View source for (Boylove Documentary Sourcebook) - The Ideal Age for Young Male Beloveds in Ottoman Turkish Literature, and the Contemporaneous Pederastic Terminology Applied to Them, as Featured in 'Ardour-Inducing' by Sünbül-zâde Vehbî

[[File:Г. Гагарин. Портрет молодого турка.png|thumb|center|<i>Portrait of a young Turk</i> (second half of the 1830s–1840s) by Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin. Unfinished. Oil on canvas, 94 × 76.5 cm (Saint Petersburg, Russia: State Russian Museum).]]


From "Three Genders, Two [[Sexual orientation|Sexualities]]: The Evidence of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Erotic Terminology" by İrvin Cemil Schick, in <i>Sex and Desire in Muslim Cultures: Beyond Norms and Transgression from the Abbasids to the Present Day</i>, edited by Aymon Kreil, Lucia Sorbera and Serena Tolino, <i>Gender and Islam</i> (London: I.B. Tauris, 2021). Footnotes omitted.

<b>Note:</b> Ardour-inducing <i>(</i>Şevk-engîz<i>) is an Ottoman Turkish ribald poem by Sünbül-zâde Vehbî  (d. 1224/1809), written in the form of a debate between two men on the respective merits of sexual relations with women and with boys</i>.<ref>İrvin Cemil Shick, "Three Genders, Two Sexualities: The Evidence of Ottoman Erotic Terminology"; Aymon Kreil, Lucia Sorbera and Serena Tolino, eds., <i>Sex and Desire in Muslim Cultures: Beyond Norms and Transgression from the Abbasids to the Present Day</i>, part of the <i>Gender and Islam</i> series (London: I.B. Tauris, 2021), pp. 89 and 90.</ref>

<div style="margin:.5em auto; width:95%; min-height:5em; background-color:#F5FAFF; border:3px solid #c9c9ff; padding:1em;">
The ideal age for boy-beloveds was described fairly precisely by Vehbî in his <i>Şevk-engîz</i>:
<blockquote>
A new moon [shaped] like his eyebrows when a child,<br>
He becomes a full moon when he reaches his fourteenth year.<br>
[...]<br>
[First] a child, he becomes a beardless youth to play with;<br>
Once his beard sprouts, playing with him goes bad.
</blockquote>

The word <i>emred</i> (from the Arabic <i>amrad</i>), which appears in the second couplet, signifies beardless youth and is a recurring theme in Ottoman – as well as Arabic and [[Persian Empire|Persian]] –  literature.

[...]

Other terms for a boy as sex-object included <i>civân</i> or <i>cüvân</i> (from the Persian <i>jawān</i> = young man), <i>gulâm</i> (from the Arabic <i>ghulām</i> = young man whose moustache is jut sprouting), <i>hîz</i> (from the Arabic <i>ḥîz</i> = [[catamite]]), <i>hûbân</i> (from the Persian <i>khūb</i> = beautiful, here pl.), <i>oğlan</i> (from the Old Turkic <i>oğul</i> = boy, son), <i>uşak</i> (from the Early Turkish <i>uşak</i> = little), <i>tâze</i> (from the Persian <i>tāza</i> = fresh, new, young), <i>puşt</i> (from the Persian <i>pusht</i> = back) and <i>vâsıla</i> (from the Arabic <i>wāşala</i> = one who ‘held communion, or commerce, of love’). A selection of couplets from Vehbî’s <i>Şevk-engîz</i> illustrates some of these terms:

<blockquote>
Know that the soul of the world is the young boy.<br>
He turns the old lover into a young man.<br>
[...]<br>
When you get hold of such a young man,<br>
Make sure you do not miss the opportunity of union [sex] with him.<br>
[...]<br>
Each was a leader in the kingdom of words;<br>
From beginning to end, they sang the praises of boys.
</blockquote>
</div>


[[File:Fragmentary tile depicting a young man. North-western Iran, first quarter of the 17th century.jpg|thumb|center|Fragmentary tile depicting a young man. North-western Iran (?), Safavid period, first quarter of the 17th century. Stonepaste, overslip and underglaze painted decoration. Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 5544.]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==See also==
*[[Adult friend (dictionary)]]
*[[Age of attraction (dictionary)]]
*[[Boylove]]
*[[Ephebophilia]]
*[[Ghilman]]
*[[Loved boy (dictionary)]]
*[[Minor-attracted person (dictionary)]]
*[[Pederasty in the Middle East and Central Asia]]
*[[Pedophilia]]
*[[Situational homosexuality (dictionary)]]
*[[Sufism]]
*[[Tellak]]
*[[Young friend (dictionary)]]

==External links==
*[https://greek-love.com/near-east-north-africa/arab-islamic-loved-boy-age-pederasty THE AGE OF THE LOVED BOY IN THE ARAB-ISLAMIC WORLD, 1500-1800 (Greek Love Through the Ages)]

[[Category:Boylove Sourcebook]]
[[Category:Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Boylove in literature]]
[[Category:Poetry]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:LGBT articles]]