Thread by @AliaGvR

A little thread on Arab women, 💕, sex, and lesbianism. (Upon request by @crookes_ellie and @Literature_Lady ).

#arabian #WomenInCulture #Anthropology #twitterstorians #threaducation #LGBTQ

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2. The first lesbian documented love story in the Arab world was the long-lived passion between Hind Bint al-Nu’man (known as Al-Hurqah (هند بنت النعمان), and Hind Bint al-Khuss al-Iyadiyyah from Yamama in Arabia, known as al-Zarqa’.

3. Al-Hurqah was a Christian princess, daughter of the last Lakhmid (Al-Manadhirah (المناذرة) king, al-Hira capital of the 3rd – 7th c kingdom.

She was also a known poet in her own right.

4. Both in Arabia, the kingdom was in the east along the Arabian (Persian) Gulf in present day Iraq and Saudi Arabia. (The capital Al-Hira is in today's Iraq.) Yamama is just outside of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the Nejd desert.

5. The king of the Sassanian (Persian) Empire — ally of her father — demanded al-Hurqah’s hand in marriage. She rejected the idea, and ran away to the Nejd desert.

6. Al-Hurqah was granted protection by Princess al-Hujayiah of the important Banu Shayban (Shayban Tribe).

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is located in the centre of the Nejd, and this is where al-Hurqah met al-Zarqa'.

7. The love story between al-Hurwah and al-Zarqa' was written by Abul Hasan Ali ibn Nasr al-Katib in the 10th c, in the erotic Arab 'Encyclopaedia of Pleasure'. He devoted 1 Vol, Jawami' al-ladhdha, to describe erotic gay and lesbian love.

8. The Arabic for “lesbianism” (sahq, sihaq, sihaqa) and “lesbian” (sahiqa, sahhaqa, musahiqa) describe a behavior rather than an identity, from the root s-h-q meaning “to pound” (as with spices) or “to rub”.

9. He wrote (folio 88):

“[Al-Hurqah] was so loyal to al-Zarqa' that when al-Zarqa’ died, she cropped her hair, wore black clothes, rejected worldly pleasures, vowed to God that she would lead an ascetic life until she passed away ...

10.
…as a result, she built a monastery which was named after her, on the outskirts of Kufa (Iraq). And when she died, she was buried at the monastery gate. Her loyalty was then an example for poets to write about.”

Notes:

NB 1: Al-Katib’s story of al-Hurqah and al-Zarqa’ was taken from an anecdote in Abu al-Faraj al-Isbahani (d. ca. 972), Kitab al-aghani (Book of Songs).

Pendants' NB 2: Some images representative only. I hope that's obvious.

Fin.