Homosexuality in Persian love poetry
Homosexuality has been part of Persian love poetry since the beginnings of New Persian poetry in the 9th to the 20th century . In particular in the ghazel poetry, homoeroticism was almost the only amorous topic, despite the sharia sanctions in Islamic Persia. The famous Persian mystic Jalal ad-Din ar-Rumi (d. 1273) used the sexual association of men or boys as a metaphor for association with God . Even with Hafis (died around 1389), one of the most famous Persian poets, the object of love is mostly a handsome boy.
The object of love is often referred to in Persian poems with the sometimes adjectival terms ma'šūq , maḥbūb and ḥabīb , all of which are masculine loan words in a language whose grammar does not recognize the gender distinction. References to the first traces of beard growth or the use of interjections in connection with pesar ("boy") then indicate the gender. Often the youngsters were compared to cypresses .
Saadi (d. 1283 or 1291) wrote:
Chosch mīravad īn pesar ke barchāst
Sarvīst ke mīravad tschenīn rāst
The young man walks beautifully when he stretches.
Like the cypress, so perfect.!
Farruchi (d. 1037) wrote in his divan:
Ey pesar gar del-e man kard hamichāhi schād
Az pas-e bāde marā būse hamī bāyad dād
O young man, if you want to please my heart,
give me wine and must not shy away from the kiss!
Mostly the adored was a young Turk, more rarely an Arab or Hindu. Turkish beauties were often chosen in love stories, so that the term “Turk” became synonymous with male beauty in Persian poetry of the time. It was Turkish slaves who were acquired in the Abbasid empire of the Arab caliphs , in slave markets, were given military training and were used in the armies.
In Hafez's famous verse, there is a Turk with a " Hindumal ":
Agar ān Tork-e Shirazi be dast Arad del-e Mara
Be Chal-e hendūyasch bach cham Samarkand-o Bochārārā
Nähm the ski Razer Turk my heart in his hand,
'bestows For now I Hindumal him Bukhara and Samarkand .
Farruchi also writes in his poems about the longing for a Turkish slave, preferring Indians because of their docility. He calls the Turkish soldier sarhang , which means something like troop leader. In particular the rank and the martial qualities were exaggerated. These military comparisons or titles in the love poetry, however, were rather metaphors that served to express the charms poetically. For example, eyelashes were compared to arrows. Furthermore, Slavic (e.g. Bulgarian) slaves are also mentioned, who were coveted because of their light skin.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Encyclopædia Iranica: Homosexuality in persian literature
- ↑ Alexandra Samoleit: Homosexuality and Islam, Norderstedt 2007, page 15
- ^ Britannica Persian literature 1300-1500
- ↑ سعدی (غزلیات) / خوش میرود این پسر که برخاست
- ↑ JTP de Bruijn: "Beloved" in the Iranica ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ حافظ (غزلیات) / اگر آن ترک شیرازی به دست آرد دل ما را
