Sex, Love, and Worship in Classical Ottoman Texts

with Selim Kuru 
hosted by Chris Gratien and Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano 
This episode is part of a series on Women, Gender, and Sex in Ottoman history

Download the series
Podcast Feed | iTunes | Soundcloud

Historians have used classical Ottoman texts to explore social issues such as sexuality, with compiled manuscripts from various literary genres often forming a data-mine for historical information. However, this type of selective reading has often distorted or obscured the original meaning and context of literary works. Sometimes, texts that appear erotic or sexual in nature such as gazel could have been intended for an entirely different purpose. In this episode, Dr. Selim Kuru examines the concepts of mahbub peresti (worship of the beloved) and gulâm pâregi (pederasty) and various motifs concerning male beauty in the shehrengiz (Gibb's "city-thrillers") genre in search of a more contextualized approach these would-be erotic texts.

Stream via Soundcloud (preferred / US)

Selim Kuru is a Professor of Ottoman and Turkish studies at University of Washington in Seattle (see academia.edu)

Chris Gratien is a PhD candidate studying the history of the modern Middle East at Georgetown University (see academia.edu)

Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano is a PhD student at University of Washington in Seattle studying Ottoman history and literature

Episode No. 62
Release date: 1 August 2012
Location: Ottoman Summer School, Cunda, Turkey
Editing and Production by Chris Gratien

Citation: "Sex, Love, and Worship in Classical Ottoman Texts." Selim Kuru, Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano, and Chris Gratien. Ottoman History Podcast, No. 62 (August 1, 2012) http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2012/08/boys-god-and-beauty-approaching-sex-and.html.

Select Bibliography:

Kuru, Selim. "Yaşanan, Söylenen, ve Yazılan: Erkekler Arasında Tutkusal İlişkiler," Cogito no. 65-66 (2011).

Kuru, Selim. "The Naming of the Beloved in Ottoman Turkish Gazel: The Case of İshak Çelebi."

Andrews, Walter G., and Mehmet Kalpaklı. The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

Zeʼevi, Dror. Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500-1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.

El-Rouayheb, Khaled. Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

Najmabadi, Afsaneh. Women with Mustaches and Men Without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Music: Ali Avaz - Şeker Oğlan