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→Homosexuality in the Arab and Islamic worlds: more on homo in Islam
John Chardin, a visitor to Persia the late seventeenth century, reported that he had found "numerous houses of male prostitution, but none offering females;" and "some of the greatest Persian love poetry is written to boys."<ref>Greenberg , p. 180</ref>
John Chardin, a visitor to Persia the late seventeenth century, reported that he had found "numerous houses of male prostitution, but none offering females;" and "some of the greatest Persian love poetry is written to boys."<ref>Greenberg , p. 180</ref>
Louis Dupree, perhaps the West's leading scholar on Afghanistan, wrote in his 1973 book on Afghanistan chat male homosexuality remains common there. (Louis Dupree, Afghani- stan, Princeton University, 1973, p. 198.)
Louis Dupree, perhaps the West's leading scholar on Afghanistan, wrote in his 1973 book on Afghanistan chat male homosexuality remains common there. (Louis Dupree, Afghani- stan, Princeton University, 1973, p. 198.)
Khaled El-Rouayheb in "Before homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world, 1500-1800" states that "Arabic literature of the Ottoman period (1516-1798) is replete with causal and sometimes sympathetic references to homosexual love", most of it pederastic in content, such as between poets and young boys.
In his ''Music from a Distant Drum'', Bernard Lewis writes that
Homosexuality is condemned and forbidden by the holy law of Islam, but there are times and places in Islamic history when the ban on homosexual love seems no stronger than the ban on adultery in, say, Renaissance Italy or seventeenth century France. Some [of the Arabic, Persian and Turkish] poems are openly homosexual; some poets, in their collected poems, even have separate sections for for love poems addressed to males and females.
In ''The Venture of Islam'' author Marshal Hodegson wrote that in medieval Islamic civilization,
despite strong Shari disapproval, the sexual relations of a mature man with a subordinate youth were so readily accepted in middle class circles that there was little or no efforts to conceal their existence. The fashion entered poetry, especially the Persians.
Records from European travelers attest to the prevalence such, with the content of some revealing the distinction in cultural attitudes. One example is from Englishman Joesph Pitts, a sailor who was captured and sold into slavery at Algiers in 1678 but escaped fifteen years later. He later stated,
The horrible sin of Sodomy is so far from being punish'd among them, that it is part of their ordinary Discourse to boast of their detestable Actions of that kind. 'Tis common for Men there to fall in love with Boys, as 'tis here in England to be in love with Women.
The French traveler C. S. Sonnini, after visiting Egypt between 1777 and 1780, similary noted,
The passion contrary to nature...the inconceivable appetite which dishonored the Greek and Persians of antiquity, constitute the delight, or, to use a juster term, the infamy of the Egyptians. It is not for the women that that their amorous ditties are composed: it is not on them that tender caresses are lavished; far different objects inflame them.
Affirming this contrast, Muslim travelers who "rediscovered Europe" in the first half of the 1800's found it notable that the European men were ''not'' found courting or eulogizing male youth.
Moroccan scholar Muhammad Al-Saffar, who visited Paris in 1845-46, recorded,
Flirtation, romance, and courtship for them take place only with women, for they are not inclined to boys or young men. Rather, that is extremely disgraceful to them.
Likewise, El-Rouayheb also writes that Egyptian scholar Rif who was in Paris between 1826 and 1831, noted,
Amongst the laudable traits of their character, similar really to those of the Bedouin, is their not being inclined to toward loving male youths and eulogizing them in poetry, for this is something unmentionable for them and contrary to their nature and morals. One of the positive aspects of their language and poetry is that it does not permit the saying of love poetry of someone of the same sex.<ref>Before homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world, 1500-1800,
by Khaled El-Rouayheb, pp. 1-3</ref>
===Homosexuality in Japan===
===Homosexuality in Japan===