Editing LGBTQ people and Islam (section)

===Pre-modern era===
There is little evidence for homosexual practice in Islamic societies for the first century and a half of the Islamic era.<ref name="iranica-law" /> Homoerotic poetry appears suddenly at the end of the 8th century CE, particularly in Baghdad in the work of [[Abu Nuwas]] (756–814), who became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Abu Nuwas &#124; Persian poet |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abu-Nuwas |access-date=5 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308023255/http://www.britannica.com/biography/Abu-Nuwas |archive-date=8 March 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The famous author [[Jahiz]] tried to explain the abrupt change in attitudes toward homosexuality after the [[Abbasid Revolution]] by the arrival of the Abbasid army from [[Khurasan]], who are said to have consoled themselves with male [[Page (servant)|pages]] when they were forbidden to take their wives with them.<ref name="iranica-law" /> 

The increased prosperity following the early conquests was accompanied by a "corruption of morals" in the two holy cities of [[Mecca]] and [[Medina]], and it can be inferred that homosexual practice became more widespread during this time as a result of acculturation to foreign customs, such as the music and dance practiced by ''[[mukhannathun]]'', who were mostly foreign in origin.<ref name="autogenerated1983" /> The Abbasid caliph [[Al-Amin]] ([[Reign|r.]] 809–813) was said to have required slave women to be dressed in masculine clothing so he could be persuaded to have sex with them, and a broader fashion for ''ghulamiyyat'' (boy-like girls) is reflected in literature of the period.<ref name="autogenerated1983" /> The same was said of [[al-Andalus|Andalusian]] ruler [[al-Hakam II]] (r. 961–976). Chief Judge of the Abbasid Caliphate [[Yahya ibn Aktham]] permitted homosexual acts, despite being harsh on other sexual acts such as [[fornication]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Habib |first=Samar |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781135910099 |title=Female Homosexuality in the Middle East |date=2012-08-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-91009-9 |edition= |pages=8, 53, 58, 83 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203941454}}</ref> This had proved controversial with a writer, Abi Salma, wrote "we had hoped to see justice apparent, but our implorations ended in despair, for, can the world and its people come to any good when the Grand Judge of Muslims sodomizes (''yaluṯu'')?"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Habib |first=Samar |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781135910099 |title=Female Homosexuality in the Middle East |date=2012-08-06 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-91009-9 |edition= |pages=52 |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780203941454}}</ref>

The conceptions of homosexuality found in classical Islamic texts resemble the [[Homosexuality in ancient Greece|traditions of classical Greece]] and [[Homosexuality in ancient Rome|those of ancient Rome]], rather than the modern understanding of sexual orientation.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="ali-105" /> It was expected that many mature men would be sexually attracted to both women and adolescent boys (with different views about the appropriate age range for the latter), and such men were expected to wish to play only an active role in homosexual intercourse once they reached adulthood.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="ali-105" /> However, any confident assessment of the actual incidence of homosexual behavior remains elusive.<ref name="iranica-law" /> Preference for homosexual over heterosexual relations was regarded as a matter of personal taste rather than a marker of homosexual identity in a modern sense.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="ali-105" /> While playing an active role in homosexual relations carried no social stigma beyond that of licentious behavior, seeking to play a passive role was considered both unnatural and shameful for a mature man.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="ali-105" /> Following Greek precedents, the Islamic medical tradition only regarded this latter case as pathological, and showed no concern for other forms of homosexual behavior.<ref name="iranica-law" /> This view also made some inroads to the worldviews of [[Aalim|religious scholars]], but to a lesser extent; in an eleventh-century discussion among the scholars of Baghdad, some scholars who showed traits of [[bisexuality]] argued that it is natural for a man to desire anal intercourse with a fellow man, but this would be only allowed in the afterlife.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lange |first=Christian |url= |title=Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions |date=2016 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-50637-3 |location=Cambridge United Kingdom |page= |author-link=}}</ref>{{rp|p=152}}

The medieval Islamic concept of homoerotic relationships was distinct from modern concept of homosexuality, and related to the [[pederasty]] of Ancient Greece.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="iranica-literature">{{cite encyclopedia |title=HOMOSEXUALITY iii. IN PERSIAN LITERATURE |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Iranica]] |publisher=[[Columbia University]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-iii |access-date=25 June 2021 |last=Rowson |first=Everett K. |date=23 March 2012 |author-link=Everett K. Rowson |orig-year=15 December 2004 |volume=XII/4-5 |pages=445–448, 449–454 |doi=10.1163/2330-4804_EIRO_COM_11037 |issn=2330-4804 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130517035336/https://iranicaonline.org/articles/homosexuality-iii |archive-date=17 May 2013 |doi-access=free |url-status=live}}</ref> During the early period, growth of a beard was considered to be the conventional age when an adolescent lost his homoerotic appeal, as evidenced by poetic protestations that the author still found his lover beautiful despite the growing beard.<ref name="iranica-literature" /> During later periods, the age of the stereotypical beloved became more ambiguous, and this prototype was often represented in [[Persian poetry]] by [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[slave-soldier]]s.<ref name="iranica-law" /><ref name="iranica-literature" /> This trend is illustrated by the story of [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] (971–1030), the ruler of the [[Ghaznavids|Ghaznavid Empire]], and his cupbearer [[Malik Ayaz]].<ref name="iranica-law" /> Their relationship started when Malik was a slave boy: "At the time of the coins' minting, Mahmud of Ghazni was in a passionate romantic relationship with his male slave Malik Ayaz, and had exalted him to various positions of power across the Ghazanid Empire. While the story of their love affair had been censored until recently—the result of Western colonialism and changing attitudes towards homosexuality in the Middle East—Jasmine explains how Ghazni's subjects saw their relationship as a higher form of love."<ref name="ABRAHA AL-ASHRAM">{{cite web |last1=Matthewson-Grand |first1=Allison |date=21 February 2020 |title=QUEER HISTORY: A TOUR OF GENDER AND IDENTITY THROUGH TIME AND CULTURE |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/alumni/queerhistory |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526124146/https://www.cam.ac.uk/alumni/queerhistory |archive-date=26 May 2021 |access-date=June 1, 2021 |publisher=University of Cambridge}}</ref>

[[File:Mahmud and Ayaz and Shah Abbas I.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Mahmud of Ghazni]] (in red robe), shaking hands with a sheikh, with his companion [[Malik Ayaz]] standing behind him (1515)]]Other famous examples of homosexuality include the [[Aghlabid]] [[Emir]] [[Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya]] (ruled 875–902), who was said to have been surrounded by some sixty [[catamite]]s, yet whom he was said to have treated in a most horrific manner. [[Caliph]] [[al-Mutasim]] in the 9th century and some of his successors were accused of homosexuality. The Christian martyr [[Pelagius of Córdoba]] was executed by [[al-Andalus|Andalusian]] ruler [[Abd al-Rahman III]] because the boy refused his advances.<ref name="autogenerated1983" />

The 14th-century Iranian poet [[Obeid Zakani]], in his scores of satirical stories and poems, ridiculed the contradiction between the strict legalistic prohibitions of homosexuality on the one hand and its common practice on the other. Following is an example from his Ressaleh Delgosha: "Two old men, who used to exchange sex since their very childhood, were making love on the top of a mosque's minaret in the holy city of Qom. When both finished their turns, one told the other: "shameless practices have ruined our city." The other man nodded and said, "You and I are the city's blessed seniors, what then do you expect from others?"<ref>Ressaleh Delgosha, Story No. 32, Koliate Obeid Zakani, edited by Parviz Atabaki, Zavar Publication, 1384, p. 316.</ref>

European sources state that [[Mehmed the Conqueror]], an [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] [[sultan]] from the 15th century, "was known to have ambivalent sexual tastes, sent a eunuch to the house of Notaras, demanding that he supply his good-looking fourteen-year-old son for the Sultan's pleasure. When he refused, the Sultan instantly ordered the decapitation of Notaras, together with that of his son and his son-in-law; and their three heads … were placed on the banqueting table before him".<ref>Kinross, ''The Ottoman Centuries'', pp. 115–16.</ref> Another youth Mehmed found attractive, and who was presumably more accommodating, was [[Radu III the Fair]], the brother of [[Vlad the Impaler]]: "Radu, a hostage in Istanbul whose good looks had caught the Sultan's fancy, and who was thus singled out to serve as one of his most favored pages." After the defeat of Vlad, Mehmed placed Radu on the throne of [[Wallachia]] as a vassal ruler. However, some Turkish sources deny these stories.<ref>''History of the Ottoman Empire'', Mohamed Farid Bey</ref>

According to the ''Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World'':
<blockquote>Whatever the legal strictures on sexual activity, the positive expression of male homoerotic sentiment in literature was accepted, and assiduously cultivated, from the late eighth century until modern times. First in [[Arabic]], but later also in Persian, Turkish and [[Urdu]], love poetry by men about boys more than competed with that about women, it overwhelmed it. Anecdotal literature reinforces this impression of general societal acceptance of the public celebration of male-male love (which hostile Western caricatures of Islamic societies in medieval and early modern times simply exaggerate).<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World |publisher=MacMillan Reference USA |date=2004 |page=316}}</ref></blockquote>

[[File:Shah Abbas and Wine Boy.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas]] of [[Safavid Iran|Iran]] with a [[Page (servant)|page]] (1627), [[Persian miniature]] by Muhammad Qasim in the [[Louvre|Louvre Museum]];<ref name="Louvre.fr">{{cite web |last=Francis |first=Richard |date=2007 |title=Shah Abbas I and his Page |url=https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/shah-abbas-i-and-his-page |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201015029/https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/shah-abbas-i-and-his-page |archive-date=1 December 2012 |access-date=1 December 2020 |website=Louvre.fr |publisher=[[Louvre|Louvre Museum]] |language=en |quote=Seated under a tree beside a stream, [[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas I]] is offered wine by a young [[cup-bearer]] he seems to be rather fond of, as his arm is around his shoulders. [...] European travellers remarked on the shah's taste for wine and festivities, and also noted his penchant for charming [[Page (servant)|pages]] and cup-bearers. If he were not wearing a turban, the curly hair and ambiguous beauty of the young man here might suggest a woman. [...] The scene is also susceptible of symbolic interpretation: there are a vast number of short [[Persian poetry|Persian poems]], in a tradition going back to the [[Medieval Persia|Middle Ages]], which are addressed to the "saqi," or cup-bearer, the poet calling on the latter to bring about the intoxication of [[Islamic mysticism|mystical experience]] by pouring wine into the cup. |location=[[Paris]]}}</ref> European travellers who had visited Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas have spoken of his strong desire for charming young [[Page (servant)|pages]] and [[cup-bearer]]s.<ref name="Louvre.fr" />]]
European travellers remarked on the taste that [[Abbas I of Persia|Shah Abbas]] of [[Safavid Iran|Iran]] (1588–1629) had for wine and festivities, but also for attractive [[Page (servant)|pages]] and [[cup-bearer]]s.<ref name="Louvre.fr" /> A painting by Riza Abbasi with homo-erotic qualities shows the ruler enjoying such delights.<ref>{{cite book |last=Welch |first=Anthony |title=Persian Painting from the Mongols to the Qajars |date=2000 |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Hillenbrand |location=London |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |pages=303, 309 |chapter=Worldly and Otherworldly Love in Safavi Painting}}</ref>

According to Daniel Eisenberg, "Homosexuality was a key symbolic issue throughout the [[Middle Ages]] in [Islamic] [[Iberia]]. As was customary everywhere until the nineteenth century, homosexuality was not viewed as a congenital disposition or 'identity'; the focus was on nonprocreative sexual practices, of which sodomy was the most controversial." For example, in [[al-Andalus]] "homosexual pleasures were much indulged by the intellectual and political elite. Evidence includes the behavior of rulers ... who kept male harems."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2003 |title=Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Routledge]] |last=Eisenberg |first=Daniel |editor-last=Gerli |editor-first=Michael |pages=398–399 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203055513/http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/Enc_of_Medieval_Iberia/homosexuality.pdf |archive-date=3 December 2018 |contribution-url=http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/deisenbe/Enc_of_Medieval_Iberia/homosexuality.pdf |contribution=Homosexuality}}</ref>{{rp|398}} Although early Islamic writings such as the Quran expressed a mildly negative attitude towards homosexuality, laypersons usually apprehended the idea with indifference, if not admiration. Few literary works displayed hostility towards non-heterosexuality, apart from partisan statements and debates about types of love (which also occurred in heterosexual contexts).<ref>{{cite book |last=Boswell |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v-MR5_AdG68C&pg=PA195 |title=Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century |date=15 February 2009 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226067148 |access-date=5 April 2017 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Khaled el-Rouayheb (2014) maintains that "much if not most of the extant love poetry of the period [16th to 18th century] is pederastic in tone, portraying an adult male poet's passionate love for a teenage boy".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dalacoura |first=Katerina |date=2014 |title=Homosexuality as cultural battleground in the Middle East: culture and postcolonial international theory |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56822/1/Homosexuality_Middle%20East.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Third World Quarterly |volume=35 |issue=7 |page=4 |doi=10.1080/01436597.2014.926119 |s2cid=31979917 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610091932/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56822/1/Homosexuality_Middle |archive-date=2020-06-10 |access-date=2017-03-07}}</ref> In mystic writings of the medieval era, such as [[Sufi texts]], it is "unclear whether the beloved being addressed is a teenage boy or God." European chroniclers censured "the indulgent attitudes to gay sex in the Caliphs' courts."<ref name="economist.com">{{Cite news |date=4 February 2012 |title=Straight but narrow |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/international/2012/02/04/straight-but-narrow |url-status=live |access-date=13 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929123113/https://www.economist.com/international/2012/02/04/straight-but-narrow |archive-date=29 September 2021}}</ref>

El-Rouayheb suggests that even though religious scholars considered sodomy as an abhorrent sin, most of them did not genuinely believe that it was illicit to merely fall in love with a boy or express this love via poetry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Katerina Dalacoura (2014) p.4 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56822/1/Homosexuality_Middle%20East.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610091932/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/56822/1/Homosexuality_Middle |archive-date=2020-06-10 |access-date=2017-03-07}}</ref> In secular society however, a male's desire to penetrate a desirable youth was seen as understandable, even if unlawful.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kecia Ali |title=Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith and Jurisprudence |date=2016 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |page=105}}</ref> On the other hand, men adopting the passive role were more subjected to stigma. The medical term ''ubnah'' qualified the pathological desire of a male to exclusively be on the receiving end of anal intercourse. Physicians that theorized on ''ubnah'' includes [[Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi|Rhazes]], who thought that it was correlated with small genitals and that a treatment was possible provided that the subject was deemed to be not too effeminate and the behavior not "prolonged".<ref>{{cite book |last=Massad |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226509587 |title=Desiring Arabs |date=2007 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226509600 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780226509587/page/251 251] |url-access=registration}}.</ref> [[Dawud al-Antaki]] advanced that it could have been caused by an acidic substance embedded in the veins of the anus, causing itchiness and thus the need to seek relief.<ref>{{cite book |author=Khaled El-Rouayheb |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=undbSDztxVMC&pg=PA19 |title=Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500–1800 |date=2009 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226729909 |pages=19–}}</ref>