There is a wealth of homoerotic allusion found in classical Arabic literature from pre-Islamic poems to the Thousand and One Nights. Images and narratives often glorify the male body as beautiful, youthful, or erotic. While such masculine allusion and homoerotic imagery have been recognized as significant elements of classical Arabic literature, they have either been misunderstood or lacked sustained analysis.

Exploring the underlying meanings of these motifs, Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature does not so much delineate or identify homosexuality in Arabic literature as offer new, cogent readings of how homoeroticism can be identified by viewing classic Arabic literature through various analytical lenses. A collection of essays by the most influential scholars in the field, this book brings to bear a variety of critical perspectives, ranging from traditional philology to Lacanian analysis, on a literary corpus that includes classical lyric poetry, anecdotal collections, mystical narratives, manuals for dream interpretation, vernacular songs, and shadow plays.

These studies investigate both the complexity of attitudes underlying homoerotic allusion and the surprisingly variegated and subtle meanings it can convey.