The perfumed garden

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The perfumed garden (also called the scented garden ) is the German name of an Arabic marriage manual from the early 15th century, which aroused great interest in Europe as early as the 19th century due to its erotic stories and permissive treatment of human sexuality. The full Arabic title isالروض العاطر في نزهة الخاطر / ar-Rauḍ al-ʿāṭir fī nuzhat al-ḫāṭir  / 'The fragrant garden for the edification of the mind'. The author is Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad an-Nafzāwī (also reproduced in German as Sheikh Nefzawi ), whose Nisba points to his origins in the southern Tunisian city of Nafzāwā. In his preface an-Nafzāwī states that he wrote his work for Muḥammad ibn ʿAwāna az-Zawāwī, the grand vizier of the Hafsid ruler Abd al-Aziz II (r. 1394-1433).

construction

The work contains a preface and 21 chapters. Chapters 1 to 4 deal with praiseworthy and despicable qualities in men and women, Chapters 5 and 6 deal with health rules for coitus and foreplay as well as with reference to Sura 2: 223 the various sexual positions. Chapter 7 warns of the consequences of excessive sexual intercourse. Chapters 8 and 9 cover Arabic names for penis and vagina and the meanings of erotic dreams. Chapter 10 is about the penises of animals. Chapter 11 deals with lists of women. The last chapters deal with aphrodisiacs (chap. 13), the treatment of female infertility (chap. 14), reasons for male infertility (chap. 15), means for abortion (chap. 16), treatment of erectile problems (chap. 17 ), Means for penis enlargement (Chapter 18), deodorization of the armpit and vagina, narrowing of the vagina (Chapter 19), signs of pregnancy and for the sex of the unborn child (Chapter 20) as well as the use of eggs and arousing Beverages (Chapter 21). Many of the chapters contain erotic stories and poems. Here, the narrative representation of tenderness between women is used as a means to arouse sexual pleasure.

European reception

The perfumed garden aroused as much interest in Europe in the 19th century as the Indian Kama Sutra . An officer in the French army in Algeria translated the work into French in 1850. An autograph edition was published in 1876 in 25 copies. This edition is expensive because of its rarity and difficult and tiring to read because of its peculiarity. A revised and corrected new edition with the translator's notes and comments was later published in Paris.

The Victorian adventurer and orientalist Richard Francis Burton translated the work from the French translation into English. His translation was published in 1886 under the title The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delights .

literature

Arabic text edition
  • ar-Rauḍ al-ʿāṭir fī nuzhat al-ḫāṭir . Ed. Ǧamāl Ǧumʿa. London: Riad El-Rayyes 1990.
Translations
  • Sheikh Nefzawi, Alfred Goubran: The Perfumed Garden - A Handbook of Arabic Love Art . Selene, 2004, ISBN 3-85266-207-9 .
  • Abû ʿAbdallâh Muhammad an-Nafzâwî: The fragrant garden for the edification of the mind. An Arabic love manual . Translated from the Arabic by Ulrich Marzolph. Munich 2002. ISBN 3-406-49580-X
Secondary literature
  • Sir Richard F. Burton: The Sotadic Zone, Social and Sexual Relations of the Mohammedan Empire . Fredonia Books, Amsterdam 2002, ISBN 1-58963-789-5 (English).

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