From Power to Pleasure

Homosexuality in the Arab-Muslim World from Lakhi'a to al-mukhannathun

Bibliographic Data

ID3604538
AuthorsAkeel Almarai (University for Foreigners of Siena, corresponding author), Alessandra Persichetti (0000-0001-8081-5469, University for Foreigners of Siena)
Year2023
Volume14
Issue2
Pages186
Publication date2023-01-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel14020186
OpenAlexW4318588117
LanguageEN
References cited17

We propose a historical-philological analysis of the attitudes in Islam and Arab culture toward practices of masculine homosexuality (from the pre-Islamic period until end of the first century of Hijra) based on a review of scriptural (Qur'an, Sunnah, fiqh) and literary sources. We hypothesize the existence of a historical dialectic between two ideological models: on the one hand, the heterosexual norm intertwined with patriarchal domination and Islam; on the other, the existence of homosexual love and other forms of sexuality and gender. First we have discovered that the earliest myth concerning sodomy dates back to a much earlier era than has been assumed in modern studies of homosexuality. Then we propose the thesis according to which in pre-Islamic times homosexuality was associated to power relations, but that homosexual imagery and practices linked to pleasure already emerged at the time of the Prophet. In the prophetic era, the visibility of male homosexuality-which we have been able to analyze only indirectly, i.e., through the treatment reserved for the mukhannathun-was regulated through a socio-political compromise aimed at mediating between hadith of explicit condemnation and tolerance of sexual attitudes and behaviors considered less subversive. Starting from the following era (after Othman's admission of the mukhannathun to Medina), homosexual practices would begin to conquer more and more spaces of visibility and freedom

Art · Dialectic · Homosexuality · Human sexuality · Ideology · Islam · Literature · Muslim world · Mysticism · Pleasure · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sodomy · Theology · Gender Studies · Islamic Studies and History · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Psychology

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