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purple motes

Artifacts to help you imagine more.

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Highlights

  • Abelard castrated
  • Byzantine wife saves husband
  • Amphitryon & Geta duped
  • Chastelaine de Vergi tragedy
  • Aristotle’s advice to Alexander
  • Empress Theodora: woman leader
  • Tristan & Isuet
  • Xanthippe & Socrates
  • New Modern Sexism Scale

Hikāyat

The Ḥikāyat Abī al-Qāsim {The Imitation Abū al-Qāsim} is a work of classical Arabic literature. It was probably written in early eleventh-century Baghdad. The work is loosely attributed to al-Azdī, but nothing outside of the text is known of the author. It has survived in a single codex now held in the British Library.

The Ḥikāyat is associated with the literature of elite banquets. It describes the conversation at a single day’s banquet. It relates to literature as wide ranging as al-Hariri’s maqama, al-Jahiz’s On Misers, Athenaeus’s Deipnosophists, Macrobius’s Saturnalia, Petronius’s Satyricon, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

The figure of Abū al-Qāsim largely provides the literary space of the highly sophisticated Ḥikāyat. Abū al-Qāsim is a deeply learned old man who passionately appreciates food, wine, and the bodily beauty of women and men. With complete disregard for dominant ideology, Abū al-Qāsim speaks fearlessly and transgressively. His character is an important voice in the literature of men’s sexed protest.

social construction of sexual culpability in classical Arabic poetry

Classical Arabic poetry recited in the eleventh-century Ḥikāyat Abī al-Qāsim both celebrates men’s sexuality and gender-attributes all moral wrong to it. … Read the post social construction of sexual culpability in classical Arabic poetry

laughter of cuckolds hides contempt for men, beauty, and humanity

The Ḥikāyat Abī al-Qāsim unleashes harsh invective against disparaging men’s for appreciating women’s beauty and the superficial laughter of cuckolds. … Read the post laughter of cuckolds hides contempt for men, beauty, and humanity

Zād Mihr: pampered slave girl threatened to cuckold her master

Men’s fantasy of having a beautiful, singing slave girl meets reality in an 11th-century Arabic story of a slave girl threatening to cuckold her master. … Read the post Zād Mihr: pampered slave girl threatened to cuckold her master

man in medieval Baghdad foolishly acted as a courtly lover

In 11th-century Baghdad, a singing slave girl tried to enlighten a young man who fell in love with her and wooed her as a courtly lover. … Read the post man in medieval Baghdad foolishly acted as a courtly lover