Erotica, Love and Humor in Arabia

The Book of Songs of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (AD 897-971) is the most extensive collection of anecdotes from pre-Islam Mecca, Medina, Damascus and Baghdad. Entertaining and informative, these gems have remained largely inaccessible to the Western readers. This new translation presents the complete collection of love stories and poems, biting satires, daring erotic encounters, bathroom humor and hilariously detailed descriptions of genitalia, sex toys and sex positions, along with stories praising and criticizing both homosexuality and heterosexuality-topics that set the tone for the Arabian Nights centuries later.