Sex and Desire in Muslim Cultures

Aymon Kreil is Assistant Professor for the Anthropology of the Middle East at Ghent University, Belgium. He worked before at the Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Lucia Sorbera isChair of the Department of Arabic Language and Cultures at the University of Sydney, Australia. Serena Tolino is Associate Professor in Islamic/Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Previously she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

• AcknowledgementsNote on Transliterations and TranslationsIntroduction. The Many Names of Desire: On the Study of Sexual Practices, Norms and Binaries in the Middle East, Aymon Kreil, Lucia Sorbera and Serena TolinoPart I. Who’s Who: Beyond the Gender Binary1. Locating Discourses on the Gender Binary (and Beyond) in Pre-modern Islamicate Societies, Serena Tolino2. Illusions of Androgyny: Crossdressing Women (Ghulamiyyat) in Abbasid Society, Johannes Thomann3. Contesting Masculinity in Pre-Modern Arab Societies. Intoxication, Desire and Antinomian Mysticism, Danilo Marino4. Three Genders, Two Sexualities: the Evidence of Ottoman Erotic Terminology, Irvin Cemil SchickPart II. Subverting the Sexual Norm in Modern Arab Cultural Productions5. Eros and Etiquette – Reflections on the Ban of a Central Theme in Nineteenth Century Arab Writings, Nadia Al-Bagdadi6. Women’s Literature as Counter-Narrative in Ba'thist Iraq?, Achim Rohde7. Framing the Closet: Gay Men in Egyptian Cinema in the 1970s, Koen M. Van EyndePart III: Sexuality, Power and Resilience in the Middle East and North Africa Today8. Living Archives of the Egyptian Human Rights Movement: the Political Biography of Aida Seif al-Dawla, Lucia Sorbera9. Sex Work in Tangier and the Emergence of New Youthful Subjectivities, Mériam Cheikh10. The Straight Story – Challenging Heteronormativity in Beirut, Erica Li Lundqvist11. Palestinian Queers and the Debate on Sexual Identity and Religious Normativity, Nijmi EdresNote on ContributorsIndexesEndorsements

This far-reaching collection offers a surprising array of sources, from early Ottoman erotic poetry to 1970s gay Egyptian cinema, and it informs us about a wide range of Muslim lives from crossdressing slaves in Abbasid Baghdad to female sex workers in modern Tangier. Yet it also does much more. The authors assembled here challenge us to rethink the categories by which we understand sex and desire, whether it is to test the comparability of modern notions of gender binaries against premodern texts or to chart the silencing of erotic discussions in nineteenth-century Arab writings. They resist easy answers to ideas about subversion in women’s novels in Baathist Iraq or reconciling Islam and queerness among modern Palestinians. Along the way, they craft indelible images: love of hashish and boys in Sufi communities, student feminists in 1970s Egypt, and closeted gay men in modern Lebanon. A rewarding read for novices and experts in the field alike.