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.
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
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
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
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