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H c\ R VA R D MIDDLE EASTERN M 0 N 0 G R t\ I' H ~

XXXIX

Islamicate FD1 rOFL\1 !)(),\RD OF rHE C\IES 1vlONOGRAPHS

SteH:'ll Caron Sexualities Ccma1 Kafadar Susan Vl. Kahn !Chair) Ro:' :'vlnttahcdeh Translations across Temporal Rogc'· Owen Geographies of Desire

EDITED BY Kathryn Babayan and Afsaneh Najmabadi

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY Dina Al-Kassim, Sahar Amer, Brad Epps, Frederic Lagrange, Leyla Rouhi, Everett K. Rowson, Valerie Traub

DISTRIBUTED FOR THE CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY BY HARVARD UNIVERSIT'l' PRESS CAMBRIDGE, 1'v1ASSACHUSErrs LONDON, ENGLAND -~ )rl:~ h· the Prc~iden: and Fe-llows of l-f;Hvard College .\11 rights ""Cservcd. >,.; :'n: in ;he l"·r;ircc States of America

Contents

1~ .11> ioie ~c7'c ;:\ iic~: r:·an-..Lnions au·oss temporal geographies of desire I ,-d:ted h !-.:at:1r) n Bahayan and Afsanch :\'ajmahadi.

p. '-''"- · ~ : f Ia ·\-;1i"j .\ 1iddk Eastern monogrnphs : 39) Preface t'll KATHRYN BABAYAN AFSANEH NAJMABADI \'lay 1003"-Pref. 1 • The Past Is a Foreign Counry' The Times and Spaces of Islamicate Sexuality Studies 1

VALERIE TRAUB

2 • A Handsome Boy among Those Barbarous Turks: H.-,mosc:-. :ui ·: -!sl-tm :~- counrrie>-Hisror:-·-Cross-cuitural studies. 2. 1 i

JIQ76.J.I-:-517S 2nos BRAD EPPS

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lOOS0(·:·:-240 205

but was captured, and the Despensers were executed. Civcn an opportunity to abdicate, Edward did so but was nevertheless murdered in 1327-according to some later accounts bv havinn ' • b a red-hot poker rammed up his anus.' Edward's attachment to his favorites was clearly a major scan­ • SIX • dal and one that some•.vhat muffles the force of the crusader tracts that were composed during his reign against the Saracen:-. Homoerotic Liaisons among the and attacked their sodomitical profligacy. Most famously, the French Dominican William of Adam, writing about l.l18, ex­ Elite in Late Medieual and plains, "In the Saracen sect any sexual act at all is not onlv not forbidden, but permitted and praised." He goes on to exco~iate, Everett K" Rowson among the Saracens, effeminate men \vho shave their beards adorn themselves in women's finery, and sell themselves tooth~; men with whom they proceed to cohabit as husband and wife, as well as eastern who fatten up and adorn their sons to cater to the unnatural lusts of the Saracens who race to buv Ir the vcar 1307, Echvard I of tngland died and was succeeded them up.2 However distorted his polemic may: be, William wa~ hY his 't\\TlltY-T,11rl'l'-'\C

2J4 Homoerotic Li,zisons among the Mamluk Eiite 207

:orrv-eight .__.L';trs. 8.nd dying in 74111341.-:- Ahmad grew up And in fact, the disgruntled father did exactly that, for a brief hrF~'h- :1l,~::-~- frou his famih· in Karak, an important fortress a period, until intercession from the boy's female relatives led him in;~ n~i!c~ southeast of rhe bead Sea, \:vhere al-Nasir Muham­ again to re!ent.1° mad had snnn his time av..:av from the capital, , during the He disinherited his son, however, choosing another son, r\vo tL·mpt~r.Fil~· successful .revolts against his reign. When his Abu Bakr, to succeed him, which he did on ai-Nasir's death hrhcr heard rhar th.· young man (then about twenty-one) had shortly thereafter in 742/1342. At this point, the story becomes dcn:1opcd -.: friendship \\lith someone "unsuitable" (man fa exceedingly-and typically, for the Mamluks-complicared. y,_zsf~.-zh! ln f

:(lntcxru~t rh:s account does not suggest that his unsuitabil­ medieval observers claimed? Altogether, did tolerance for rv wa~ due rn his sex: more iikely, he was just inappropriately homoeroticism increase during the Mamluk period? /\.nd given ;licbei<11l. lt ;..; the conrcxtuaLzing material that is the focus of such stories as that of Ahmad b. al-Nasir Muhammad, can we J,is ch<:q)tlT :nd it shows the degree to which the world in posit a more "coeval" pattern than in earlier periods, in which, ,yhj\_,h A.hm2.·J ]i,:cd \\·as in fact saturated in homoeroticism. To it seems, an age- and role-differentiated, "pederastic" patten1 of +at extent. r;crbans. \Xlilliam of Adam was not so very wide of adult/active-adolescent/passive homoerotic relationships seems :he mark. o'n rhe .other hand. he could hardly be expected-at to have prevailed? ic~1st, untii ht· was posted to Iran after composing his anti-Sara­ But the first task is to show that Ahmad's story did not repre­ ..:~._·n diatribe---to appreciate how homoeroticism actually :fit into sent (like that of Edward Il) 14 an unprecedented, abhorrent de­ \1iddk L1stcrn sncicties.:' parture from societal norms. This is easily done, even if we focus \X/e mJy ~1ddn::S') rv... :o kind:-. of questions to our sources-one exclusively on rulers. In Egypt itself, two hundred years previ­ .::;...-nchronic .tnd the other di .. lChronic. Synchronically, we may ously, we may note the lurid end of the Fatimid caliph ai-Zafir.'' ;J.~k whether homoerotic att<.Khments (whether they resulted in An exceptionally good-looking young man, al-Zafir had come Jcrs of ~odnmy cr not-itself a significant question) \:V'ere or to the throne in 544/1149 at the age of sixteen and quickly es­ \\'ere percc-1\:cd to he particularly associated with one group tablished a reputation for frivolity and self-indulgence, includ­ \-\-"ithi;~ the L.c.,·gc-r ~ocit'ty of the Mamluk realm. Was there some­ ing both music and dalliance with slave girls. He also became thing ahout tht:' .'vlamluks themselves-that alien presence in very close to the young and equally handsome Nasr b. 'Abbas, i\ral---, socJctY, n:1r;1doxicallv hoth a slave class and a fairly strin­ whose father was a stepson and ally of the governor of Alexan­ g,_-nrlv sc2rt:2.<;tcd ruiing c(as~-that \vas particularly conducive dria, Ibn ai-Sallar, whom 'Abbas assisted in his successful plot to ~o hc;JTlO~To~·;cism? Or ~vas homoeroticism an indulgence of the murder the caliph's vizier and take his place. Ibn al-Sallar took a elite- general:::. ;_tlso encompas..;ing the native elite, the who dim view of Nasr's friendship with the caliph and urged the m;Hic rhcn· mark in the \vorid of high culture and in particular boy's father to intervene, "for two young men together can re­ religion~ schobrship: Or, rather, vv·ere homoerotic relationships sult in inappropriate things."" In an apparently unrelated devel­ a comn1onp\.h.-c throughout :.;ociety, extending beyond the elite opment, 'Abbas then resolved himself to supplant his stepfather ro the n1icL:.h· and k)\·ver classes as well? in the vizierate, and in the event it was his son Nasr vvho under­ Di,1chron:.:_·;1ih·, car; v.:e detect a significant shift in the concep­ took, with the caliph's explicit approval, to surprise Ibn al-Sallar tua1iz2tion oi hc;mocroticism in the /\rab (or Muslim) v:./orld un­ (who was cohabiting with the boy's grandmother) and behead d~._T the _\·L11T luk regime? Ir could be (and has been) argued that him. Seriously implicated in this plot was the famous "Syrian the intensely homo~ncial environment of the :\tiamluk barracks, gentleman," Usama b. Munqidh, \vho, fearing retribution from in \vhich tl-L· (unn-e leaders of society were trained in warfare, the late vizier's supporters, found a way to incite (Abbas against kept strictly Sl'paratc from vvomen, and presided over by atten­ the caliph himself. 17 Pointing to al-Zafir's ongoing extravagant tive eunuch~. \Y<1S every bit as likely to foster homoerotic attach­ generosity to Nasr and his habit of visiting him in his home on a rnc-nts as w;1-; the nineteenth--century English public school. Or regular basis, accompanied only by two of his trusted eunuchs, did the impe:rration of mt..unlu!::.s from radically different social he asked the boy's father, "Ho\v can you put up with v;:hat peo­ cnvironmenrs--rhe Eurasian steppes-result in the importation ple are saying to your son's discredit and their insinuations that ;:~-.., w-ell of >du!gcnt attitudes tovvarcl homoeroticism, as some the caliph does with him what is done with vvomen?";x Some of 21 !J Is!cnnicate Sexualities Homoerotic Liaisons among the /VIamluk Elite 2ll ot. r sources <1dd thar \:o..'hen Na~r boasted to his father that al­ love of Mahmud and Ayaz was quickly to take on legendary Z;,fir had grJnted him the reYcnues of the entire district of trappings, to the point that Persian romances extolling it-often Q,tlvuh, TJ~Jm2 \vryly remarked, "f-1ardly an excessive bride­ in the form of Sufi mystical allegories for the love between the pr cc for such <1..; you!'' (Abba5. \vas more direct, tetling his son, believer and God-took their place beside such established het­ ''You have de<:ron:d vour honor by consorting with al-Zafir, eroerotic tales as those of the Arab lovers Majnun and Layla and and people ha r ,, b~:gun, to talk a bout the two of you. Kill him in the Persian lovers Khusraw and Shirin." or JeT ro free vnurself from this accusation!" 20 Stung and carried It could be argued that Mahmud and Avaz lived in and were <~v-_·;_;_y lw vou~hful 1111peruousness, Nasr arranged for an ambush celebrated by a cultural environment that.was sianificantlv Jif_ " ' . to n~cct. a..nd h;·lck down the caliph on his next visit. At court the ferent from that of Arab Egypt and Syria-that is, that the Ira- m·Hning after >.:h1~ had heen accomplished~ when al-Zafir ap­ nian world exhibited a more tolerant attitude, either toward the p( a red ~o h;"lVC ~one missing, {Abbas summoned his two younger phenomenon of the adult male beloved specifically or toward brothers to ln'-)uirc ,1bout his whereabouts, but they simply re­ publicly acknowledged homoerotic relationships in general. pltcd~ "Ask ,-o·u r son! He knO\VS more about his comings and Other instances of royal favoritism, both cast and west, offer g('ing::-: than .\\·c~'- __ i Bur \\hhas promptly accused them of the only ambiguous evidence on this point. We hear, for example, murder ~1nd h.Jd them executed on the spot. that the Seljuq ruler Tughril Beg (d. 455/1063, ruled over Iran In this cast>, ·,twas not concen1 for good government doomed and ) was so entranced (mashghuf) by his commander a ruler with <1 favorite, and despite the appearance of remarks Khumartakin al-Tughra'i that he not onlv honored him to the ahcut "inapprnpria::encss,'' we should not assume that theca­ point of stirring up his vizier's jealousy but even had him cas­ lj;J1 's honor\\ :ls irremediably tarnished hy his relationship \:vith trated so that he could be present "at home" with the sultan in G. a-;r. On the ,:ontrary, the plot turns, \vhich have everything to the presence of his wife; the erotic dimension of this relationship cL with real p(llitic5., depend only indirectly on sexual politics: it is not at all clear.24 Further west and somewhat later. we are told \\a-; Nc.1sr, as the presumed passive partner, whose honor was at that the ruler of northern Iraq and Syria, Zangi (d. 541/1146. s1akc and who could thus be goaded into disposing of his (puta­ ruled from ) was infatuated with eunuchs, whether Turk­

ti v'l' i ':over.~~ ish, Armenian, or Greek, and would castrate the sons of his ene­ ""(or is it ~1 ~.:ivcn rhar this sort of favoritism led inexorably to mies so as to perpetuate their beardlessness-although one of s .. ·;:~nda1 and l:loodshecl. Unquestionably, the most famous male them eventually murdered hirn.Z.' Zangi's son Nur al-Din L\·orite in ali of blamlC history v..ras Ayaz, the beloved of the sul­ (d. 569/1174, ruled from ) seems to have been more t"n 2\bhmucl cl. 421/1030), who was the founder of the Ghaz­ impervious to the attractions of either eunuchs or intact young navid LhnastY in .--\tghanisran and eastern Iran. Ayaz was Mah­ men. According to the historian Sibt Ibn ai-Jawzi, he succumbed nwd\ c~1phc:.~rer and his acknowledged intimate for some years. to lust for a beautiful boy only once, buying a beautiful mamluk \-·Jhik vv·e can assume that he was younger than the sultan, he for ten times the regular price, but God came to his aid and the 6 \'-'8S presumahl:\: a rnarure {bearded) man or at least became one mamluk died.2 More clearlv a case of favoritism but ao-ain in­ f.lirh- earlY on in rh,:ir relationship (although our meager histori­ volving a eunuch is that of' the tragic Khwarazmshah .~lal al­ (Jl ;ourct~s d' not permit precision on this point). In any case, Din (d. 628/1231), who late in his ultimately futile defense \·.'c hear norh:~1g of sc.mdal in rhis instance. On the contrary, the against the flagged at one point because of the death of .212 Isiamicate Sexualities Homoerotic Liaisons among the Mamluk Elite 213 h;s beloved,_ ounf_ eunuch Q:lij, for V\rhom he ordered elaborate sexual homosexual behavior was not can be abundantly docu­ nhsequic:-. ;1;1d -;pent some time in mourning \vhen he should ~ented, and in that sense, at least, rulers constitute no excep­ h;l\·e hccn twnal case. On the negative side, measures taken bv Mamluk \Xiharc-,·cr rh'-~ sran-.:c taken by those reporting on such rulers' sultans against potential "scandal" that are roughly 'paral!el to honocrotic il1ttTcst:< the laner were clearly often unconcerned those by al-Malik ai-Ashraf against al-Hariri are recorded ;;hour their x'corning pubiic. The same could he said, presum­ throughout the eighth/fourteenth and ninth/fifteenth centuries. " bk for th: .\Hubid ruler in Damascus, al-Malik al-Ashraf each case, however, having its own interesting specificities. \·1usa (d. (,<.5/1.2)7), \vho, we are informed in a single breath, Under ai-Ashraf Khalil (r. 689-693/1290-1293 ), for example, '·rc:;traincd hinlsclf from sel1ing the wealth of the populace and the notoriously harsh vizier Ibn Sal'us was looking for ways to \\"·i he d··c LHhorn for ~l fur moon whom description is at a loss stipulated as Christian dress. 'Abd ai-Rahman denied all the charges but admitted they were all plausible, except for that One \\+o ~~ iibcni with my blood~ despite being honest and concerning the zunnar, since in fact even Christians donned the tTiJ"l'.\"Prtil;. zunnur only under duress. Despite lack of proof, he was never­ Sho1dd l 1-·,1; ,·:-.'1:· 1.. k kcq1:; my wealth safe, E>ut Sl'C~ nF soul destroyed by him and pay·s it no mind!c' theless discharged, publicly humiliated, and briefly impris­ oned.3P :')uch proclivities hy no means prevented al-.\1alik al-Ashraf There seems to have been more substance to another lono- . - ' b ::rem comi11:2. down hard on the Sufi shaykh Abu 1-Hasan (Ali al­ runnmg case agamst a prominent religious scholar rhat began l--h;riri 0-+.S./ 1247",-, \vho is said to have corrupted many young under ai-Ashraf Khalil's father Qalawun and concluded onlv un­ ,J.rist· replied~ ":\'othing but this!'' and ordered one of and, even more gravely, declaring illicit things licit (istihlal al­ :he boYs to lie dovd1 prone (as a preliminary to being sexually muharramat), a charge that was legally understood to imply pCilCtr;tcd , \\'hich th~ bov did. AI- Malik al-Ashraf had him im­ apostasy and thus justify the death penalty. According to one nr·,soned and then exiled, to the intense satisfaction of various source, he had gathered around himself a group of impious ~onscrv:tri,_·.:_:: n'ligious scholars, who had in fact issued fatwas Turks and other ignorant people to whom he tauaht that both . b 2 ;.:ailing for :1is C:\ecution. 'J wme and sodomy (liwat) were permissible; it is not specified Th~t rhc public expression of homoerotic sentiments (espe­ whether he (and they) practiced what he preached. Ibn ai­ ,_:),·\1\\· in rv;eu·y) w::1s fullv :-:anctioncd hy Islamic societies both Baqaqi was thrown into prison, where he appears to have lan­ ht'fo-re :.;1~d dL;ring rhe l\tamluk period \\'hile too-public, too- guished for many years, engaged in defending himself and spar- Homoerotic Liaisons among the Mamluk Elite 215 214 lslamicate Sexualities nnt: vYith inuninent jurisprudents. Finally, in 701/1302, he was with his mamluk and wasting his money on him and that he "in­ 1 vaded my home in a drunken fury, dre\v his S\Vord and l---d~cJ.ded ir· Ea\Tl a\--Qasrayn, the central square of Cairo.-' 1 f\lrhou2,h su~iYCions or a-:cusations of sodomy could be a screamed abuse at my family." Al-Nasir Muhammad-who (hnnc,.- f(;·r <,;,~''t··: of the religious scholars (ulama)), specific love "hated drunkenness"-promptly had Taybugha and his "fL 1 i;~ seem ·,·"chaw been ;n Achilles' heel for both Mamluks mamluk exiled to Syria, While our sources indicate these events ;;nd burc\Hil:r

c 2 y, and he :-::nuws exactly where to lay the blame-on the Salamish, who reigned briefly in 678/1279 before being deposed Homoerotic Liaisons among the A1.amluk Elite 219 2H lsLnnicate Sexualities

. . _; - ... · •e ii.:"' was extremely handsome {and wore second and third may be ignored here, as not germane to the ·F:cl ,·cnr·'u . o ))i 1\ a, __ ;c~ . h I ,I'_ ',,. _\'-_ ', _',., ~l~a'" "maqv of the sodomites [luti}')h1] w o ove present topic, but his response to the first is of considera hie in­ .1h na11 ;\)>1~_,, '' \!I ~ · ~ · · . _ h. . :l ets terest: . 1\ . 1 )Y. i"ll''·dml11 were bew·Jtched by Im, an'- po Lxarc:essl''(·'' __ ,_ ~- , •. b ·h earewein- . , 1 ... · .. .,l ) t l• r oi >-;urh regardwg QaJa,:vun (r. 6 I l- ~. the advance of the Khurasanians on Iraq under the command of · · _. __ .. d the arrest of the notonous l _ll)() ldu;·im:: who~e rvtgn OLClrre <- • h f Kh 1'1 Abu Muslim ai-Khurasani in the year 132 of the hiira [749-750 · · · d Q 1 . ' 'IJI1 al-As ra a I CE]. And as for acquiring handsome what \Vou!d the sl<\.ykh <1l-Baq;1q1'-. lt \'

~-,,s; .. to O"·Yst·n rn ;·aisc a•1d the two became firm allies-they phatic. Not only was he uninterested in either wine or bovs. but ~e,rv·~-:d as~:~::~),_:--, t,o ;:d-:--:~si;·'s besotted son Ahmad at Karak­ "we know of no ruler of Egypt, either Ayyubid"' or :vt'amluk un·-ii ;1 )-:\"asir's- dear h. ar which point succession politics divided [Turkiyya], who can compare with him in this respect> neither in rlli. rn, ;md BJshtak ende-d up being the first major casualty of the hts a_dolescence nor in his adulthood was it c:ver reported rh;lt he cVcrtib!e. After Barquq, Ibn Taghri Birdi is tracing), "he was not sexually continent; indeed, he was accusc~l in~_-linccl, in hi_~.. assessment of each sultan, to continue to pick in some quarters of loving pretty faces and beautiful voung qcarrcls with ;:\-\hqri;;i and abo, among other criteria, to note men-bur God alone knows; on the other hand, he did alJstai~ th·.· sultan's poayyad from forbidden intoxicants. ''52 Sl·.avkh : r. 8 i )~i-Q4/1412-142 1.), for example, against al­ With regard to the longue duree of homoeroticism in Islamic !\·lJ~Hizi\ critic::-,ms, approving his passion for music, his appre­ societies, Ibn Taghri Birdi clearly has a firmer grasp on realitv c):;t/011 of lircr-Hurc-, and his sense of humor and illustrating the than al-Maqrizi. It is in fact difficult not to accuse the latter ,;f la'tn wirh i.'\\' anecdotes, both of which turn on homoerotic bad faith in his rush to attribute all of contemporary socicty•s ills to;1ics. _:~ccord n~ ro one of the\e, al-Ivh/ayyad's stable superin­ to the maleficent influence of Barquq. On the other hand, nei­ n.·-1dcnt Tuuh:\n, offered jani Bak, one of the sultan's body­ ther author seems to have any problem subscribing to an "im­ gl ards. 1,o'oo dina;·s to ,visit him; offended, the latter com­ portation" theory of homoeroticism: the idea that ;hev ""ot" it piJincd to the _~..ultan, \\·ho was furious and_ s~mmoned Tu~han. from someone else seems to be well nigh universal. Bu; while ai­ T .. 1ch;.:n defended himself, ho\:vever, by pomnng out that tf the Maqrizi seems to be ignoring a sizable chunk of Islamic intellec­ dd,l·cuhlc jani Bak were not 81-Mu)ayyad's O\Vn n-zamluk, the tual and literary history, Ibn Taghri Birdi is obliquely referring Sl iun him~clf \\·tndd have gladiy offered him 10,000 dinars for to one of the early icons of that history, al-Jahiz (d. 255/869!. a v~si:-a r:.:'sponsc that enornmusly amused al-?vtu>ayyad and AI-Jahiz famously (if unbelievably) opined that the fashion for Ci'mnictch· di~:..ip;_ned his anger.~s boy love in Iraq in his own day (illustrated most vividlv bv the Jh,n Ta~hri ]-i1rdi is equally positive about al-Mu)ayyad's short­ poetry of Abu Nuwas) was the result of the comman:ler,Abu L ·c·d '>ucccssor T;nar (r. 824/1421), considering him the second Muslim's decision, some decades earlier, to forbid the eastern 0 - oniv nvo ( :ircas:-..ian sultans (al-Mu\1yyad himself being the Iranian soldiers of the 'Abbasid revolution to bring their wives 0 -her ;HlC) \\"hi_> ..,::,:red anything .1bout high culture and absolving along on campaign, resulting in their turning, faute de mieux, to b m of :Jlh inccrcsr in alcohol, while refusing to adjudge the their male pages for sexual satisfaction, a "habit" \Vith which truth of n;mPrs ,:bout his "love of young men [nzahahbat al- they subsequently infected the populace of the 'Abbasids' new 5i.>ci/1(1{7].''·'· About the sultan Jaqmaq (r. 842-857/1438-1453), capital of . 51 \\ ho seems ro h, his hero, the historian is considerably more em- While Ibn Taghri Birdi seems to have denied that the ;\lamluk 222 Jslamicate Sexualities Homoerotic Liaison<:.- amono.::. the- iVlam'" Iu k' EI ite 223 regime rcprcscnred any innovation in the societal role of conqueror of Ba"hdad InC . I . the quarter of af-Hus~ nivv~Jro, t 1e OJ rats (who \\'ere settled in homoeroti;.:ism, al-:vlaqrizi \vas not the only one to perceive non-Muslims and both a burden-they were some chan;2_c in the situation in this period. The historian Ibn al­ bad!~ be,h:~:r-e both male a d f I , . -and a sensanon: thcv were Da\v~u.iari preserves a precious record of an embassy from al­ 's . I M· n . erna . e '. perc erve- d as extraordinarilv bcau•iful· ,,, ' Nasir \iuhammad to the Ilkhanid (Mongol) ruler of Persia, It ' a-~ aqnzt a a h b . · · · tion (despi.te his' ~r:~:'; ol, es~hdescnbes the resulting situa­ Chazan. i>:ported by the (terrified) ambassador, al-Mujiri, di­ Barquq): - r s e se\:v ere about the much later rectly. t\m<;ng the many tricky subjects broached by the Iranian mon,nch was rhar of homoeroticism. "Hov..r is it,'' asked The am irs were entranced b .. the . d ~ Ghazan, "rhcn your am irs abandon women and have recourse to children male ·md f I )Th man competed (to obtain) their ' < em a e. ev took quite a b f I lyastahininnun] young men lshabah]'" Al-Mujiri replied, "Our ( rom among the males) and ,dd d er o t lem f a e them to the1rnu~l · l am irs fonT1er!y knew nothing of this; it was an innovation intro­ courtec them. One of the ld troops ant I m wou seek to obta. f h someone he h i .· I d · rn rom a not er duced into our b.nds when Turghay came to us from you. Hear­ . ac smg e our and made th b. -h. rived with young men from the Tatars, and people were dis­ Tht:n the amirs decided th e o )ect ot IS desire. and sent to Sy·r·a s ~re were nor enough of them in Egvpr tracted by them from women .., Ghazan vvas apparently not ' ~ ummonma a large g f h '"• offspring became numerz _b C~ . ..._ ,_roup o t em. Thus their pleased hy this reply but, distracted by the mention of women, ,_ >US m "a1ro and eve~v b j . ous of their chilcJren. . d. . '• one ecame t esJr- quickl·y p,:;sscd on to the next question, that of comparing the .J - accor mg to their t · f f 54 ! hla khtilaf al-m·a> 1 1-z·natl I dl kastes or emales or males Jl J wa- - JU "uri so th I women ir: Iran vvith those in Egypt and Syria. It is ironic that and quarreling , . ' - at mutua envy . arose among the ru!mg el"t1 ·r c I Ghazan should find the homoeroticism of the Mamluk realms this and othe. h ...... e, unn JJlla ly, due to r reasons, t e sultan a]-\11.-..rk I 'Ad.! . surprismF in the first plac::, considering that our sources leave deposed in Safar 696 fD l . a' a- 1 Knbugha was ' ~ , ecem )er 1296]. His 5 , I M . iittlc douht that the public face of homoeroticism in Iran in this al-i\/Iansur Husam l-IY L .. - . uccessor, a-; ahk < 10 apn, arrested Turghav, th o· , period \Y,::ll cmrsbone that in the Arab lands: \vas Ghazan not Iea d er, and a number of th . ! . . .. . - e Jrats paymg attention, or vvas be being disingenuous?-'~ to , "''here he hae~rt~t, ler. I~llp?rtant men and sent them But al~:-v1ujin was pointing to a significant phenomenon with Then he distributed the rest of t~~n ~~~pnsoned and then executed. them and . . h . rrats among the am irs to serve his reference ro Turghay. /\s the Mongols advanced across west­ < • )Om t eJr troops. All this is whv I . ·' Husav111vva are known f h . - t le people of al- ern Asia m the mid-seventh/thirteenth century, some of their . .II. •, or t eJr extreme beaurv-somcthi h numbers. for various reasons, defected from their military cam­ IS sn· largelv' true even tod ay.. Some people were, ea , , ng t at t err \vomen while otll h _ gc.r to marry paigns and tooi< refuge in the Mamluk realm of Syria and Egypt. h ' ers \Vere ew1tch ~d 1 1 · well the shaykh Ta i !-o· 1 - .. e ))" tleir sons. How These wc;·c the \Y/afidiyya. among whom the largest contingent . q a In a -SaruJI has expressed himself ,·,1 the came frorn the Oirat Mongols. Among the first of the Oirats to f o II owmg verses! ;urive in C:;,1iro was Kitbngha, \vho managed to ascend to the 0 .messenger of desire, who setting om finds sultan:Hc. hrieily (r. 694-696/1294-1296), during one of the in­ My tears running \vith him and servina h. . . B · u o as IS ardes: terruptie>ns ro the reign of al-Nasir Muhammad. While on the nn~ me a reply to my letter throne, \\·e],_::omed a large contingent of his fellow Oirats into ht~ ~ That I have address· e J to a-~1 'I usavnrvval· Svria. wnere he settled most of the rank and file, and Egypt, to For tha~ is. the p_lace they call the P;ote·c~ed Vallev And rts mhabJtants are . th . b . , ' ;,vhich h;;' permitted the elite commanders to proceed, the latter W lk . ' m etr eauty, Its gazelies. bcin~ kd hy Turghay, the son-in-law of HUlegU, the Mongol a a h1t, and then turn left, lsian7itate Sexualities Hmnoerotic Liaisons among the l'vfamluk Elite 225 ... --- ...... ------......

.-\nd ,- 0 u \\·:ii f-ind before you .1 lane bordered by tall build~ ther sex, conformed to this particular ideal, but it certainlv did

lliQ.S . offer one way-in both poetry and life-for expressing h:moo­ . ,0 w ~he iwu-.l· .H 1he ;:op of tlnt lane, belonging to one erotic sentiments positively and publicly without incurring the \\'hose nl:c>kc" all his Jkighbors beautiful too. opprobrium, or punishment, prescribed for homosexual behe,v­ • ,·"c·t 1· , , _,,--.<, s·,,· misin? (vi misin? [Arc you fine? Are \; '- - 1 1•1 '· d' ··- -' • • ")~d1 ~.'i - lOr. you \\·c!i;j _ . _ . _ ,., Al-Saruji's rriacaronic verse was imitated by others, notably \T\wrv ,·nu ]uyc' \-vords that have long been 1.11dden. by the high-level bureaucrat Ibn Katib Qarasunqur (d 7441 --- • ·- ;,_,_ •.. , , ,, :.·11 ·,1.1e' •. and if he S<1\_--s "Yo/::.! !No!]" ! hen chh:. :wl . . 1 11 ' 1343), who addressed a poetic "letter" to a boy in Baha' ai-Din S:-cy ··tz·d! \·l·'-!\··-for he hc:s stayed ;nvay too long!'- Lane, just inside the city's Gate of Conquests (Bab al-Futuh) and

lin1ikc ::1!-\lujiti, al·ccn , staple of Arabic poetry, even if his maca­ 8 1 Ruby-lipped, gazing with an eye adorned by kohl, r•mic usc of-:Turkish w 3.s something of an innovation. The avail­ A son of the Turks, whose languid glances are arrows tnibal] tl )it' h!ogranhK<1i information on al-Saruji himself (who died in Shot from his eyelashes at every noble man [nabifl.'''-' (~9 )/12~)-4 ,1,nd thus !Tlust have been rhapsodizing about some of r;w earlier ()ir;lt arrivals) tell;; us something more about atti- It was in fact the Turks' narrow eyes, above all, that were ad­ ,1,1e" in hi...; ..\<:cordino· to Ibn Shakir al-Kuruhi~ he \vas '·a mired, and this shift in taste-from the wide-eved Arab as well - - .. " I - as from the Bedouin (and heteroerotic) to the (and homo­ 200J man. ch::istc. ;tiry .1 nd respecrability.. He_ w;,or~ quite a lot of Mamluk) in a richly documented discussion precisely of the \ ersc. which the· musicians sang as Iynes. Furthermore, he change: ,,-cl; soclii cd, and when he did, he had a personal rule that 1 1 0 Arab maiden of the nomads, get you away, Lis lnd to observe: he \Vould not attend any f~iend~ gatl~enng For I have hitched my fare to a Turkish city boy! '-vhere there \\ere won1en present. And "\vhen he died, the tather Go back to your family, you with the wide eyes, his he loved :-,; id, ·] \\·j]l bury him nowhere but in my son's 1 )f 1 For it is this narrow glance that has captivated me!"' :.'r..lVC. for ]w loved him \kdTh1 ya!nuahuj, and l will not part ·.) 1 ~,m-~so cc-:n\·inccd was he of ai-Saruji's piety and chastity."s:s Further attestation to this cult of the Turkish ephebe is pro­ LoYC' of rhl'~ sort-passionate but chaste-had a very long his­ vided by a maqama of al-Safadi's composition, entitled Law\11 orv in ,-\rahi--.: !ircrat:Jrc and presumably life and had been seen al-shaki wa-dam 'at al-baki (The plaint of the lovelorn and tears , homoerotic

·c"umabh· all young Jv1amluks. {It m~y be noted where recently arrived adolescent mamluks were put through a ,,,Jil." L they arc P - h l ' [Jade ar . ·-"·- _· ~ ..,.,~ 'n 73_)tl333 al--:\'asir i\lu ammac lOr " - rigorous training course and forged the intense ties of loyalty to 111 1'<1'->Siflf, tL.L · , 1 on tests were "cor- . -. -- l --- ... Js·· the amateurs OJ sue 1 c . their fellow recruits known as i

'-uch stTH..:turc~. ;He echoed in numerous other texts, espe_cially two major red herrings offered to explain the presence of . . · ' 1 · · · ·1 t nJ·oved a parncular in i he htcraturc ot mora: ex 1orL1t1011 L 1a e , . homoeroticism in a given society, the "importation" thcon·, cffi·ncsccncc in the ;\;lan1luk period-at the same ttme th~t a while appealed to by al-Maqrizi (and much earlier bv ai-falliZ,). fa 5 : 1ion in pnctii...· :.1nthologies deYoted entirely to the attra~t~ons was clearlv invalid. The "hydraulic" theory-that h;terosexua: of !w.. vs can be documented.(," But while condemnatory rehgious impulses checked by sexual segregation were redirected in ho­ " ·I·' 1 ;.-~r·,, ' ,·one' " ' c'o.,;qbcrant. . litterateurs each had their own reasonsI k mosexual directions-was not appealed to by local observers, for ck·>'otin~ S0111l' rarticuJar attention tO aspeCtS Of the lvlam U and while it perhaps retains some degree of plausibility with re­ ins·i:ution (oprortun;tic:-: for immorality) or to young ~lamluks gar~ _to medieval Muslim society in general, its particubr appli­ th~.... msc\vcs (cnn~.:cmr;ttion of beauty), in neither sort of bterature cabdtty to the case of the Mamluks remains undocumentablc. -, ·.·· : .. tl"cc·st".-i •h·'t there was anY real difference in attitudes to- A satisfactory answer to the question whether "tolerance" to· l'> ) . " <~,!, ~ \. '"" \. « . . 1 W;Fd ]~(;·JTJ.ocrot icism between thz.' Mamluks and everybody_ e se. ward homoeroticism (or sodomy) increased, decreased, or ·h:...' evidence hrought to hear in this essay on those attJtudes stayed the same in the Mamluk period would depend on a much ;m·.l on the of b~m1oeroticism generally in ,\1amluk society fuller assessment of the pre-Mamluk situation than has been at­

pt rlwj 1s narticulariy susceptible to such charms because of the during this period, although the militarv Mamluk environment r,·,··oatr·:.,,-. i)r, ·hoth g.cnder and more broadly societal terms) probably did encourage some increased, elasticity in the under­ S'. '~ ' ' ·. . ' b bl l11 ~1r 'into rhc:o· wnrlcL hut the non-l'vlamluk elite and pro a Y standing of what was acceptable. rh;,; pnpuLl.Cl' uH.k-rstood and to a significant extent shared such None of this would William of Adam have understood, but t;1,,tTs. \X:ickspH'tion'> ,1bnut ch,wgc over time are more d1fficult. Of the ward looks like the passive partner (judging from the age differ· 13 1, islamicate Sexualities Homoerotic Liaisons among the Mamluk Elite 231 cnc, hcrwccn hn1 and G;nccston. as \Vell as the reported nature (London: Variorum Reprints, 1979). "Turk" here fo!lowino­ of 'li'; execution). \Xiherhcr or to \vhat extent such considcr­ Arabic usage of the rime, refers (rather imprecisely) to ~em hers of various ethnic groups speaking Turkic languages. :lfi( ,11 s arc :n fac rckvanr in the cJse of Edward is a question for Eurnneanist-.; (a:~d nn,.:: l have nor seen addressed), but the gen­ 5. For useful, if brief, di8cussions of sexuality and homosexualitY in Mamluk society (and literature), see Robert Invin, "'Aii. ai· era ~-nntour~ sketched here of hovv homoeroticism \vorked in Baghdadi and the Joy of Nlamluk Sex," in The Historiugr,.7fJhy of \-L mluk socict~ should make it clear that Cairo was a long way 1 Islamic Egypt (c 9S0-1800), ed, Hugh Kennedy (Leidcn: BrilL fr0'11 London. 2001), 45-57, and Louis Pouzet, Damas au Vlle!X!Jfe sii!cle: uie et structures religieuscs dans une metropole islamique (: Dar El-Machreq Sari, 1991 ), 365-72_ Stephen 0, Murray, "Male Ho­ NOTES mosexuality, Inheritance Rules, and the Status of \XIomen in ;\'Iedi­ 1. {)n F.d\v:1rd. '-CC ( :aroli;le Binglum, The l_ife and Times of Edward eval Egypt: The Case of rhe Mamluks," in Islamic Homosex­ j j {London: \\'cidcnfc!d and 1'--icolson, 1973); on Gaveston, see ualities, ed. Stephen 0. ~lurray and \XIi!l Roscoe (New York: New

]_ s. t--L:rni ltc- 11 • fl ius C.weston. Earl of Cornwall 1.507-131 2: Pol­ York University Press, 1997), 161-73, \vhich is based emireh' on ·,,'ic:-: ~md 1\J.'"u!i,lY.··.? i;; the Re(zrz of Edruard II (Detroit: \Xlayne secondary lirerature and a few translated sources, is less heip... ful. :--,t;_Fc t lni\ cr..;.tv Pn·ss. i 9Bf(), and Pierre Chaplais, Piers Gaveston: 6. Ahmad\ biography is succinctly presented by Ibn Hajar al­ i"dcc,u-d frs .--\;/r;jHir:c Brother ;_Oxford: , (Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamina fi a'yan al-mi>a al-thamina (Hvder­ : '--N4 L Bi;u:!um :1nl 1---iamilton accept the sexual dimension of the ahad, 1348-1350), 1:294-96, See also al-Maqrizi, Kitab al-Suiuk rcbtion;,hi~"\ ·-x't\\·c-~n :-he two men as obvious; Chaplais (not e~- li-ma'rifat duwal al-muluk, vo!. 2, ed. Muhammad Mustafa Ziv­ 1 con\ inl'i< 1::-:iy rciccrs it a~ umvarranted by contemporary eVI­ ada (Cairo: Lajnat al-Ta)lif wa-I-Tarj8ma \Va-1-Nashr, 1942), 46.], dcnc:.:': I--l:.1ntiiror1 has responded to Chaplais with arguments for 578, 593-619:; Ibn Taghri Birdi, ai-Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr

j . ;)Ci'""' .'J-·\''l"d ·n·'1 Diers more than friends in "£v'1Cnage a Roi: Ed- wa-1-Qahira (Cairo: ai-Mu\1ssasa al-.\1isriyya al-(Amma !i-1-Ta)lif .:... :";1; ___; 'll ~1 n:·~ 'Pic1:s G.'l·.:~:;ron," History Today 49(6)(June 1999): wa-1-Tiba'a wa-1-Nashr, l %3-1971 ), ] 0:23, 50, 69-72_ 26·-31. 7. The bibliography on al-Nasir Iv1uhammad is extensive~ see The ., Cited :n:d ·-··:1n::-brec b\· ;\·'lichael Uebel, "Re-Orienting Desire: Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed, (Leiden: Brill, 1954-2002), s,v, al­ \'(riting nn Ccndcr ·rr;HJblc :n fourteenth-Century Egypt,'' in ~asir:; a:1d Amalia Levanoni, A Turning Point in A1amluk History:

c; 01dtr ,1nd in the ..\Iiddle Ages, ed. Sharon Fanner and fhe Third Reign of al-Nasir Muhammad Ibn Oalmuun 1310- Cc:roi nr~w-- Past;.Tn;H.:k (;\1inneapoiis: University of l'vlinnesota 1341 (Leiden: Brill, 1995), - , Press. 2(H).) ·- 2-1-4--45 and n. 6 ). 8. Ibn Hajar ai-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kmnina, 1:294.

On rhc 11 mi. :";, 1;nhith. see rny a:·ticles (dealing \Vith earlier periods) 9. On the role of eunuchs in the Mamluk military (and societv), sec "The Uf·~·mi ;nrcs ;)f Luh \-ted ina,'' Journal of the American Ori­ David Ayalon, Eunuchs, Caliphs and Sultans: A Study of i)muer ental Socict; ! 11 ( 1991 ): .671-93, and "Gender Irregularity as En­ RelationshifJs (: Magnes Press, 1999), and earlier schol­ tcrui;1mcnt: Jn:-riwtionalizcd Transvestism at the Caliphal Court arship cited therein. m 1\·'L:'dil'V:tl ibgl~d:J(L'' in Farmer <1lld Pasternack, Gender and 10. Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamin,l, 1:294-95.

[) 1f{ucr1(·c ·.'/the.· .\1iddlc Ages. 45-71.. Beard-shaving, cross-dress­ 11. Ibn Hajar a!-(Asqalani, al-Durar al-kamina, _1 :295-96. For the ing: ;uh.i p<:'-:;i\'l' hon:osexuaky are all very well attested for the general political history and primary references, sec Robert Jno.:in, m.'·tki.'

!.:.. !hn H;1jar a\-'_\:,qabni . •1!-Drtrar al-kmnina, 1:296. mer (?Vlannheim: Forschungsstelle flir europJ:ische Lvrih: des .l ~~•. Uebel. "R::-(Licnting Desire,'' 241-42. Mittelalters an dcr Universitit JY1annheim, 1992), 1 J 9-2-S. Scattcrl'd innuc;1t-h in the ~ources about Ed\vard's predecessors 24. Sibt Ibn al-Jav-.rzi, i\1.ir~7t al-zaman fi t,lhkh a!-a'van, secrion on the \Xiilliarn ll and Richard I not\vithstanding. Seljuqs, ed. Ali S::vim (Ankara: Tlirk Tarih Kurumu Basirnevi, ; h

itv in \·1vdicv21 1<\rabic Vice Lists," in Body Guards: The Cultural 1:152-53; al-Safadi, 'l/afi, 8:158-59; and Pouzet, Damas, 366. p;>litics cfCelider Ambiguity, ed. Julia Epstein and Kristina Straub Pouzer follows Ibn K<1thir in reading "al-Thaqafi," but the other rNew 'r"(ll·k: Routledge, 1991), 50-79. sources confirm thar the correct reading is ''al-Baqaqi ... L1. On Av~v, sec Fw·)·ch~f7aedia [ranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater (various Ibn Taghri Birdi, Nujum, 9: 113~ 19. For a full discussion of ai­ pub\!~hcr~. 1982--1, s.Y., and references there; also Nlichael ~h.inz, Nashw's career, including attention to these incidenrs, see Donald ~'D;l'> minnliche LiebespJar in der persischen und tiirk1schen P. Little, "Notes on the Early nazar al-khass," in The lvLnnluks in [)jyv~1 nh rik.'' m f-{omoerotische Lyrik: 6. Kolloquium der Forsch­ Egyptian Politics and 5)ociety, ed. Thomas Philipp and Ulrich ;.mgsstcL'e eumpdische Lyrih des Mittelalters, ed. Theo Sturn- Haannann (Cambridge: Cambridge Universitv Press, 199R). 235- 53. . 234 Islamic(.Ite Sexualities Homoerotic Liaisons among the i\!lmnluk Elite

The i'tl r:nmc on this phenomenon is abundant but \Videly scat­ isfactory. According to al-.Maqrizi (Suluk. 1:79.2-93),

c~.'!i, S.\·. 'udh .. ~qr·1ow thcorv, Lois Anita Giffen, Theory of ~ro­ 66. Al-Maqrizi, Khitat, 2:214, cited by Ayalon, Eunuchs, 55. "There .• /7,' fl. rc?hs: 1:he Deuefotnnent of the Genre (New \vou!d be hell to pay'' renders ja>ahu 1-mawt min kufl makan, !irer­ 'ifi!(' } J)/-'( c/iil ·,.,~:-. • -- '· ,. rl·- lJr,iYusiry Press, 1971). alty, "there would come to him death from every place." Ayalon Ynrk: :\e\X { · ·' ' · · , R ll "Repre- ' .:.; . .., .11-41 ci:·ed bv Nasser a) 1at, has mistranscribed mckan as hal ("circumstance'') and translated t--.0. \\~SJhdi. \\,. 1 • •• ) '· _, • ' • ,, · K 1edv 1 . ,.1 .. ·1.s 1·,, '·1-'mlu~ Historical \X ritmg, m em ·' "would be executed under any condition~" but I am not convinced Sl'llting thl· \l Lll ,, l "' . "' 69. An exampk of the former is al-Dhahabi's (d. 748/1348) survey of major sins, Kitah al-Kaba'iJ; ed. al-Sayyid al-'Arabi (al-:\1ansura: Dar ai-Khulafa) li-1-Nashr wa-1-Tawzi', I 995), in -~vhich sodomy (liwat) appears as the sixteenth (pp. 55-63) in a list of SC\'enty. Ex­ actly contemporary are Ibn ai-Wardi's (d. 74911349) al-Kalam nLa mi'at maLih (Discourse on one hundred pretty boys, unpublished) and ai-Safadi's al-Husn al-sarih fi mi'at malih (Manifest beauty on one hundred pretty boys, cd. Abmad Fawzi al-Hayb [Damascus: Dar Sacd a!- Din, 2003)). On the genre, see Franz Rosenthal, "Male and Female: Described and Compared," in Wright and Rov·:son, i ()-~ i ') prcSl':·il'tl ll'' luhti ifchr

: -~,-- ,.,. 1··I· :h'lt omitting the references to seasons), see M~rk D. o, t ds \") ·, " , ' . , · - Tl { · i'ChJCao-o: ' I ·~-~-. ;, ... "'lt'•l-1 og} b lore an. //( ' u "· ' ' o,.rsodom·v - - - _ m Chnstwn Jeo .tniversir\· {)f (:hicago Press. 1991). ch. 4. . ,j.,ffercnt, if related, aspects of sexual s.egre- ·r'nc"c ...,,c. . ,,,.,,· · ·d , _· ,.. , - ·: . T . 1,: wom,n because of sooety\vl c sex- ganon-~rnc un,1\at;aht lty c, ~. . - M I k b r- ~ul segn:f_;:rim'

"t.: Kathryn Babayan

This chapter interprets a wido\v's "inscription" of herself in a journey of loss and separation in late seventeenth-century Isfa­ han.2 My reading of the author's poetic narrative has taken lib­ erties in understanding her suffering because human beings share emotions of grief, though temporal and cultural forms of expression may separate them. Such emotional sensibilities have colored my rendition of her decision after her husband's death to travel and perform the to . I locate her poem as a. singular female expression of sorrow and more gener­ ally as a source about death and love vvithin certain textual and social milieus. This Isfahani widow's choice to "cure'' her mel­ ancholy through the writing of a mystical journey toward God reveals how piety and life experiences kindled her desire to cir­ cumambulate the Ka'ba.

To imagine this V\1idow's social world, I focus on Isfahan where she lived and on the Ka'ba to which she traveled as devout pilgrim. I analyze the Isfahani \vidow's narrativized experiences through the symbols and words she used to translate her per·

239 "In Spirit We Ate Each OtherS Sorrou_," 241

] \ it \va_s common to include chapters on women in (ulama's biog­ -;nn 1 and snci:-1 rc.l1:tic:-, and cr:dow them \vith meaning a:1d l"O\.TL In situ~H 1 ng the ways in \Vhich gender and sexuality raphies, the majority of which state that they studied v..-'ith their fathers.-' The Urdubadi family scribe introduces our author <.1s ~~o; r:.._' in the \\·r; 1)n 2 of the \\·idow's mourning, I encapsulate the ··M,. ~ . : ,,,,·,-.-.,,.,. ,; .-.\;·,-_.-, \Vornen in c..1rlv rnodern Isfahan and reflect the Bilqis and Khadija of the age (Bilqis al-auani ua I( \.._ <•'1 •• L\ 1., '-.' ~ " . dec -t.:'Ltti-nn.'- l•ctwccn social zmd cultural structures and hJs- dau.n-ani).4 Praising and comparing the \Vi dow with the two \vise 011 1 tor ~JJ 1 _~rocc'>S\.'..;. This \vidcnv's \Vriting_ experi_ence illustrates and powerful female icons of the prophet's wife and the queen ho·.\_: her subjt:..::--\ ity web formed by dommant d1scourses on de­ of Sheba, the scribe includes her long poem (1,200 versesi in an sir\ .nd ]()(li-.;hcd throu~h a ritual of sisterhood or_ C~)m­ serve as archives, yet they remain untapped repositories for th~ p:, writing of the social and cultural history of Safavi Iran. 1-ionshq_.., kinudndagi)~ whic_h _made use of rel!gwus co notation" Jlld :·he bnguage ot mystlCJSlll to express ~emale Hoping to replenish the void created [,y her husband's death. lc;·.·c , nd The freedom awarded by travd, specrflcally the widow sets off on a pilgrimage to Mecca from Isfahan, the 1 \:r:1 ~.:'nd:.hi~'- capital of the Safavi empire ( 1590-1722), It is the end of these\·­ h\ ~:he c:--.:peri:..'t:n,' 0 ; pilgrimag<~, to temporarily rearrange t~1e di-.uplinary sp,:cc~ rrornpts us to reconsider female homosocral enteenth century. At the beginning of her story, she informs the sr.h.:c~ in lshmlL

"""- :, o a level of sharing both in matters spiritual women's relationship, which was deemed illicit by social, reli­ at t'- heart. cxt·,ltl,lc , - l or -ivahat, locates her on gious authorities, is significant to the widow's decision to per­ , ,.;. 1 1---';ct· ;mputse to tJ a.ve' ::. ~ 1 d an 1 m:l_te. ""' . . . . I d tl 'lt ultimatelv ea s to to . · J s ·lt know e ge 1' ' h form this holy pilgrimage after her husband's death and re­ ~.-ht __ Suh pati1 rq\\·ar d- ~: _.-1 . ·, e m~- onist quest for union wit pent of her "sins and crimes" at God's abode. The tensinr.s . _ . ·'P-' ,~ 1 . 1 , 1 pc, \\•ltlln tn · un ~...Jt). a sL,~c <~, ~ . ·~ . ,. . . l sensation of separanon between profane and sacred love torment this widovv, stimulat­ •,h.·· ,)·, .,·,~"' -1l·w UD1quJLOUS m_vStJca . 'than ai·r ,. •'---- - . - . f _, h- rrattve WI ing the journeys toward God and her companion from the past, if{ from the ol·qect_nt destre __ prompted ~~_l us~~nue;oi~:adition, The tensions at times merge in the language of mysticism but are . ' , ~ __ :1 ·spcntlon that, ,~ccor t> -. l . o!- gioom aLL. '-- '-- ._ ·. . -d . d-r in pursuit ot 1l un1ma- never fully reconciled. . ' t-) -.1 <...ocJetv ai, Vvan e l' f m·:srics to hrc;_:..;: _l (_ L .• , . .·_ d. h offered the only re Je • _1 L "O"'le n1' StlLS, eat J By the seventeenth century, Persianate poets had versified the ti(•n and trutn. ; or" !. ' . ·on from their belove , . l 1--- -1 )lie state ot separatt- · experience of the Hajj, though no singular poetic form seems to tr·.Jlil r1c rnt.'.tJVltV netr \ear c- j sch-es trom \-\-"(lj',{_ :y -....< f· - o' . 'l . of 'udhri love ideas . - ,,- _: h n~-otane :Jrtlcu anons .., for didactic, romantic, and Sufi expressions) and qasidas (lyric Jl"·v-.;ncal po ...'tl .' .\\ lt, r'· ~. d . ·en inevitablv to death.' poetry) being used alternatively-but in content as welL It is safe . · , . I _1 ., • . -·<...fled lovers \-Vere nv .. ;r· \\'lliC"l L ~~.: u.l-,3tL - --1 -e in the continuous contem- to assume that the lsfahani widow was familiar with these liter­ J\nd yet some n1y<:>t;cs f his speech (the ) )ought:~' a~ to . t. ( .. i -i ,·ouo h the rCI-ttation o d ary practices and exercised the freedom choose the form and r Jnon o ,(h,, \1, . c. . . d- . of the Kacba. his abo e. 1 '- ., the s·K: e space . f content of the written account of her Hajj. The literature de­ a-!d his name;., or nc~or~ fill , . bsence with the fullness o scribing the pious act of worship and reverence toward God at Thls wido\\ chooses to nerla l ~ s that the prophet . K q -· , \\··alk throug 1 t 1e space.. c • the holiest of Muslim shrines relied on a language full of sym­ ( ,O(_i at the .~ L'l:~~ iO , . 1 d inhabited, and there to umte bols and tropes evoked particularly by poets who understood .\·]·,J\l3lllt11Jd md h;s cnddrcn ,1a d d .l. at . . .. 'l h he hears (an escn Jes ' \ n"'T<...Jstent ca; t at s · h the Hajj as a mystical journey toward God. The widow's own \·:ith twI trutli. · t·-- l '\. flllinuhervvlt an ~-- .., --, ,~o- ch·aws her towarc ;v· ecca, v . account of the Hajj demonstrates her knowledge of the modes of : lOlnCnL:-. ;ls "· s.),lr- --_. d g the arduous terram . ~ _. ~ . -,is her forwar a 1on representing the pilgrimage's sacred geography and vividly illus­ (·x,:,·ncment due }lrnp_ '" C . throuo-h eastern Ana- . ; . 1 rd to the aucasus, v trates the common themes of lamentation, absence, separation, '.. jron'i 1st-ahan., n_<.)o·t~-~~\·c . h . d Arabia. The pilgrim, , • . ~ 1 ,' - atelv sout \\-ar to . and longing for the beloved to recount her personal circum­ 10ila. Svn

,N ·"' cac 'rratiH_' withnt the genre of complaint literature. tali ties behind them clashed against the backset of [sfahani dailv '1'«:-,'--1 1 11 «• < • h }-Ier-c;-_ rhe widcw he~ ins her poem \Vith a complaint agamst t e hf~. ~he tensions bet\vcen mystical and Shari(a-minded modes o.f \viks of fortune. which have left her heart burnin~ with sorrow ~hmkmg and f~eling led to the imperial-level project of rcgulat­ due ro rhc absence fivaq_! of her intimate compamon. mg the sexuailty of Isfahan's subjects. The Isfahani widow is l he Jbsencc ;nd \ongmg for a friend, the illness stage as part wntmg at an important time-at a moment in Safavi histon.­ of he curati\·e process of purification and transcenden~e, a~d when the courtly ~nd religious patriarchy \vas taking measurc.s t~ ?overn domestiC spheres by sanctifying, with the force of rne-.s;-1ges from rhc (.k:ine in the guise of a bi.rdsong, ~us1cal m­ stnm1cnt, or natural phenomenon like the wmd are hterary. mo­ d!~JJ~e law, heterosexual marriage and attendant social and tifs suhusin(Z the \Vidow's langu~1ge. Her spiritual quest \VIll be rel~gJOus norms. The desire-disciplining discourses must have sol ClF, for ncnc of her relati\eS will accompany her travel: wei.ghed heavily on our \vidow's dear friendship and homoerotic ''~ot ~'ne becanc my friend !yarl." But she reminds. and com­ ?es1res, provoking ambivalence and shame. Does she feel caught forr.s herself: ''\\/ho needs a human companion? God ts t.he ra~q m a predicament that is similar to Majnun's? ' of the forlorn." Hurt bv relatives' betrayal (klnUishan u Th~)Ugh she relies on conventional rhetoric and dilemmas to explam her situation, the Isfahani \:vidow unconventiona!!v '< _ .. n:z~m_', she leJYCS isfahan like 1amhulate the House of the Dispenser of Jus­ ately mtervenes in changing and shaping the masculinist lan­ guage., moving between the discursive possibilities and her cwn ti>.. c .. , 1 Audicn~.::cs Luniliar vvith this epic romance \Vould c~r­ w-n\v symp

conf-igure h,3 suhjt·<:tivity, her religious experiences, her nostal­ [ikhwanj" and prepares a feast in her honor. She savs the (? During her not seen from relatives except when r \Vas in Isfahan.'' II· traveis m rh; dnm:1ins, the lsfahani widow \Vrites about her rela­ The familiarity and kinship that she feels with people on her tionship((; Jit:fcrent spaces (whether sacred, social, gende~e~, or long journey create a comforting security in the "domains of the s\·xual. and disnL1~:s cultural, linguistic, and religious opm10ns. Shah of Iran," 17 This security is lost when she leaves behind Iran, Jsidmicate Sexualities "In Spirit We Ate Each Other's Sorrow" 249

,. I' . il,·,.-i !·ivan\," and enters the my generous companion irafiqJ." Later she will write about the I .,''\v~··u,·likcv~l:lant JO;lS s.z, " . I sh\"i~ \\ ll'll - , : . f."'. . turn into miCe mrc . relationship: 1 i- ··whc-•e 111 .Ltl we . ( -,t:·oman ,anus. . , - l . ·ll as her promment ·im and WiC ow as \\·e S f . 1- icr -;raru::. J> pq:, _ _ _ ·ournev through . a av1 Together in Isfahan, ·.ve had been companions (yar}. ' ,. -· ~ ._, ·t.- ccrtamlv co 1or 11Cr l- 0 • ~ f . 1. rdun~hil dli'--·-"·.". . , " I. d I . attentions of a ew In spirit, \ve ate each other's sorrm:v ]or we vvere each other's , ' J.DCI 'l C1SC l\• j companions in sorrow]. I·"J11. Thougt, C(nlf:C(I_ c ! f- < r' KiHrvanaq a distant re- . . 1 --I . 0 ,. the croy~·rnor o "' ' I She was a relative better than any sistec SClitOI'S, partlc'cLa• \ ' b • h ,. f l h'ld [ti~\ and t1e • • . · 1 1...,e "?ace of a C<..tUtl u c l , kinder than any of my other relatives . ,-.rive posscssc·d \\Jtl u, ' . . - theless free to move ,: -- ., .. '_, " she rcn1ams never . Bur suddenly heaven's playful tricks j. r;o\vlcd<>c o: .\1 ,S!Otlc, . . d . d aces her honor • t"> • , , l l" - and pnvatc crcn CI e sp ~ appeared C'n the stage of deceit, iil and out ot notTt pUt1 JC < () -ommand the respect 'I mut,lel. Vvl . c , • . the Ottoman , - ., . . -- s '\-'here she was to JOin . and inflicted separation between our two bodies. F" f')U'C I!) l Jam~tscu .. , - d Perhaps m a For our hearts, no cure save constraint; •• • , . ' _J_ 1: . ~ 01 \11ecc1 she makes a etour. . .ce1rasans nc.10ec. • ·. ".·. . h h. 1 d and liberated in separation [hijran], both of us have waited a century. (, l' 10. h·eed ot er us )an J:.lssionatl' nwnlcnt, it'C 11 o ~.I . l north to the Caucasus Unri! at last, the end of the night of torturous separation , . ,. ·'v -he deCll es to tra\·C , rhrout:.h !lCl • n.__':.., _ I t·ve \Xfith the storv sun- turned into the morning of spiritual union. . · ,__ . , 1 f · . -j an(i distant rca 1 • •· d 3nd visit her OiL ne,t_c , . ~~ l . , ·arion had been force After a century, I sav.., the face of that friend fyar], fn\ding, it \x·cnl11CS ciear thaL t1Clf sephal , r men long aoo and I threv-..- the baggage into her house. " .;.----ulation about t e tvvo \"-'O o The remedy [dah1] for the incurable [bidarmanj pain of separa­ due to rumnJs 11l c.t~..- . . l·t· I 1 Now she travels to · '11 res1dent lll s a 101 · ' tion, \\·hen they \'·ere l)Ot Il Stt . J 'b rith terms rc..:unit'-' vYitl··. her <'thcr lost love, whom she esdcn ~s 2 d ('var u o dear one, \VJS patience and endurance.-·n c>f l·ndcarm·,··nt tlut :He meant for her husban an o " What was the context for this forbidden friendship, and what u(iqj. . ·• l f 1 . Safavis located in north- social life did it have? Why would it have provoked such a reac­ In ·rabri;. ;J previous capl,,a oh t1~- ·imitv of her homeland '. . ..1 ,. ·, i)V t tion as to cause the widow's companion to leave Isfahan andre­ Jra\Vll 0 e ptOX • . \\·c-.;tcrn li :Ji!. :--.;1 ... 1. . U d , d There is a consistent .·. I . h·rthplac'e r una . settle in her ancestral homeland? Let us move momentarily to 1 Aras River to 't~ . -- . I , - ··1vels bv boat across t le , d lsfahani society husbands did not feel so certain or comfortably Jll>.::hohc sr._ltc--. :--,1(-.LI~ ~1 , d f her arrival relatives an j r secure and in fact felt threatened by their wives' female friends. ~. ' l .. } 1 1ng -lear 0 ' "n1v urdr:l)

Jslamicdte Sexualities "In Spirit \Ve Ate Each Other's Sorrow·· 251

yf k!Ju.-'afhn /;_fncarzd~zgi_, \Vhich involved a vow of sisterhood that servative impu Is e. , or Islamic mysticism, was a pervasive~ 21 ~-,:vo \VOnlCT exchanged v,;irh each other. Aqa Jamal enjo~·ed en­ popular mode of religiosit~r that competed \Vith Shi'ism, the Yiablc a:..::cc~-s to the courts and persons of the Safav1 Shah newly established religion of the Safavi state. Against the hack­ \ulavman

acot~-alntcd \Vith the wido\v's husband, Mirza Khalil, who king and with the believing denizens of the Safa~i realms. Shi'1 pe:;ncd offc:ial decrc·es for the king in the chancellery. Courtly clerics devoted much attention to inscribing certain forms of ~ir,Jes v;Jcrc ~n;all and thrived on gossip and rumors; It IS hkely sexuality and spirituality as their twin objects of discipline. he caught\\ ind of the scand,-'.1 that led to the separation between By the time Aqa Jamal wrote his satire, a strict~ orthodox in­ ~dirza LKhc11Ts wife and her female companion. But this cleric's terpretation of the Shari'a was in force. Shah Sultan Husavn --;,Hire on ]o-::;1\ female cuiture suggests that intimate friendships ~1694-1722) issued decrees concerning the legal (virtuous) a;1d :")erwcen bf8 han i \vomen, which he derides, \vere sufficiently Jliegal (virtueless) habits and conducts of life under Safavi rule, rrc\·alent to cau~.e gcnerai male anxiety. I use this satire to inter­ and the clergy happily signed their endorsements of the shah ·s ;·ogate the practice .of friendship in Isfahan. Satire decrees.24 In a grandiose public show of repentance the kino or­ ri~ic:1les a~d 0 m(.>cks with the intention of injuring; without a basis 1~ soctal dered his men to clear several thousands of \-vin; bottlcs out

nractice, s::1tirc \VOllld lose its rhetorical poignancy and atfect. So of his court cellars and to smash them in Isfahan's central ] usc ths -.;~Hire to enter lsfahani society's universe of symbols square. Men and women's clothing was regulated to conform to

J.nd attitudes. By 1uxtaposing these nvo texts, I hope to shed ever stricter nc:tions of Islamic ~~modesty.'' Guests at weddings light on the hro~1dcr social circle that encompassed elite women and other soCial events where hoth sexes gathered could no a;:d men like Aqa Jamal and Mirza Khalil's widow in the l~te longer be entertained with music and dance, and oender sc<>reua­ scventccnth-ccnrury period when their society was bemg tion was enforced at every private and public :vent. sodo~y, .t:.ripped by mcrcasing inf1exibility. 22 adul~cry, prostitution, and gambling vverc banned. Opium an.d . (Aaa'id ._.-d-J\-js.J)was written around a decade before the acces­ hash1sh were declared illegal, and coffeehouses, taverns. and SliJ;l :)f the L1st Safavi shah, Sultan Husayn (1694-1722). His Sufi lodges-all considered dens of Sufi fomentation-were forc­ 23 ru~n· ushered· · a rac1ca,. I s h·f·1 L ·m moo d t·or Isfahan" . Bv,. the earlv. ibly closed. Under the Sa fa vis' patronage of Shi'i scholars and in­

sn:-entcc1r:1 century, the Shi'i clerical establishment, under th.e stitutions, n1osques, seminaries, and individual cleFrvmen could auspices nt· the Saf::n:i monarchy, had initia~ed a nor.mative pro]­ have t hetr . say in politics. Everyone awaited the "'Mahdi. also C'-~t of regulating se:\:uatity. After the Safav1 revolutJOn had suc­ known as the Twelfth and Hidden Imam, to instate divine jus­ ceeded ( 1 SO 1: :n shoring ')Upport for its ideas throughout the tJce on earth and rid the people of the social miseries and injus­ iranian dnrnains, the Safa\·i mystic-king Ismail proclaimed that tlces they had too long suffered. But the Imam had not vet re­ Shi

I .· s,· .... ('t>tllj"·arable to the cultural disciplinary tions [mahrumat ua makruhat_l." 2 -~ The five Isfahani \VOmen, s_:xunlity and Cdt::IO~ l\. J ~ • 1 · --r,___·a·.ld i:elig'__ ious treatises on ethiCS and mc~ra_ s m- cffcus that cd C ··' · ff I rly "experts" in "superstition," are often mockingly called 'ulama, ' -... ·. _, (_ _,>:d ~71-Nisa) endeavors to e ect Stn1I a religious scholars, by Aqa JamaL r:no to pnh•.kc . . \q .. '. . B 1 k·l· the text helps . . -~· ,.· ~ l11 re of satire. ut uc 1 ! The author allocates sixteen chapters to the universe of the fe­ t:lrough the :,l;U: tou~ , ,:. f male denizens in seventeenth- ;_, ·c together 1m ages o~ e ~ . . I male gender, from ritual obligations like ablutions, prayer, and t.S ~n ~.'~>--h--:·n ·

thc:r time to~L'thcr \Yiil on the day of reckoning be free of judg­ course abound, and seventeenth-century translations into Per­ mc1lt ~md \\·i\i .2,

:-.hi.ps enra1kd p;Htncrships in this \vorld and the hereafter be­ emerges outside the contours of Islamic law. The rituals and nvccn rwc brothers or sist~.:rs who pledged themselves to one conventions that Aga Jamal delineates demonstrate the inde­ ;n;other tor rhc· sake of God. In the context of Shi(i law and prac­ pendence of the milieu of sisterhood, which he finds threatening. '1 ,l,c,, -.,···c·I \.. :-;:.1.:,-. li-fe-!· ·· 1 ~ , 1·u.n-:-. '1 tes' tCPlporarv" ,. marriages.'· Here follows a Aga Jamal writes that a reputable (mu'tabar}, trustworrhv

-.:.J n~plc ·L~\ 1 {_)f th~ \·ows. On the anniversary of Qadir Khum, the woman-a kind of intermediary (pasain)-would prepare ~ cLv ·on \\·h:ch :vtuhammad purportedly chose Ali as his brother wax doll called the aruschak (little bride) and place it on a deco­ 'c.1 .,, • ·c··- .,,.- t·,,·c) ''l1rcnhcrs" take each other's hands and the rated platform, which she would then send to a prospective sis­ (.l l! I :-, •'--'- _,.., < • • older "1.-'lro:-lwr" ({icZf'adar-z buzurg) declares: "I seek protectJOn ter (khwahar khwandah). The character of Kulthum Nane ex­

for vou 1n (;od, l shake hancls vvith you before God, 1 pledge my­ plains that the term aruschak was originally arus-i kuchak {little self. to HH. for God~ and 1 pledge myself to God, His angels, bnde) but was abbreviated with frequent usage." The term has .!I1is\ h~)oks, m-..:-sscn~ers, ;:nd sent prophets. And praise be to obviously been transported from the context of heterosexual

(_ 1od Lord of the Tv... ·o \Xlorlds." To which the younger brother marria~es to that of female-female conjoining. Accepting an of­ ({hlrc~d..?r-; kudJ.:l.k.! replies: "1 accept and forfeit all the. rights of fer of SiSterly marriage entailed returning the aruschak crowned the hrothchood in favor of proximity· to God." The ststerhood with a necklace and rewarding the pasabz with an honorarv VDWS Jrc .... jmilar s~\\T for the phrase that the sister adds: ''l take robe (khilat). If the offer was refused, a black veil instead wa~ Ynu as ;1 ·-;:~rer before God."'2 wrapped around the head of the doll before it was sent back. Ac­ - \\'irhin :-he bodY of anthologies that I have just mentioned and cording to Aqa Jamal, the practice could occur between two

(;.)]l:->ick·r :u: :J.rch. 1\·c, iega: condemnations of same-sex inter- women unknown to one another. He makes no mention, hovv- 256 Isiamf,:ate Sexualities "In Spirit \Ve Ate Each Other's Sorrow" 257 t'YtT, oi: their marital staLls. The Isfahani widow's example Though Persian mystical poetry \Vas a male-centered domain shO\\'S rhie of rhc model S;1int and "perfect individual" (insan-i language that is distinct from the mystical language of men? f::.,~mif). l---1::, n~ure is ubiquitous in female rituals of the Safavi pe­ How does she employ Sufi tropes for divine love and yet riocL 8nd :he female version of the Sufi practice tied disciples to­ feminize her writing within the male discourse on lc)\-e? Does the q·rher in .1 companionship founded on loyalty and devotion to rhetoric of "absence," so necessary for writing about the experi­ :~li. In carl\ modern Safovi Iran, Sufi brotherhoods were a com­ ence of pilgrimage, suffuse the widow's text to the extent that in­ mon fcatu;~c nf town life and prominent centers of religious, eco­ terpretation is clouded and hesitant and separation and mourn­ nomic :ned political vigor Jnd stability. Voluntary associations, ing are reduced to stock emotions and themes in a woman theY coordin~ncd and directed much of religious life and public traveler's narrative of pilgrimage? cha.rit::hic activities in their communities. Their diversity and va­ Based on a cursory reading of Tuhfat al-7raqayn, Nzn- al­ rietY notv,·ithstJ.nding, the) shared rituals, like voluntary friend­ A1ashrt..Zqayn, and Futuh al-Haramayn-three pilgrimage narra­ shit;, that mc;rked people\ daih- experiences of urban life, In tives composed by the respective male poets Khaqani, Bihishti manuals nf chiYaln·, the love guiding the disciple in the order is Haravi, and Lari-I note that our traveler's distinctiveness re­ the ]oyc· tor ( ;nd, ;1ttainahlc only through a friend and experi­ sides her inclusion of personal episodes and submerged dis­ enced rhr,:ough mutual sharing and caring bet\\'een two brothers. courses in her poem. As narrator, our widovv· allows us to in­ ,:c., brother \;~ill meet his friend on judgment day, and his friend habit ber and to move with the rhythms of her encounters. The \\·ill he hi'l wirn:.':ss before God, vouching for his entry into para­ language of mysticism is the language for expressing her individ­ dise. Thl-: is <1 r(_)\VerfuL threatening paradigm for the Shi(i uality and singular female experience, but her narration of indi­ cien:,Y. \vho \\-ere :ntempting to consolidate their roles as the ex­ vidual and uncommon experiences in the course of the iourncv clw,'i~:c inrcnT\cdi:Jries between God and the community of Mus­ relies only partly on the common themes of longing, grief, and Lm hehc\·-~-r~. lamentation. The L1np.u<1gc of love that the widow uses to describe her fe­ The distinctive conventions of sisterhood, of symhol-laden male f:-ic;·;_d phcc~ her within the semantic field of mysticism. communication, and of the dress customs of the friendship- Jslanzicate Sexualities "In Spirit We Ate Each Other's Sorrow'' 259

intin:~cy, and lovesickness underscore the significance of natural ); sed soccr\· of women that ·were ridiculed and condemned by 1 1 rgcr socicr~:\ cleric }Z.Uardian sum up in nventieth- ~nd.twe!~ty­ medtcme and medical practices to women's social domains of 8 power and the contestation of them:+! rirst-.centtin· lrrm the identity associated v.. rith "lesh1amsm. In n~:)dern r, J9SOs Pcrsi~1n literary usage~ the term describing these . Now that we have a more textured appreciation of the prac­ friendshq,s-·Unu,zh;_~r khwandah (adopted sister_)-can1e ~o tJce of friendship between women in early modern Isfahan, let us a :so suggest tc1baq zan (a lesbian). Mindful of tbJsmodermst return to the widow's melancholy and forbidden love. In the en­ 8 counter, the widow collapses. She "throws [downJ her baagaoe consciousnc~-s. 1 had initially resisted readmg lesbtantsm .be~ m her friend's house" and shows at least her physical vulne~;b~­ t\vecn the L:1cs of ;\qa jam;ll's early modern ~qa)id al-Nzsa. The argumcnr seemed to be based on no more than fearful male Ity. She shifts often from first to second and third persons when hnrasi~s. Hut novY the discovery and juxtaposition of t?e addressmg her audience and friend, as if boundaries between her self, her beloved, and societv blur· l~L:hani \:<..:idow's <.:ontemportmeous pilgrimage narrative permitS ' . the idcntitlc tion of <1 compli<.:ated (at least in the wid~w's ~xam­ 1 Happily, 1 spent some time at my hostess's, that Isfahani com nan­ plc} , mc-scx crotiz.: desire hetween female compamons m the 5 1 ion of mine. 0 kind friend, o old companion: vou did nor den; me SaLhl period. . your S\v·eet souL I was so nurtured by you, a~ though fallen from ,--\qa Jc1m,-tl rek.tes that even from the confine_s of the1r homes the heavens. But my fortune did not comply. I was rxhausrccl rhcse kindred female spirits communicated the1r mo~t perso~al ]khastah]. The whole tim<: I \Vas suffering !ranjur]. I was aftlicrcd ,md intima::;:: thoughts. He characterizes the women's triendshtps with fever [tab! and torment [azar]. Nor for a moment \\'as I able with doubk cntcndres alluding to eating, rubbing, and pound­ to be her partner in conversation/soul/sex !ham suhbat].·+2 I did not become physically intimate !ulfati] \vith that good-natured ing that 1n both :\rc1bic and P~rsian t~xtua_l re~ditions ~f f~mal_,:> sexual intercourse v-,:ere assoCiated \Vtth tnbadtsm (mu::;alnqa}. one. u~ing the semiotics of food the \Vomen sent one another mes­ sage;-. ,\ v..--::lnut (ju~:i conve>·ed the message, ''I am your~, do not The widow is sick and aloof, unlike her friend, who is openly emottonal, expressive, giving. "I was ashamed in front of mv worn,·'-litcraliy, "do not cat sorro\v \gham makhur}. ~ w~l- . · · · ., f ·dt) "lmnpam friend. You bore pain constantly on my behalf. You grieved cwe,r nut grated one s1dc (JUZ-l yz.l:(_tara sayz a J meant, a . I .. and 'vv'e; L I have rubbed this. Do the same!"40 Saffron stgntfied, my suffenng, you became even more broken-hearted because of 1 my distance [duri]. "'' "You ha'"'' 111 ,1dc me yello\\ jmelancholicllike pounded saffron. How loni:! -.;hail i e::n of your useless sorrow?" An unsalted hazel­ In the reL~nion with her former beloved, the widow undergoes a reversal m roles: she relinquishes her narrative persona as nur me:-.u~:. "I have eaten ;md \Vill continue to eat of your sor­ row.··,\ s;;lrcd hazelnut conveyed the message, "Still I desire yo~ lover ('asbiq), transforming herself into the object (mahbub} of all over.·· .-\\\·hole cardamom seed means "I am pat1ent lhrlm], her ~ompanion's desire.+< But on the day of departure, after but a LTzat f;,r tu\." The crypric codes betvveen fnends for passiOn, poured from her eyelashes like rain onto her skirt. She cried so "In Spirit \\7e Ate Each Other's Sorrow" IsLnnicdtr! .'

tance the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, pays her respects at rm.ch. thC nor phLkcd one from that garden. I only _cried there from onelincss ~tr,d scp;lration. ,_.,,But the song that trom the very be- I would like to shift focus for a moment to the female enocn­ dering of the Ka'ha in the hajjnames versified by men to under­ 1incing j,, ;., dr~ Y(_n; h:.1ve become saddened after the separation 1 1 culine genre of pilgrimage narratives. Khaqani's Tuhfat al- frorn your cnn;.panion. go toward the House of Truth. Do not be 7raqayn (Gift of the two Iraqs), written about mid-twelfth cen­ ~\oon~y Juc 10 ~he p;~rting from vour sv.... ectheart. Hurry up, ride tury, provides an early example from Persian poetry that links Your c1ml·L ;1\acc your lc;ad a to~ the melancholy jsaz.uda] of sep­ 4 the Ka'ba to womanhood. The Ka'ba's attributes that were fa­ nwdi::ne relief when she first espies from a dis------~------·------·------

fs!dmicate Sexualities "In Spirit We Ate Each OtherS Sorrow" 263

pmt~ i\izam1, S;l\li. 1-Iat-iz, and Jami were all feminine, and the Khaqani purifies and purges the holy abode of the poet-pilgrim's cdi:icc\ archirccur;1l fcnures \Vcre often compared to a chaste sexual desires by denying the possibility of penetration. Despite wo:run's plwsi(._-;tl ones. Furthernore, the pilgrim's relationship attempts to desexualize the ritual kissing of the Ka{ha, his imagi~ to; he I

Js!amicate Sexualities ''In Spirit We Ate Each OtherS Sorrow'' 265

d :h·ed \vhen ~he inl<·tgines the youth wrapped in a _cloth (daman) that emanated from Sufi circles included polemically labeling the t',:_...,t hw_w_ed h::.; !om·_.,,-(miyan). Do the golden belt ned arounffd the Sufi and sodomite as figures of heretical "excess." Shi'i discourse "" · ~~ 1 K 'h d o a so C·._l;flc·'" and tih:: black: ~tone tha:-_. protect t 1e a a war h. 1 condemned the practices of celibacy and sodomy in favor of het­ '· • ' h - h earts i·i:icit desire;;. ~hrt. At the house of' Go~, I apo ~; tivity within matrimony-not abstinence and celibacy-became t:,li'cd form:-- crirnc. Like a hegf,ar, I began to cry. \X, hat shaH I say~ sacred. Drawing from the Muslim sacred texts of the Quran and ~ I. -, .,,,. i't'·--' v.:as \\·asted. In Your abode, no honor re 111 neg n~~·nv.. , i ', ' " <, - ' . · H 11 Hadith, Shi'i clerics offered up the sanctity of marriage as the m;lin;· f;)r lll·-'- \Vo-.: upon me if you do_not :orgJve ~,Y_ c:J.m~. - e worldly path to God, bolstering state-level Safavi efforts to cen­ <..h,lli be :ll\ dwdlinf,: place. Since pertormmg the pdgnmagc of tralize and govern. ~-vomcn,. l. hnc- kich·d Satan\ face. My heart has b~en cleansed of hi:-. l "h~-r!i not allc--\v my heart to engage m bad deeds Anxieties about sexual behavior in Sufi circles revealed as well ludi the Shi'i clergy's fears that intimacy between spiritual brothers and friends could easily lead to political solidarities strong Was her hcrFt "diseased" with the maladyof desiring another enough to resist clerical-perhaps even imperial-authority. In xornan, and \-\"as loving her one of the satamc cnmes she repents 1550, the Safavi king Shah Tahmasb issued the first in a series of yv· _ t -,,, ·er'lr·n but \Ve do kno\v she demonstrates re­ w'c cnnno ··- '- "' ' . 1' decrees about "proper" and ''improper" Muslim behavior that :xntance by haYing ·her hair cut and arrangmg for a came s prohibited wine, sodomy, and beard shaving." Besides calling for set prices and secure roads throughout the empire and for sJcrilice. . _ ]' - b -k ,round The foiiov-.-ing pro··: ides rh~.~ socwl and l e tgwus ac ~ the welfare and education of orphans, the first decree laid down for the' \vidow ,'s han- name and Aqa. .l ama ]' s 'A qa •·dz. .al-Nzsa'. o- In a set of ethics detailing appropriate gender roles and displays of S,lLn .. i tlrnc~ .. Sh(i c1nical responses to the perceJved danvers sexuality in public spaces. The decree went on to caution Safavi isLvnicate Sexzwlit;es "In Spirit We Ate Each Others Sorrow" 267

:--'d'ii.>:ts ag~tir::;t cchb::1cy, long Jssociated with Sufi ways of _life, gave him a thick black beard. But having never seen a beard be­ ,nd exhorted tht' rnalc populace to he both sexually and soc1ally fore, Adam asked God, "What is this'" "This is vour orna­ p:·nductivc. Yh.·;nio111ng, relaxing, and comfort-seekin_g v..;~re ment," replied God, "and that of your sons till eter~ity.'' d::--fa,_·ored ru,.,tirnc~ since they reduced men to a state of mactJV­ In his chapter on the virtues of marriage and the vices of celi­ )1. \·. makin~ th(_·m :l.P better off than women and the dead. Beard­ bacy, Majlisi Jr. reiterated the norm of heterosexuality based on k"~s \·outh, the objects of male desire in Sufism's concep­ the authoritative report that the prophet Muhammad, who was

r uliiati01: of spir;tuality, and \Vomen \Vere not allowed to the exemplar for all of humankind, loved women. He proceeded cng,~egatc a1 pt,ihLc cYents (marikaj that included storytelling to list examples that confirmed the Imams' heterosexuality and · ,1 .,, ..,., \l"ltic-.:. :Jut on hY chiY ..1lric ciuhs. the religious obligation at the core of piety-taking a wife. Like ,_ 11 ~- <•'-- • 1 '- - l _. -\ccording -_-o the decrees, which were engraved on other contemporaneous literature, the manual of mores repre­

\\·Jil~, ,1 he~rd"!css youth would be punished by the la\:v if he sented the prophet as having demarcated Muslim men's faith JTOstituted hirnsclf in a hammam (a public bath). The sc:·upu­ and religious beliefs on specific grounds of sexuality: a true j _)US nroscri;vion'i nn social and sexual behaviors also apphed to Muslim could not have sexual intercourse with members of his h.-,u~ls, the ~-:--;ihk cmhlems of manhood. \XThen it was practiced sex, bearded or not. When some women allegedly complained to '.v;rh:n rhc :.;;pcciflc ..::onditions of an older man's penetration of a Muhammad that their busbands avoided sexual relations with nuth discrt:c·+... - :.1nd behind closed doors, sex bet\veen men had them, the prophet condemned the men thus: "Thev are not of ~ccn toler;ltc~.l.in :-..aLn·i society. But the flrst sign of a beard­ my followers." It is necessary to pause and reflect od the reasons uhhic-hcr:dlkd manhood, ,lt \\'hich stage sodomy became ta- that heterosexual conjugality received such voluble advocacv 1oo ..:-\nd if :l 111<."1!1 pcrsistenrl~: shaved his beard, "delaying" his from Shi'i clerics. Too many Sufi mystics were eschewing th~ Ttn· into m,:nhood \\··ith its responsibilities of vv·ork, marriage, more ordinary unions of marriage to female mortals in favor of md \.:hildrc-n, he \\.-JS ,: serious threat to social order in the Safavi the more rarefied, transformative unions with God. And these

mpc.Tiunl. The set of rnoral significations to beards and their re- unions that they pursued so ardentlv, were underminino0 the pro]·- 110, ai dcsLT\·cd di'-lcussion in the anti-Sufi discourses penned by ect of making socially and sexually disciplined and productive ...::' :(: c··l .. ,·,,,- ,,,,,·, ,. tl·,, s"'vc··'nfeenth centurv. Devoting fourteen Safavi subjects . J 11 I I \:: J -... -~ '-· '. •1 ~, • '-- ''-- '' • '----' :h;Jprcrs ro \·Jric~us aspects of daily life, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi Jr.'s normative manual narrates that Imam ]afar once \laiiisi"s ,_d. 1r,lJ9 normative manual on Shi{i mores and ethics chided a devotee who rejected the material world and turned as­ J'-'1incJtcd the proprieties of dress, makeup, sleep, marriage, cetic and celibate that wife taking constituted one half of a be­ 1 ., ... ,.,,.. l:.,,t-: " l'l·lorin'1auc and so on.'' Though Majlisi Jr. liever's religious duties. Sufi spirituality's fundamental tenet that [,1~''--l-1 e<-'~--:-,-1 ;:--•'b' ~ ~t;Jkd tblt it \I ;;s we: II known that clerics had forbidden beard union between the human and the divine can be attained shct\·ing, he "cvcrrheit··ss included a section on the different wa;~s through a man's mystical love for his male beloved effectuallv to sh~Fe facu\ hair. 1-)ut his vinv that a beard signified sexual VI­ collapsed the distance between the believer and God that the ra'­ rilitv ;_tnd even narri

erence for other men. Aqa Jamal hints at the similar threat posed rwc en women r:_'cci\TS the silent treatment in the religious trea­ by women who avoided their husbands, preferring the company tise-~ on ethics: in fact its only treatment is Aqa Jamal's satire, Be­ of "sisters.'' When a man sent one sister a golden JUg (tunp:-i fie/~,)( \Vomen. Once celibacy, ~,;-;_zing, and same-sex friendships ta!a'i), he was demanding: wi.thii~ Suhsrn h:H.l :--if:,nihcd the sacred, but the clergy, intent on w1ng rec,r:1 rhc· houndar'>" bet\-vc~n the sacred and the sexual, You who drink wine from the golden jug, \Vhy do you not drink nrca·.:hcd, rh~n these pra~tices contradicted \1uhammad's teach­ from the tip of my penis !sar-i surna]?''' im>; and hettCC c()d\ wiil. Sexual activity was limited to rnatri­ Aqa Jamal's male anxiety focuses not only on sisterhood but m~ ny. lr is li\:cl" that these sexual politics provoked the ru­ on other feminine spheres, including public baths, where he m minaret of KLUCJl Birinji (Brassy base) and recite who share their husbands with rival wives (hmJU), those who ti e folltnvinf,: \Trse: have remarried, and those who are not husband-lovers (shawhar 1 ('l \linarct o: l(,;wn Birinjl. dust), whom we may categorize "lesbianlike."" The fate of the 1 ..,h.1ll utter :-n of c()mmirmcnt ]mard-i karnar hastah]! These kinds of technologies that regulated subjects' gender and sexuality would have discredited our widow's relationship l hJV\~ prcYioth\y ..;c·~n Yisitations to this minaret as instances of a with her companion and led to the latter's banishment rcr the dis­ 1:-_-rriht'-' riruaL hut Afsaneh ~ajmabadi has offered a second tant northern region of Urdu bad, Confronted by the overriding :!_ \·er (.)f inrcr·-·-rcncon that wi-chin the context of the politics of 1 moralism that views same-sex unions with horror, "o-irding her i ~;_trimonY. :--odnrry, and celibacy is compelling. The \vomen 1 loins" at the outset of the pilgrimage to the holy land~, doe~ our L ;Fn out -the rituals ~1nd recite the verse because they fear that widow vow to repent of her youthful love' Has she rejected her \.,\ .-.·,. ;,~ p•-·c·le-., nrcnnancv and nrocreation is not male infertility . v' 1<.1' '' \ 1 '- - t t- 0 ' vows of sisterhood and the obligations and protocols of friend­ per :--ay hur -.;,ccd-spilhng as a result of sexual acts \:v-ith ~th~r ship? Her illicit feelings of same-sex desire for another \voman ·n\:n. ,\ "n1an of commitment"' in this context could be a v1rgm must be part of the one hundred tons of crimes and sins that ·wt sodomi;uJ i(nnrad) during youth by an older man. As weigh on her during circumambulation,t--l but maybe her inac­ \ajme1badi su~gcsrs, /.:.dntar l~c1stan (knot tying) \Vas perhaps in­ tion, the result of restraint and abstinence in the face of rekin- ended to di:·<;)~Jrage 1dL t: L~~l ; .... :.'. a of earlier drafts of this chapter. 16. Ibid., 31-32. s·Jaoc-:.:t uns Jild ~' lt.cal 't:,1dma . . Q 199 5) - l t-t- . ,_,.: 1"1 lJFUm-i f {,1ij, ed. Rasul Jafanan ( umm, f -~-· 17. She calls the Safavi dominion the uilay,Jt-i 'aiam and the sarzamin-i s~7f~lJ"lli.fi/ d \I y "' ,_, b" h . 0 re J- -.~ ,- ~ . ""'' rhe latf seventeenth-century JOgrap )' . shah-i Iran, Safarnama-yi Manzum-i Hajj, 47. For t'>.:,wlp!e. sc,_. . _ . i Af d. Ri •az al-Vlama 18. Ibid. . ·· .. ·I 101 ,, . (''''Dnd) m Safav; ls,ahan, an l, } , "l0l'" <;. "·'' •'" Q 1980; ~:a ~-{1:}~-l;: .d-i.:uz,tla, cd._.-~... a_l_-1-~!usayni., 6 vols. ( umm, ' . 19. Ibid .. 39. 20. Ibid., 41. .i .s.a(c:i"ihi!1h"!-)'i Najmabadi for suggesting J~dlnl~'l:fi.'~-t0 :~~~~k:J~fsaneh 21. Aqa Jamal Khwansari, ~qa'id al-Nisa-: ed. !l.-1ahmud Katira'i {Teh­ JhH..L 23. j \\"OU{( IKC ' . · . f \oth ' ....~.· .Ji,·'.' based on the practice ot \vomen tymg a plece o c ran, 1970). For a discussion of this text, see my chapter "The t IlJS ; c.d'~·· ·~ c. . I . :ll. {)ll''..,; ; ,,.. 11 ,.-, 11 ._,_, 5 '"'l. ' S\'mbolize• the1r vovv-ta (Jng. Yiqa'id al-Nisa': A Glimpse at Safavid Women in Locai Isfahani Culture," in Women in the Medieval Islamic World, ed. Gavin h. lbit.L . f h. _, . riJUS response to ' .,'.' !"1.,-:- :-\. k Fnnklin Lewls or lS gene . . . R. G. Hambly (New York: St. Martin·s Press, 1998), 349-81. ; \\'Out,, ,J"c ,o ..lan . l ·h 1, · Islamicate litera- 1 l - : . ~siCkness and me anc o ; m 22. See my article on Ylqa'id al-Nisa', where I place this satire within rhe qu;.·-ry ; )dtL !OH:. • .· H ""-iET (A. gust 6 2003). ~J· .. l· l '1osrcd on Addnvat -I-.. .• , u'" ' the larger context of gender and politics at the Safavi court in turc l '· ' r .· . ·· .. .., 1 Isfahan. :-;. )'d·rniciltz,J-Y! ALmzwn-1 HaJJ, _,). . . 'L ·den· E J .S~ .....' ·\ ' F \ Bt.··claen's study, A Cure for G. neumg \ der . d: . 23. According to the editor Mahmud Karira'i, Y\qa 1id al-Nisa' vvas -1. · Cl · .L... · .. -r .• 1 '[ aqayn J\1v un erstan mg written during the reign of Shah Sulayman (1666-16941. I'· r·'li !(li}Cil ot Khaqanl s n.t 11J at a- r ... "' , f I lftll > ''· - ·' · ,. , · • . . d' a 0 t 1e twe - 24. Abu Talib Mir Findiriski, Tuhfat al-Y\lam, Tehran University () 1: Fi~.,,,.n,i,,,;,: i'"" relil·s on Bcdaert s sensmve rea mb (manuscript 4955), f206a. 25. Khwansari, Yiqa'id al-Nisa'. 1. 10. 26. Ibid. ll. 12. 27. This point is made by the editor, M. Katira'i. lhid., 7-8. 28. Ibid. 29. The sixteen chapter subjects in Ylqa'id al-Nisa 1 are riruai ablutions. !slcrmicate Sexualities "In Spirit We Ate Each Other:s Sorrow" 273

. \ ..., . , . c,t:-,r;n:-'. rnclrriaf!C. wedding nights, chil~lbirth, l:ath- defines juzaak thus: ''to worry and become anxious" (andulnZLzk) . nru~u f"1,.:~.1. · · .-, _ . ·ctsions mantal rdanons, . mstruments anc1 t,1elr1 OL , . . , ·I The etymology reveals the relationship bet~A-'een food and humors. hnu...;cs. iTHJSh.'-li l . . nen w 10 are . "~'--·) "1'~1tdcts <1Jl( ta 1Jsmans, 1 . . 4 J. A!l the food elements (jujube, saffron, sandal, cloves) enumerated the· ood~ usc,:. :n \"O\\'::, 'cl"'' ·' ·· . !· i women, con- .. . -' -· . " l in·•cce"-SJhle (r~clma nam_, t 0 here have therapeutic value in the realm of natural medicine. ;o,,.:c,·sslhk ii!LII.'r,,,n a •• '- · ,. · , . ··ers house oucsts, VO\VS .,.,1,,- .. ·,·,•.. <.S.P;'-·iouS \V(l111e1l S pr,ly ., . b See, for example, the late seventeenth-century Safavi medical dirinns t Ii~tt' r - " 1 rcms sis;crs exc lange. text, Tuhfat al-i\!Iu'minin, by Muhammad Mu)min ai~Husayni al­ oi sisrnhnnc :lnd ; llC .•.. • would \(!d 'ida. I -_'/Sol,''. ' .).., ...;; · Tunakahuni, Bibliotheque Nationale (manuscript: Persan Supp. 1287). . . . , 'iOB'i\ d·ncd seventeenth or 42. On the double meaning of suhbat, see Khwansari, <.Aqa'id al-Nisa' 32. \bkk m;'llt::-,cnpt \·L-qmu a · '·- · " 1 A · l a- 21111 ) . . • I t 1lC • 1'10SC'..:'l3\itv l1l t.1e lV CllCh _· < • • dJ'-COllf:-.l'. · '' · • • : , . ., F--mceton Mellon .Semz- 46. Ibid., 43. ._:r··: Ceki~rJti<_)n. . \·s. l.•"!'Jl"- Conccmnat1on, ' 47. Ibid . 48. Ibid., 74. 49. Ibid., 75. ) ll"-ld , :;(.. . t about Urdu poctn in her chapter 50. Ibid. CHL-, l\"ll \ K'l n'.:tL'" thls pOl•l l: ·.·· . t lJr·drl l'J.::''Ii<~.u-' · d .. , ,-,, ~uf.+er,appropnatc, "Jt • . -- __ , J .. : ·k '~ih1I1' con-o e, tccuz c.- '' II . rather than mystical milieus. The Ka'ba as queen does appear in h·ms toe"'' (n • "'-· " c · 1 e case o . ld n:rh in Persian, as 111 t 1 .. 53. Beelaert, A Cure for Grieving, J 43. 1 , .. C( "1'> ' COJ11D0dl f I I' II ' ,__·(_)ntcs rn ('·~ ,,s '· " . · f I .·_f. d be sorro\V u, 1tera J, 54. Ibid. ') ··i :'ilouncvcor ec gJIC ell 1 . . . I' ·_:.!.hcilii !;: m :7' r ,:~- J 1,-~-c dclihcrately chosen to emphasiZe this ltd- 55. Ibid, 143-44. '· to cctl -.,o· ,,n\ · ·' I h , Aqa fannl an . : -.· 'C I r\o·nk the autlors ere, . " . 56. I \Vould like to thank Franklin Lewis for his observation that Vf<1! tnn,;; .;uon ,)Cc,us .. . . I+ , ·d n nmujauan could be "an androgynous being, like the ghulam in rhe 1 \\'!dO\\'. pby on the crOtlC la):er_ ot '- .il,[.aJ .r .-. 0 ti' the !sL-,h:ll, ...•. •'•

su'TS of dw oniookerl .... nmujal'an may be a claque on the OuLmic -:.dml,mz. or ar least have as its possible archetype the )~1u;1;.:. jo~eph representing physical beauty, object of jealousy to hi~ hr.nhcr", possible illicit object of desire for the male vvho pur­ chlsl"-; him. definite illic:t object of desire for the \Vifc of 'Aziz and h'-''" fc;;wlc ,·ompanions. and ideaiized object of lost love for Jacob, hi-, hrhcr" (e--mail exchange on August 6, 2003). However, the · EIGHT \\'idn·-v·" modification of nau.:jaumz to signify a male youth repre­ st'·nt~ rhc vev:1iling atti:ude that masculinized nmujauan. Types, Acts, or What? ')7 S,;f~n·.,z,nncF}"i .\ian:um-i Hajj. 78. 5S. --.-\it -i Sh:1.h Tahnwsb." ed. \•I. T. Danishpazhu, Barisiha-yi Regulation of Sexuality in Trri1-J<- ( !9:2): 121--+2. 1 59. \•luh unn1<1d L1qir ~vlaj!isi, Hilyat al-Muttaqin (Qumm, 1992). Nineteenth-Century Iran no. I--krc l h:lV<: h·en inspired by Helmut Puff's insightful study Sod­ ()!ii'} ·n f~cronn~Ition c;,'rmany and Stuitzerland, 1400-1600 (Chi­ Afsaneh Najmabadi L<1gc: l:ni\-er~ity of Chicago Press, 2003), vvhere he eloquently

dr:1\\-; nut the similar e1ffinitics between celibacy~ matrimony\ and A slauc girl ruas shm.n; to the Abbasid c~diph «1-A"IulLTU\.7/~ki! (1: 847-Shi}. '>nd<'TiY in Reformation discourse. He asked her. "Are you d t'irgin or whtit? ··She replied. "Or ll'hat. () l·:mir 61. Kh\\ .n~~:~ri, ~-Lya'id al-Nisa), 41. The editor \Vrites in note 66 that o( the Be/iel'ers." He laughi'd

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