CHAPTER FIVE OF THE DELIGHT OF HEARTS
BY AHMAD AL-TIFASHI

The translation largely follows that of Edward A. Lacey, presented as Chapter II of The Delight of Hearts, Or What You Will Not Find In Any Book, published in San Francisco in 1988. However, as set out in this website’s introduction, it differs from it in certain specified and important respects. There also will be found a glossary explaining the choice of key words used in this translation and their precise meanings.

Sodomites and their activities.
How to recognize a professional in this field.

ACCORDING TO THE professionals themselves, the first necessity for a practicing sodomite is to possess well-appointed lodgings which are completely private and to which he alone has—and carefully keeps—the key. He must then install aviaries there, full of doves, and cages of fluttering, pleasantly twittering birds. He should also arrange there a chessboard, manuscript books of poetry and of passionate love tales, illustrated collections of folk legends, and works dealing with witchcraft and magic spells. His apartments must naturally be stocked as well with a constantly renovated supply of alcoholic beverages, which are always the decisive element in such cases. Finally, above all, our protagonist must always carry on his person a goodly sum of spending money for on-the-spot distribution—this is absolutely indispensable.

*     *     *     *     *

The friend of a sodomite said to him one day:   

“I’m amazed at the number of boys that flock around you so eagerly, at the way they obey your every order, at how quickly they come at your beck and call! How do you manage it?”   

“I’ll let you see with your own eyes how I manage it,” his friend answered. So saying, he raised his hand to his head and withdrew from among the folds of his turban a bag full of coins, which he showed to his interlocutor. He then opened a kerchief, tied by the four corners, that he always carried hanging from his belt. It was full of dried fruit and little cakes. Then he put his hand to his purse and took out—   

“Stop!” cried his friend at the sight of such a lavish display. “Stop, brother, or I too might be in danger of straying from the straight and narrow!”

*     *     *     *     *

If, on the other hand, the sodomite belongs to the common people, there are certain other qualities that he must possess as well: cunning, skill in the use of the knife, unshrinking endurance under the strokes of the whip, which will unfailingly be applied to him if he goes before the court, and, in general, an indifference to corporal punishment: 

  

Al-Jahiz,^[1] in his treatise Concerning Thieves, records the following incident:

Once, a venerable old sheikh,^[2] who, as it happened, occupied a high rank in the hierarchy of thievery, was taken before a judge. He was involved in serious cases of robbery, murder, ambushes laid for travelers, and many other criminal acts as well. He had been in prison for many long years, and the authorities had done everything possible to induce him to confess his evil deeds: they would thus have been able to condemn him to death. Then a ghulām he loved, who had previously been his partner in crime and who had just been jailed for theft, was placed in the same cell with him. One day they were both taken out together to be flogged in public along with various other prisoners. First the ghulām got one hundred strokes of the lash. He was an adolescent and still a minor, but he could already speak eloquently, and his physical appearance was supremely radiant and blooming. He didn’t utter a single word of complaint through the whole whipping. The prison warden and all the spectators were astonished.   

“I admire that ghulām’s self-control,” the warden confided to one of the important officials who were watching. “Look how unflinchingly he takes his punishment! Now look at that sheikh, there among the other prisoners. Well, if you can imagine it, he commits immoral acts every day with the ghulām you see there.”   

As he spoke, he pointed out to his companion a puny, gaunt little yellow-skinned old man—the sheikh we have just mentioned. At each stroke the ghulām received, the old fellow writhed with pain, groaned and seemed on the verge of fainting. The spectators thought this reaction was due to the fear and anguish he felt, knowing that he was about to undergo the same treatment. Various other prisoners were whipped, after the young man.   

“Take the sheikh back to his cell,” came the order finally. “In his state, he wouldn’t be able to stand even five strokes.”   

At these words the sheikh bridled like an angry camel. His eyes flashed red:   

“For your information, I can take five thousand strokes of the lash!” he cried out. “Because I shall draw strength not from my body but from my heart, from my endurance, from my steadfastness of purpose.”

   

“Strip him!” ordered the warden.   

The jailers were going to shackle him, to keep him from moving around. He refused:  

“I have on need of it. I won’t move.”   

He stood up. His torturers closed ranks around him. They flogged him on the back and then on his stomach. They counted up to five hundred strokes of the lash. Sometimes they ordered him to remain standing; sometimes they made him sit down, with his arms tied to his sides. Throughout the whole operation, his feet didn’t move from their place, but stayed as steady as stakes driven in the ground. The high official whom the warden had previously spoken to then leaned over toward the latter.   

“You criticized the ghulām for getting fucked by that fellow. I swear by God, if that old chap had asked to fuck me, I’d have let him go ahead.”   

This remark made the warden laugh so had that he literally fell back head over heels.

*     *     *     *     *

In North Africa the author of this book made the acquaintance of one of these scoundrels. Whenever he spotted a group of ghulāms hanging around on a street corner, he couldn’t resist stopping and striking up a conversation with them. He’d launch into a whole string of lies like this:   

“We were arrested in such and such a place….So-and-so got one hundred lashes. He fainted, and they had to carry him off like that….So-and-so was only able to take seventy lashes…”   

And he’d recite some more names and finally get down to his own case:   

“As for me, one day they gave me about seven hundred lashes. I spent the rest of the day in my cell, playing card games with my cellmates.”   

Then he would go into detail and would criticize ghulāms:   

“I swear to God, so-and-so belongs to this modern generation. He simply can’t take a flogging. Hah, I got seventy strokes just today! More than anybody else in my section. And, you know, it didn’t even faze me. It was just as if nothing had happened.”   

“Say that again,” someone would answer; “did you get seven hundred strokes or seventy?”   

“Don’t tell lies,” another would chip in. “Nobody’s ever got seventy strokes of the lash for something like that.”   

When this happened, he’d always leave in a great hurry, saying as he went:   

“I tell you, I was flogged. Who cares how many strokes? The important thing is that is that I got them.”

*     *     *     *     *

To sum up, here are the characteristics by which a true professional in this field can be recognized. If you should chance to meet one of them and your glance cross, he holds you in turn with his gaze, and he won’t take his eyes off you. And if you notice him smile imperceptibly or wink discreetly, as though amused by some private joke between the two of you, and you then make even the slightest gesture of response, you can be sure that that you’ll find him waiting on your doorstep when you get back home.   

Another sign: the individual we are speaking of often has thin legs and hairy ankles—in such a case, he wears long robes that fall nearly to his instep; if not, he’ll have plump, hairless legs and wear short clothing. One more trait: when he walks, he pays great attention to his hips and swings them by means of a subtle swaying of his hands and feet. If he is also very concerned about whether his legs are well shaped or not, that is the clearest indication that he is deliberately attempting to be shocking. In fact, sodomites have coined a saying: “Legs are a man’s second face.” When one of them encounters a boy, he first looks him full in the face, then immediately turns his gaze on the boy’s legs. The care a ghulām takes of his legs is, moreover, the surest sign of his moral corruption and a clear proof of intentionally provocative behavior. On the other hand, a lack of concern about the appearance of his legs implies freedom, intelligence, propriety, respect for common decency and a host of other good qualities of various sorts.

^[1] Al-Jahiz (AD 776-868/9) was a prolific Arab literary and intellectual giant born in Basra in the heartland of the Abbasid Caliphate. Amongst other things, his wide-ranging writings are a priceless source of information on life in the Arab world of the time.

^[2]  A Sheikh, literally meaning an “elder”, was a title of respect for any man over about fifty or for religious scholars or tribal chiefs.