Al-Andalus

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>tfw you see a medieval swastika and you're still kinda freaked out by it even though it's obviously not related to the Holocaust

>>1692906
>In al-Andalus, homosexual pleasures were much indulged in by the intellectual and political elite. Evidence includes the behavior of rulers, such as Abd ar-Rahman III, al-Hakem II, Hisham II, and al-Mutamid, who openly kept male harems; the memoirs of Badis, last Zirid king of Granada; references to homosexual prostitutes, who charged higher fees, and had a higher class of clientele, than did female prostitutes; the repeated criticisms of Christians; and especially the abundant poetry. Both pederasty and love between adult males are found. Although homosexual practices were never officially condoned, prohibitions against them were rarely enforced, and usually there was not even a pretense of doing so.
>During the final centuries of Islamic Spain, in part because of Christian opposition to it and because of immigration and conversion of those sympathetic, homosexuality took on a greater ideological role. It had an important place in Islamic mysticism and monasticism. The contemplation of the beardless youth was “an act of worship,” the contemplation of God in human form.

>There are scores of pederastic poems, by the greatest Jewish authors of the period: Ibn Gabirol, Samuel ha-Nagid, Moses Ibn Ezra, Judah ha-Levi, and others. From this poetry, “refined, sensual, and unabashedly hedonistic,” we know that homosexuality was widespread among the Jewish elite while living in al-Andalus, apparently more prevalent than among the Muslims. Zirid Granada, a Jewish state in all but name, was the center of “a courtly aristocratic culture involving romantic individualism [in which there was] intense exploration of all forms of liberating sexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality.” As with the Muslims, homosexuality and religious devotion were combined; Israel’s love of God was sometimes expressed as the love of a male.

some links of what I've found so far:
>art of al-andalus: http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/45966/rec/1
>criticizing the depiction of Al-Andalus as a religiously tolerant paradise: http://www.mmisi.org/ir/41_02/fernandez-morera.pdf
>a timeline that would probably be super-helpful if it weren't goddamn unreadable: http://www.paradoxplace.com/Photo%20Pages/Spain/Spain_History/Al-Andalus_Chronology.htm

>a documentary film's recommended reading: http://www.islamicspain.tv/For-Teachers/recommended_readings.htm

>some textbook chapter (I think): http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/HIST351-4.1-Al-Andalus.pdf
can we really not upload PDFs to /his/

>"where three worlds meet" presumably referring to Islam, Christianity, and Judaism: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0009/000903/090316eo.pdf
>something something white eunuchs: https://www.scribd.com/doc/248639859/Manufacturing-the-White-Eunuchs-of-al-Andalus-pdf
>literature: http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/00022599.pdf