“Needless to say, stories and descriptions such as these are significant for the history of lesbianism, not least because they have few equivalents in medieval European literature. Arab lesbians were both named and visible in medieval Arabic literature. Moreover, and in contrast to their status in the medieval West in the same period, for example, Arab lesbians were not considered guilty of a “silent sin,” and there is no clear evidence that their “crime” was punished by death. In fact, lesbianism in the medieval Islamicate literary world was a topic deemed worthy of discussion and a lifestyle worthy of emulation.”
—
Sahar Amer, Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women (2009)
Thanks sqbr–this article is EXCELLENT. It’s also not safe for work (textually). Here is a sweet bit–
As a matter of fact, the origin of lesbianism, according to popular anecdotes in the Arabic literary tradition, is regularly traced back forty years before the emergence of male homosexuality to an intercultural, interfaith love affair between an Arab woman and a Christian woman in pre-Islamic Iraq. The earliest extant erotic treatise in Arabic, Jawami` al-ladhdha (Encyclopedia of Pleasure), dates to about the end of the tenth century and was written by a certain Abul Hasan Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib.7 It tells us the story of the first lesbian couple, the enduring love between Hind Bint al-Nu`man, the Christian daughter of the last Lakhmid king of Hira in the seventh century, and Hind Bint al-Khuss al-Iyadiyyah from Yamama in Arabia, known as al-Zarqa’ and reportedly the first lesbian in Arab history: “She [Hind] was so loyal to al-Zarqa’ that when the latter died, she cropped her hair, wore black clothes, rejected worldly pleasures, vowed to God that she would lead an ascetic life until she passed away and, as a result, she built a monastery which was named after her, on the outskirts of Kufa. When she died, she was buried at the monastery gate. Her loyalty was then an example for poets to write about. There are also other women who continued to shed tears on their beloved ones’ graves until they passed away.”
that link doesn’t work anymore but here’s one that does: https://web.archive.org/web/20120324174140id_/http://facultypages.morris.umn.edu/~deanej/3704/Assignments/Article%20Choices/Same%20Sex/Medieval%20Arab%20Lesbians.pdf
thank you for re-finding this article you tremendous hero
