The Portrayal and Translation of Lesbian and Lesbian-like Desire in the Tenth Century Jawāmiʿal-Ladhdha

Abstract

Encompassing physiognomic, philosophical and poetic anecdotes, adab literature is characterized by its informative and entertaining appeal on sexual pleasures and sexual health matters, with ample Arabo-Islamic anthologies compiled from Arabic, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit sources. One of the most prominent and earliest surviving Arabic erotic anthologies from the late tenth century is Jawāmiʿal-Ladhdha by ʿAli Ibn Naṣr al-Kātib, where the author dedicates a chapter concerned with lesbian and lesbian-like desire. In this thesis, I study the portrayal of lesbianism in the twenty-first century Arabic edition by Dr. ʿAbdallah ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Sudāni, alongside the only extant English translation The Encyclopedia of Pleasure by ʿAdnān Jarkas and Ṣalāḥ addin Khawwam published in the late twentieth century.

This thesis examines the depictions of lesbian and lesbian-like women across the anthology and in the chapter dedicated to lesbianism, focusing on mujūn verses associated with lesbian speakers, some unknown and others named lesbian figures, to bring out the rhetoric of the humor and obscene figurative language and imagery within the author’s teasing style. Alongside the play of the verses, I approach the depicted lesbian and lesbian-like women as a literary emotional community to outline the affective experiences accompanying the representation of lesbian pleasure. Such portrayal is set in contrast with the English translation where the lesbian women’s pleasures are minimized by concise prose narration lacking in humor or rhetorical features, and including an overarching emotion that flattens the nuances of lesbian-like affective possibilities. These motivated translation choices contribute in the sustenance of ignorance around premodern Arabo-Islamic lesbianisms, and in response, I provide my own translation of certain verses, maintaining repetitions and rhetorical elements.

Standing at the juxtaposition of multiple fields namely as queer studies, Middle Eastern studies and translation studies, the intersectional reading of the two versions tackles the gaps of scholarship which replicates essentialist, universalizing or Orientalist discourses of lesbianism. Looking at the fluidity of lesbian-like desires in their literary representation in Jawāmiʿ, the research expands on the discourse of premodern Arabo-Islamic queer desires among woman towards enriching the history of sexuality.