THE DELIGHT OF HEARTS
BY AHMAD AL-TIFASHI

أحمد بن يوسف التيفاشي Abu al-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Yusuf al-Tifashi (1184-1253) was a widely-travelled Arab writer born in Gafsa and educated in nearby Tunis, both places then in the  Almohad Caliphate. Much his best-known book, of which the Greek love content is to be presented on this website, was an anthology of erotic anecdotes entitled نزهة الألباب فيما لا يوجد في كتاب (literally, The Promenade of the Hearts in What is Not Found in a Book]). Four of its twelve chapters were devoted to Greek love and one to adult male passives, distinct categories in the thinking of al-Tifashi and his Islamic contemporaries. The reason such a large amount was homoerotic may be due to the appeal of what al-Tifashi called ““the tang of forbidden fruit.” There are no grounds for supposing al-Tifashi himself did not share the usual attraction of men in his culture to both women and boys.[1]

The Translation

The only published translation of The Delight of Hearts into English has been by Edward A. Lacey with the title The Delight of Hearts, Or What You Will Not Find In Any Book, published by the Gay Sunshine Press in San Francisco in 1988. Lacey’s translation was done accurately (but without reference to the original Arabic) from the second and allegedly improved translation into French from the original Arabic by René R. Khawam as Les Délices des cœurs par Ahmad al-Tifachi, published by Phébus in Paris in 1981. Unfortunately, Khawam’s translation was not accurate: in important respects, it is a disgraceful travesty. The essential problem has been touched on by Khaled El-Rouayheb, the pre-eminent historian of pre-modern homosexual activity in the Islamic world, in his Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800:

The confusion resulting from the assumption that lūṭī translates as “homosexual” may be seen, for example, in a modern discussion of the collection of erotic anecdotes entitled Nuzhat al-albāb fīmā lāyūjad fī kitāb by the Egyptian scholar Ahmad al-Tīfāshī (d. 1253). Having apparently been misled by a French translation, Robert Irwin asserts, in his absorbing and rewarding book The Arabian Nights: A Companion, that the sixth chapter of Tīfāshī’s work deals with homosexuals, and goes on to give the “characteristic features” attributed to them:

The homosexual should have a pleasant lodging, well-furnished with books and wine, and made pleasanter yet by the presence of doves and singing birds. A homosexual can be recognized by the way he stares directly at one, this direct gaze often being followed by a wink. The typical homosexual has thin legs with hairy ankles and tends to wear robes which reach right down to the ground. When he walks, his hands and his legs sway.

Chapters 6-8 of al-Tīfāshīʾs book are in fact devoted to al-lāṭā (plural of lūṭī) and al-murd al-muʾājirīn. Even a cursory reading of the Arabic text (to which Irwin did not have access) reveals that the former term refers to adult men who desire to sodomize boys—that is, to “pederasts” rather than “homosexuals”—while the term murd muʾājirīn refers to beardless boy prostitutes who render sexual services to allāṭā. The quoted account of “characteristic features” runs these two categories together: it is the pederast who should have pleasant lodgings, books and wine, but it is the boy prostitute who may be recognized by his gaze, his legs, and the way he walks.26 What is even more damaging to the assumption that the term lūṭī is synonymous with “homosexual” is the fact that a later chapter of Tīfāshīʾs work (chapter 12) deals with al-khināth—that is, effeminate adult men who desire to be sodomized by (preferably very masculine) men. This category is clearly treated by the author as distinct from the previously mentioned lāṭā and mu’ājirīn (the latter are beardless boys and their motives are depicted as pecuniary). It should be clear by now that the modern term “homosexual” hopelessly muddles certain native distinctions, and that insisting on using it in translation or paraphrase leads to serious misunderstanding. It is also clear that Tīfāshī’-s work cannot be invoked, as Irwin does, in support of the idea that some medieval Arabs thought of homosexuality as a “single condition” shared by those who prefer the active role and those who prefer the passive, nor of the idea that this single condition was considered by some to be “a form of illness.” There does not seem to be any support at all for the idea that pederasts were thought to suffer from an illness. ^[2]

El-Rouayheb merely highlights one of countless passages of Khawam’s translation that give a false impression of al-Tifashi’s meaning and the context in which he wrote. As Khawam was a native Arabic speaker,  his mistranslations were evidently deliberate. One can only speculate that they were perpetrated either for commercial reasons, to sell to a gay readership that sought to imagine an equivalent to itself in the very different world of medieval Islam rather than trying to understand a lost world, or, as with so many recent translations of premodern homoerotic literature, as part of a dishonest program of rewriting history to confuse the historical pederasty Al-Tifashi was writing about with 20^th-century gay culture.

With no better translation to go on, this website has had for many years to refrain from posting anything from The Delight of Hearts, despite being aware of its importance in the history of Greek love, as it refuses to promote inaccurate translations that foster misunderstanding. Happily, an independent Arab scholar, Anes Merazi, has very kindly undertaken a partial amendation of Lacey’s text for this website in order to rid it of what, from the point of view of understanding Greek love, are its inaccuracies occasioned by following Khawam rather than al-Tifashi directly. Principally, this has meant checking the original Arabic for words related to boys and sexual behaviour that, inaccurately translated, lead to misunderstanding of the sexual culture described by al-Tifashi. Most of the rest of Lacey’s text has not been thus checked or changed, though the occasional other spotted inaccuracy has been put right.

Finally, since a systematic (albeit very limited) revision of Lacey’s text has anyway been undertaken, the editor has also taken the opportunity, in consultation with Mr. Merazi, to replace a few other words that were anachronistic or jarringly modern slang (and thus infelicitous in evoking medieval Islam) with older English and, less importantly, to anglicise a few specifically American expressions and spellings. 

The following glossary is presented to enable the reader to have an accurate understanding of what al-Tifashi wrote and meant.

Glossary

Words used in the last column are guaranteed to be the translations adopted of those in the first.

Author’s Preface

Presented here is the last part of the author’s Preface listing the contents. There were no references to Greek love in the rest of it, which was mostly devoted to praise of God for endowing man with a sense of humour, thus bringing all sorts of benefits. The contents are annotated in blue, most importantly to indicate what will be covered by this website.

I can now state the plan of my book. It will be divided into twelve chapters:

Chapter I: Pimps, panderers and go-betweens, male and female. Curious facts, anecdotes and poems about them. Five passages were translated by Lacey as being the only ones of homosexual interest. Four are Greek love in character and are posted together as Pimps, Panderers and Go-betweens.

Chapter II: Adultery and how to go about it. How to recognise an adulteress. Not translated by Lacey, as no homosexual content.

Chapter III: Prostitutes and loose women. Strange stories, witticisms and poems concerning them. Not translated by Lacey, as no homosexual content.

Chapter IV: Strange facts about adulterers. The best poems written by them and stories in which they play a part. One passage was translated by Lacey as being of homosexual interest. About Abu Nuwas, it is Greek love and will be posted as Abu Nuwas as an Adulterer.

Chapter V: Sodomites and their activities. How to recognise a professional in this field. All at least implicitly about Greek love.

Chapter VI: Interesting stories concerning boys for hire. The wittiest and most refined poems composed by and about them. All Greek love  anecdotes, half of them from the youth of Abu Nuwas. To be posted in full as Boys For Hire.

Chapter VII: The practice of slapping in the game of love; its value and usefulness. Not translated by Lacey, as no homosexual content.

Chapter VIII: The most unusual facts about sodomites and the most entertaining poems written by them. Almost all of this is of Greek love interest and will be posted as The Most Unusual Facts About Sodomites and the Most Entertaining Poems Written by Them.

Chapter IX: The rules of “sleepwalking”. Strange anecdotes and witty verses on this subject. All concerned with Greek love except for four short anecdotes in succession. To be posted as The Rules of “Sleepwalking” with the irrelevant anecdotes briefly summarised.

Chapter X: Women who are used like boys.^[3] Peculiar facts, tales and poems about them. Not translated by Lacey, as no homosexual content.

Chapter XI: The rules of massage and the customs of masseuses.^[4] Witticisms, stories and amusing poems on the topic. Not translated by Lacey, as no homosexual content.

Chapter XII: Inverts and their ways. Everything that is told and written about them: strange facts, anecdotes, jokes and poetry. As one would expect from the foregoing description, almost none of this is of Greek love interest. Five short stories of serious interest as coincidentally featuring Greek love will be posted together as Inverts and their Ways.

And so I have entitled my collection The Delight of Hearts, or What You Will Not Find in Any Book. In it I have brought together many of the most remarkable facts and tales that have been handed on amongst us by word of mouth from one generation to another down through the years, as well as witticisms and poems that are cited as evidence of the truth of some of these amazing adventures and fantastic stories. I have enriched my text with many refined turns of speech and subtle expressions. They will excuse you henceforth from the necessity of going to listen to the boring, moralistic fables that are usually recited in respectable social gatherings, and I wager you’ll prefer their melodies to those of even the best-tuned musical instruments! If you pay proper attention to these pages, you cannot fail to appreciate their purpose and heartily approve of it, for every topic they deal with has some lofty aim. Most of them refer to contemporary events that I have witnessed with my own eyes in both North Africa^[5] and the Near East, or that have been witnessed by individuals of my acquaintance, many of them prominent members of the Brotherhood,^[6] people whose conversation is so delightful that it can even cheer up the afflicted and bring a smile to the lips of those who have lost a loved one, and thus can serve as a more than satisfactory substitute for the company of charming young female musicians.^[7]

Withal, I ask God ― may He be blessed and exalted!-to help me not to transgress the bounds of the permitted use of language.

^[1] For al-Tifashi personally and the likely reasons for his choice of material, as well as his culture, see Lacey’s introduction to his translation, p. 8. For deeper insight into the sexual culture, see Khaled El-Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800, Chicago University Press, 2005, Chapter One: “Pederasts and Pathics”. [Website footnote]

^[2] Khaled El-Rouayheb, Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800, Chicago University Press, 2005, Chapter One: “Pederasts and Pathics”. [Website footnote]

^[3] Women who submit to anal intercourse with men. [Lacey’s footnote]

^[4] These are the Arab euphemisms for lesbianism and lesbians, respectively. [Lacey’s footnote[]

^[5] In the original, al-Magbrib, “the West.” This term refers to the north-western part of the Muslim world, that is, present-day Morocco, Muslim Spain, Algeria, Tunisia and sometimes Libya (but never Egypt). In this text, to avoid confusion with other possible meanings of “the West,” it will be translated as “North Africa.” [Lacey’s  footnote 21 on p. 50]

^[6] “Brothers” and “Brotherhood” in this text, when capitalized, refer to any society, secret or not, with shared ideals or purposes: guilds, religious groups, groups of criminals, etc. [Lacey’s footnote]

^[7] These entertainers, common at otherwise wholly male gatherings in the Muslim world, would be well-educated, socially accomplished adolescent or preadolescent prostitutes, trained as singers and musicians, like the Greek hetairae or the Japanese geishas. [Lacey’s footnote]