as an independent sexual agent, in possession of her own fortune, able to
arrange her own betrothal, and expresses lust.
Islamic epic romances idealized heterosexual union in a sexual climate
where marriage was required, but sexual relations between older and
younger men remained normal. Ibn Arabi articulates this transition from
passive to active sexuality as a rite of passage necessary for the development
of maturity, both sexually and spiritually.
The disciple should not take up the company of women until he himself becomes a
woman. If he becomes female and attaches to the lower world and sees how the
higher world loves it, and sees himself in every spiritual condition and moment in
perpetual sexual union as a female (mankuhan da’iman, i.e., assuming the recep-
tive role in an unceasing act of coition) and does not see himself in his spiritual
insight as malefirst, but purely female, and he becomes pregnant from that
marriage and gives birth–then he may keep company with women and incline
toward them, and love for them will not harm him. As for the gnostics’keeping
company with women, [permission to do so] is absolute, because they see the
absolute, holy, divine hand in their giving and taking.^84
Sufiliterature regularly indicated the initiation of an adept through dreams
of sexual intercourse between master and disciple, sometimes including
rape of the youth by the older man, as a symbol of the disciple’s initiation
into divine love by his master.^85 In the Ottoman realm, the Arab world, and
Iran, premodern taxonomies of sexuality continued well into the twentieth
century, and recognized sexual desire as an act rather than as an orienta-
tion. Distinction was made between the active and passive roles rather than
through the gender of the object of desire.^86
While lyric poetry frequently celebrates homosexual desire, and occa-
sionally even refers to its consummation, epic romance features hetero-
sexuality. This may reflect the distinct contexts of these genres. Lyric poetry
was long associated with music. Until the eighth century, musicians were
normally women (slave-girls). Male performers generally dressed and
performed as women, and were even allowed to perform at gatherings of
women, based on their presumed effeminacy.^87 Over time, female perfor-
mance became associated with profligate courtesans, and male perfor-
mance was normalized.
The Sufinormalization of same-gender desire can also be understood in
the paradigm of ibn Arabi’s counterintuitive interpretive practice, in which(^84) Hoffman-Ladd, 1992 : 91. (^85) Terzioğlu, 2002 : 154.
(^86) El-Rouayheb, 2005 ;Ze’evi, 2006 ; Babayan and Najmabadi, 2008.
(^87) Nielson, 2012 : 244–245.
254 The Transgressive Image