Editing Third gender (section)

==== Early Islamic world ====
[[Mukhannath]]un ({{lang|ar|مخنثون}} "effeminate ones", "ones who resemble women", singular ''mukhannath'') was a term used in Classical Arabic to refer to [[Effeminacy|effeminate]] men or people of ambiguous sex characteristics who appeared feminine or functioned socially in roles typically carried out by women.<ref name="TEOEM">{{Cite journal |last=Rowson |first=Everett K. |author-link=Everett K. Rowson |date=October 1991 |title=The Effeminates of Early Medina |url=http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/The_effeminates_of_early_medina.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Journal of the American Oriental Society]] |publisher=[[American Oriental Society]] |volume=111 |issue=4 |pages=671–693 |citeseerx=10.1.1.693.1504 |doi=10.2307/603399 |issn=0003-0279 |jstor=603399 |lccn=12032032 |oclc=47785421 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081001195534/http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/The_effeminates_of_early_medina.pdf |archive-date=1 October 2008 |s2cid=163738149}}</ref> According to the Iranian scholar Mehrdad Alipour, "in the [[Pre-modern Islamic societies|premodern period]], Muslim societies were aware of five manifestations of gender ambiguity: This can be seen through figures such as the ''khasi'' (eunuch), the ''[[Hijra (South Asia)|hijra]]'', the ''mukhannath'', the ''mamsuh'' and the ''khuntha'' (hermaphrodite/intersex)."<ref name="Islamic shari">{{Cite journal |last=Alipour |first=Mehrdad |date=2017 |title=Islamic shari'a law, neotraditionalist Muslim scholars and transgender sex-reassignment surgery: A case study of Ayatollah Khomeini's and Sheikh al-Tantawi's fatwas |journal=[[International Journal of Transgender Health|International Journal of Transgenderism]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=91–103 |doi=10.1080/15532739.2016.1250239 |issn=1553-2739 |lccn=2004213389 |oclc=56795128 |doi-access=free |s2cid=152120329}}</ref> Western scholars Aisya Aymanee M. Zaharin and Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli give the following explanation of the meaning of the term ''mukhannath'' and its derivate Arabic forms in the hadith literature:<ref name="TransgenderHealth 2020">{{Cite journal |last1=Zaharin |first1=Aisya Aymanee M. |last2=Pallotta-Chiarolli |first2=Maria |date=June 2020 |title=Countering Islamic conservatism on being transgender: Clarifying Tantawi's and Khomeini's fatwas from the progressive Muslim standpoint |journal=[[International Journal of Transgender Health]] |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=235–241 |doi=10.1080/26895269.2020.1778238 |issn=1553-2739 |lccn=2004213389 |oclc=56795128 |pmc=8726683 |pmid=34993508 |doi-access=free |s2cid=225679841}}</ref> ''Mukhannathun'', especially those in the city of [[Medina]], are mentioned throughout the [[hadith]] and in the works of many [[Arabic literature|early Arabic]] and [[Islamic literature|Islamic writers]]. During the [[Rashidun caliphate|Rashidun era]] and first half of the [[Umayyad caliphate|Umayyad era]], they were strongly associated with music and entertainment.<ref name="TEOEM" /> During the [[Abbasid caliphate]], the word itself was used as a descriptor for men employed as dancers, musicians, or comedians.<ref name="EoAL">{{Cite book |last=Moreh |first=S. |title=Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature, Volume 2 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1998 |isbn=9780415185721 |editor-last=Meisami |editor-first=Julie Scott |page=548 |chapter=mukhannathun |author-link=Shmuel Moreh |editor-last2=Starkey |editor-first2=Paul}}</ref>

Mukhannathun existed in [[pre-Islamic Arabia]], during the time of the [[Islamic prophet]] [[Muhammad]], and [[History of Islam|early Islamic eras]].<ref name="EoAL" /><ref name="Islamic Homosexualities">{{Cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Stephen O. |title=[[Islamic Homosexualities]]: Culture, History, and Literature |last2=Roscoe |first2=Will |last3=Allyn |first3=Eric |last4=Crompton |first4=Louis |last5=Dickemann |first5=Mildred |last6=Khan |first6=Badruddin |last7=Mujtaba |first7=Hasan |last8=Naqvi |first8=Nauman |last9=Wafer |first9=Jim |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=9780814774687 |editor-last=Murray |editor-first=Stephen O. |editor-link=Stephen O. Murray |location=New York City and London |pages=305–310 |chapter=Conclusion |doi=10.18574/nyu/9780814761083.003.0004 |jstor=j.ctt9qfmm4 |oclc=35526232 |editor-last2=Roscoe |editor-first2=Will |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Zw-AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA305 |s2cid=141668547 |last10=Westphal-Hellbusch |first10=Sigrid}}</ref> A number of [[hadith]] indicate that ''mukhannathun'' were used as male servants for wealthy women in the early days of Islam, due to the belief that they were not sexually interested in the female body. These sources do not state that the ''mukhannathun'' were homosexual, only that they "lack desire".<ref name="TEOEM" /> In later eras, the term ''mukhannath'' was associated with the [[receptive partner]] in [[gay sexual practices]], an association that has persisted into the modern day.<ref name="Islamic Homosexualities" /> ''[[Khanith]]'' is a vernacular Arabic term used in some parts of the [[Arabian Peninsula]] to denote the gender role ascribed to males and occasionally [[intersex]] people who function sexually, and in some ways socially, as women. The term is closely related to the word ''mukhannath''.

Early [[Islam]]ic literature rarely comments upon the habits of the ''mukhannathun''. It seems there may have been some variance in how "effeminate" they were, though there are indications that some adopted aspects of feminine dress or at least ornamentation. Some thirteenth and fourteenth-century scholars like [[al-Nawawi]] and [[Shams al-Din al-Kirmani|al-Kirmani]] classified ''mukhannathun'' into two groups: those whose feminine traits seem unchangeable, despite the person's best efforts to stop them, and those whose traits are changeable but refuse to stop. Islamic scholars like [[Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani]] stated that all ''mukhannathun'' must make an effort to cease their feminine behavior, but if this proved impossible, they were not worthy of punishment. Those who made no effort to become less "effeminate", or seemed to "take pleasure in (his effeminacy)", were worthy of blame. By this era, ''mukhannath'' had developed its association with homosexuality, and [[Badr al-Din al-Ayni]] saw homosexuality as "a more heinous extension of ''takhannuth''", or effeminate behavior.<ref name="TEOEM" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=an-Nawawi |title=Al-Minhaj bi Sharh Sahih Muslim |url=http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-1711#page-3195 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817090821/http://shamela.ws/browse.php/book-1711#page-3195 |archive-date=17 August 2018 |access-date=14 October 2018 |publisher=Shamela}}</ref>

One particularly prominent ''mukhannath'' with the [[Arabic name|''laqab'']] [[Ṭuways]] ("little peacock") was born in Medina on the day Muhammad died. There are few sources that describe why Tuways was labeled a ''mukhannath'', or what behavior of his was considered effeminate. No sources describe his sexuality as immoral or imply that he was attracted to men, and he is reported to have married a woman and fathered several children in his later life.<ref name="TEOEM" /> While he is described as non-religious or even frivolous towards religion in many sources, others contradict this and portray him as a believing [[Muslim]] instead. His main association with the label seems to come from his profession, as music was mainly performed by women in Arab societies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pacholczyk |first=Jozef |url=https://archive.org/details/musicsofmanycult00hood_0 |title=Musics of Many Cultures: An Introduction |publisher=UC Press |year=1983 |isbn=9780520047785 |editor-last=May |editor-first=Elizabeth |page=[https://archive.org/details/musicsofmanycult00hood_0/page/253 253] |chapter=Secular Classical Music in the Arabic Near East |editor-last2=Hood |editor-first2=Mantle |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tierney |first=Helen |url=https://archive.org/details/womensstudiesenc0001unse/page/210 |title=Women's Studies Encyclopedia: Literature, arts, and learning |publisher=Greenwood |year=1989 |isbn=9780313310737 |page=[https://archive.org/details/womensstudiesenc0001unse/page/210 210] |quote=In pre-Islamic Arabia, music was practiced mainly by women, especially by singing girls (qainat)}}</ref>