Medieval Arab lesbians

Excerpts from an article in the Journal of the History of Sexuality:

Foreshadowing the medicalization of homosexuality in nineteenth century Europe, lesbianism in the medieval Islamicate medical tradition seems to have already been regarded as a medical category (though not a deviant one) requiring specific treatment, namely, rubbing.... Rubbing is here presented as capable only of relieving, not of curing, the woman; female homosexuality is thus clearly depicted as both innate and lifelong. Such views were standard and were repeated from one century...

As a matter of fact, the origin of lesbianism, according to popular anecdotes in the Arabic literary tradition, is regularly traced back forty years before the emergence of male homosexuality to an intercultural, interfaith love affair between an Arab woman and a Christian woman in pre-Islamic Iraq....

In the medieval Arabic literary erotic tradition, as in the Kama-sutra, from which it may have borrowed elements, lesbians are said to have formed groups, to have held meetings, and to have led schools in which they taught other lesbians how best to achieve pleasure...

Moreover, and in contrast to their status in the medieval West in the same period, for example, Arab lesbians were not considered guilty of a “silent sin,” and there is no clear evidence that their “crime” was punished by death. In fact, lesbianism in the medieval Islamicate literary world was a topic deemed worthy of discussion and a lifestyle worthy of emulation...

The surprisingly positive valuation of lesbianism and homosexuality in medieval Arabic literary writings is most likely a consequence of the general commendation of eroticism and (hetero)sexual practice in Arab and Islamicate discourses. Not only is sexuality explicitly celebrated in a large number of medieval Arabic scientific and literary texts, but sexuality is positioned at the very heart of religious piety. In contrast to medieval Christianity, for example, sex is not a sin in Islam, and heterosexual desire (whether in marriage or concubinage) is viewed as both licit and desirable. The Qur’an itself describes Paradise in sexual terms and proclaims the primacy of physical
sensual pleasures.

It is worth noting that the principal and most vehemently condemned sexual sin in the theological Islamic discourse is adultery (zina) and not homosexuality (liwat)... 

Much more at the very interesting link, via Medievalists.net.