela Sheingorn. Palgrave, New York, 2001.

Project ID number:

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Malti-Douglas, Fedwa. “Tribadism/Lesbianism and the Sexualized Body in Medieval Arabo-Islamic Narratives”

Introduction:

When I started this blogging project, I pledged to make an entry every day during June, to celebrate Pride Month. With this 23rd entry (and 22nd day, since I doubled up on one day) I've fulfilled that pledge. Having gotten a little momentum going, I certainly plan to continue the project, though I may allow myself the occasional lapse. My working spreadsheet currently has 103 publications (either articles or books) and that's only a minor subset of what I have in my bookshelves and file folders of article offprints. And those are only a subset of all the bibliographic citations I have yet to track down and lay hands on. And more scholarship is being done every day in this field. At some point I will convert these entries into a more permanent form on one of my websites, make the keywords searchable (and standardize them a bit more!) and probably return to tackling topic-related summaries that present the material in more digested form. But I once more want to emphasize that my little summaries are only meant to be pointers to the original research, which is far more detailed and nuanced than I can cover here. The purpose of this project is to break down some preconceptions and stereotypes of what the lives of lesbians in history might have been like and -- I certainly hope -- to inspire a few more novelists to find that sweet spot between historical accuracy and satisfying fiction.

Malti-Douglas takes us outside my focus of Europe for the first time (although further articles on Arabic sources will show that there is no bright dividing line here). Medieval Arabic-speaking cultures were far from a feminist paradise, but the concerns and anxieties with respect to women's same-sex relationships were different, allowing us a broader triangulation on the historic possibilities.

Event / person:

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)

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102i Habib 2009 "From “Diwan Al-Sababa” by Ibn Abi Hajala (c. 1421)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:55 +0000

Criticism of a particular tribe as promiscuous, where the women are preoccupied with grinding.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Diwan Al-Sababa” by Ibn Abi Hajala (c. 1421)

Introduction:

The following several entries finish up Habib's edition of historic Arabic texts relating to sex between women. As she notes in her discussions, after around the 13th century, the overall tone shifts from the more open-minded (though still disapproving) exploration of ideas and categories found in the earlier material to a fairly consistent condemnation. By this period, it was generally accepted that the behavior was prohibited by hadith, which left little room for argument.

To finish out the month (with a little spill-over into June) I have one more book to blog. After that, as previously announced, I'll be taking a break from posting new material to focus on my novel. I plan to post re-runs of some of my favorite publications and other associated material once a week, just to keep the Project in people's minds. And when I have another novel or two completed, I'll think about starting it up again. (Especially if I have evidence that there's a strong interest out there.)

Event / person:

Diwan Al-Sababa (Ibn Abi Hajala)

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102h Habib 2009 "On the Literature of Grinders and their Grinding" in Tifashi, Ahmad Ibn Yusuf (c. 1250)

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:53 +0000

He calls grinding an “illness” and offers various possible causes, including having an “inverted womb” (a variant on the clitoral hypertrophy motif), or a mis-match between the shape of a woman’s vagina and the shape of the penis. Another possible cause he lists is the mother’s diet during breast-feeding. Some women pick up the habit from having sex with concubines. Another explanation is that grinding is a natural appetite, derived from a variant of humoral theory.

There is an extensive discussion of grinder sub-culture where they identify themselves as “witty ones” (Tharaf) and use this as a code word for discussing other grinders. They romance each other more intensely than men do and are lavish with gifts. They use a great deal of perfume and are fastidious in their clothing, furniture, food, and other possessions.

There are a couple of extended descriptions of specific sexual techniques and their associated behaviors, especially sweet-talk and other verbal behaviors such as groaning and screaming at orgasm.

An anecdote is given of an Egyptian judge who spied on a pair of grinders and wanted to join them, but they played a trick on him and humiliated him.

A joke about a man who wanted to know “how grinders do it”, who was told to sneak quietly into his own house to find out.

Mention of the fear of pregnancy as a motivation.

Quotations from a famous poet, Warda, who praises grinders and their activities. More excerpts from poetry, referencing how grinding is better than the risk of pregnancy and disgrace.

A selection of poetic and philosophical discussions between grinders and their former loves who turned to preferring men.

Condemnation of grinding from men, using metaphors of incomprehension, such as “shield against shield” and “a house without a pillar” or “patching a hole with a hole”.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: "On the Literature of Grinders and their Grinding" in Tifashi, Ahmad Ibn Yusuf (c. 1250)

Introduction:

Tifashi is another of the more prolific medieval Arabic authors on the topic of "grinding" (sex between women). The most intriguing information he provides concerns evidence for a sub-culture of same-sex activity between women, including code-words (calling each other "witty ones") and perceived stereotypical behaviors. He also includes several detailed descriptions of sexual techniques.

Event / person:

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)Warda

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102g Habib 2009 "The reason for some women’s preference for grinding" in al-Samaw’uli, Abu Nasr bin Yahya bin Åbbas al-Maghribi (d. 1180)

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:53 +0000

A catalog of reasons why women might take up grinding, essentially identical to the one given in al-Yemeni: due to physiological or esthetic issues, because she is slow to climax with a man, because of pain on intercourse, because she prefers smooth-cheeked kisses, because she has a dominant “masculine” personality.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: "The reason for some women’s preference for grinding" in al-Samaw’uli, Abu Nasr bin Yahya bin Åbbas al-Maghribi (d. 1180)

Introduction:

Event / person:

Abu Nasr bin Yahya bin Abbas al-Maghribi al-Samaw’uli

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102e Habib 2009 "From “Al-Aghani” by Al-Asfahani, Abu Faraj (ca. 972)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:51 +0000

A satiric poem from a man to his female rival for his beloved, using metaphors such as “you can’t patch a hole with a hole” and “what use is a hammer without a handle?” to argue the superiority of heterosex over grinding.

An anecdote about the female entertainer Bathal who, when singing to a male client, substituted a lyric in praise of "grinding" (sex between women). Her client contradicted her, but then requested that she finish the song and offers more lyrics that are in favor of grinding.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Al-Aghani” by Al-Asfahani, Abu Faraj (ca. 972)

Introduction:

I confess I'm drawing out the posting of the specific source materials in this volume. I hope the little snippets entice the interested reader to follow up with the book in question.

Event / person:

Al-Aghani (Abu Faraj Al-Asfahani)Bathal

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3

Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #102f Habib 2009 "From “Al-Muhalla” by Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi (d. 1064)"

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:51 +0000

An extensive legal/religious discussion/debate on the question of whether grinding [sex between women] is forbidden. The debate is largely framed as a discussion by “the father of Mohamad”.

He reviews various positions on whether female homosexuality is forbidden or permitted. Is it fornication? Is it worse than fornication? Is it not fornication at all? The conclusion is that it isn’t fornication because fornication is specifically define as unlawful penis-in-vagina sex.

The prohibitions against grinding are ascribed to tradition and not to God. But the discussion continues to argue that sex between women is prohibited under the general concept of male rights to a woman’s body (and especially her genitals). So, for example, a woman’s genitals should be exposed only to her spouse (or hypothetical future spouse) and therefore she should not expose them to another woman during sex. Similarly, the right to see a woman’s skin belongs exclusively to her Mahram (close male relative or husband). Sex between women violates this exclusive right, but also creates the potential for one woman’s husband to vicariously “see” his wife’s female lover’s nakedness if the wife describes it to him.

There is also a discussion of prohibitions on “resembling” the opposite sex, presumably including cross-dressing.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3

Project ID number:

102

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Historic Texts: From “Al-Muhalla” by Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi (d. 1064)

Introduction:

Today's text sheds an interesting light on the socio-legal basis for prohibitions about sex between women. In a context of complete silence, or argument only by analogy from male issues, there is room for a great deal of uncertainty and conjecture, both about what the attitudes of the times were, and whether there is a historic basis for modern attitudes. The fact that these debates were specifically about women, and about the special social and legal concerns pertaining to women, is a refreshing change from trying to guess whether medieval European sodomy laws had anything to do with women at all.

Event / person:

Al-Muhalla (Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi)

ISBN:

978-1-934844-11-3