The Mamluky Society: There are several factors that contribute in forming the social pattern for any society as an inevitable product of the surrounding circumstances. These factors contribute in the social structure and in the formation of distinctive personality of this society [1]. The personality of the society is affected by cultural, physical, moral, psychological and social heritage. It is also influenced by economic, political, structural factors, habits and traditions. 

The Mamluky society was divided into four layers. These layers were super rich layer, public people layer, middle class layer and lower class layer. The first layer was composed of princes, ministers, senior writers, traders and all these in power [2]. Most scholars had differed in classifying the classes of society. Some of them had seen only the first two layers [super rich layer and public people layer] as Abn-Khaldon [D 808 Ah] mentioned in his famous introduction “Governor is the one who has followers [3,4]. Followers are the ones who have governor". The middle class layer is a layer of some traders, some craftsmen, industrialists and farmers. The lower class layer is a layer of poor people [5].

Al-Maqrizy [D 845 Ah] divided Egyptian society during Mamluks period into seven layers:

• The first layer consists of governors, representatives, rulers, ministers, princes, judges, soldiers and the masters of power 

• The second layer consists of big traders of the society.

• The third layer focuses on sellers, some traders, pension holders, drivers, craftsmen, spice dealers, ophthalmologists and book seller

• The forth layer is a layer of farmers, village and countryside people

• The fifth layer is a layer of educated people

• The sixth layer is a layer of small business owners

• The seventh layer is a layer of poor people, needy people and thief people [6]

The Bedouin class formed independent social crucibles outside the cities. It enjoyed to a large extent something resembling self-rule in its internal system and ways of life. Sometimes there is loyal to the authorities in Cairo or Damascus and sometimes there is rebelling against them [7]. Mamluky society was class based. It was based on racial discrimination. It put a barrier between the governor and the ruled people. Governors were away from the origins of Arabs. This leaded to a dissonance between the governors and the ruled people [8]. 

Mamluky society was not homogeneous, but it was a feudal class society in which there was a great difference between the ruler and ruled people. This was reinforced by the Mamluk's monopoly of power, as they did not share power with others except to a limited extent [9]. These groups were treated equally because any individual was looked with contempt and disdain by the ruling class no matter how high his status or how much knowledge he had [10]. 

The society of the Mamluks and their contemporaries who had power was made up of many elements with different purposes, different elements and different characters. In addition to the Arabs elements, there were Barbers, the Muladoon, the Turks, the Kurds, the Taters, the Persians, the Turkmen, the Circassians, the Romans, the Greeks and the Franks [11]. 

Historians divided the Mamluk era into two groups:

The Era of the Turkish Mamluks [Navy] 

The Mamluk country was called Navy. It was founded due to their residence in the barracks of Al-Rawda Island in the Nile which the common people called it "the sea seizure". It was established with Al-Dur Tree of the Sultanate in the year of 648 AH/1250 AD. It was ended with the death of Sultan Al-Malik Al-Salih Zayn Al-Din Haji in the year 784 AH/138AD.

The Era of the Circassian Mamluks [Turret] 

The second Mamluk country called the Circassian Mamluks due to their residence in the tower of the castle in Cairo. It was established after the Circassian Sultan Al-Zahir Baequq and it was ended with the murder of their last Sultan Tuman Bay [923AH-1517AD]. The reign of the Mamluk Sultans lasted 275 years [12].

Naturally, a wave of licentiousness, many congenital diseases and public display of immorality spread through Egyptian society. This forced the rulers to impose strict punishment on these groups that were driven by whims and desire [13]. This period was not devoid of innocent means of entertainment and several factors contributed to it. Those factors included the large number of monasteries and vineyards, the spread of singing and music and the existence of slave girls. Another factor was the increasing of corruption, leniency houses and committing of immoral acts. 

Moreover, a life of frivolity, debauchery and licentiousness prevailed I Mamluky society. People were drowning in that life in accordance with the customs of their kings, princes and poets. From another perspective, people٨ have gone too far in mentioning the manifestations and colors of debauchery. They have not been embarrassed to mention it. It has become a topic that some of them follow each other in. People use debauchery to carry their innovations and they are fascinated by its meanings. 

Thus, Mamluk society was afflicted with the spread of homosexuality and this disease spread and became widespread in the era, to the point that the love of males spread among the people of the state and here women resorted to resembling males in their clothing to win the hearts of men [14].

Some Mamluk sultans were known for their extravagance in “their inclination towards women, such as Sultan Al-Muzaffar Haji bin Muhammad bin Qalawun, who spent one hundred thousand dinars on one of his concubines. They had many female slaves, singers and young boys, some of whom competed with women in charm, beauty and methods of seduction. Sultan Al-Nasir spent fifty thousand dinars on one of these boys [15]".

Slaves were widespread in Mamluk society, as they were available everywhere, in palaces, huts, factories and farms. Among them were African Negroes, Abyssinians, Turks, Sicilians, Chinese, Khurasanians, Armenians and Berbers. Society at that time brought together all races [16].

There is no escape from saying that historical sources "indicate that the gatherings of amusement and frivolity - in the Mamluk era-were many and varied, including gatherings for singing, gatherings for drinking and other things. The first might be devoid of drinking, while the second - usually - was full of all kinds of entertainment, such as singing, music and dancing. The common factor in all of these gatherings was the female element [17]".

Concubines and Young Boys under the Mamluks

Slavery spread in the Middle Ages ; as beautiful boys and young girls were brought from their distant countries to be sold as slaves in their own markets, due to the presence of those who rushed to buy them to benefit from them in serving homes [18]: It is noteworthy that the presence of concubines in palaces is a general phenomenon that "deserved the attention of writers and poets who competed in talking about it, so they enumerated the concubines, singing girls, maids, midwives, concubines, slave girls and concubines and a group of sons appeared who were known as sons of concubines [19]".

The Mamluk era witnessed an abundance of concubines; concubines were brought from "all over the world and they competed in acquiring them in a remarkable way, as their numbers sometimes reached thousands. Concubines are part of the social structure of Mamluk society and they prevailed in this era, either due to economic conditions, or due to the slave trade that maintained its activity since ancient times. It seems that "the number of concubines and slave girls in homes and palaces was more than eunuchs and male slaves and many men preferred them to free women whom they married without knowing them, unlike.

The slave girls who were displayed to them in the markets and the houses of the slave traders, they would choose them according to their appeal to them [20]. In this and the slave girls in that atmosphere saturated with music and singing, had a great impact on the spread of debauchery and moral dissolution among the youth, as well as the elderly and the poets' gatherings, as their hearts became preoccupied with amusement and singing and the pursuit of satisfying instincts [21]. We should not forget to mention that history books are full of "their stories, as they were divided since their arrival into slave girls and slave girls according to the measure of beauty, as commercial custom relied on the quality of beauty to distinguish between pleasure slave girls and service slave girls or between a high and a lowly woman [22]".

The slave girls played the greatest role in the gatherings of music and youth "with their mastery, creativity and beauty - also - so people were fascinated by them and they found wide acceptance among them and they played with their hearts and emotions Singing, playing, dancing and beauty... and the tongues of poets were set free to depict whatever thoughts came to mind, inflamed by their feelings, emotions and tastes and their ability to speak was stirred, driven to do so by their attachment to beauty in general in all its limits [23]. ”Thus, concubines poured in during the Mamluk era from every corner of the earth "and they were a source of temptation and a repository of sexual desires and they were within everyone's reach, the rich finding what they desired and the poor finding what they were satisfied with. The craft of singing had occupied an important position due to the large number of those who desired singing. These slave girls would bring women from different countries and regions and they would take care of them, educate them and beautify them. They would teach some of them singing, or teach them literature and poetry, or teach them the Qur’an, or graduate them in seduction and coquetry [24]".

Hence, the Mamluks owned them in their palaces or homes, with no difference between a sultan, a prince, a merchant, or any individual who could buy one of them with his money. Because of the large number of slave girls, the commercial markets were crowded with them and with the merchants who were called slave traders. The slave trade, especially slave girls, was a flourishing industry that brought in huge profits for its owners [30]. They became obscenely numerous, “and they influenced men, so they became obsessed with pleasures and raced to lusts and permitted themselves with them various types of pleasures. They did not prevent desires, whatever their color or location... They were skilled in presenting pleasure to men... They carried with them their methods of sexual love, or they learned different methods by which they aroused men's desire and lust [25].

However, the abundance of concubines and the great demand for them led to the spread of the "maqinin”houses, which opened the door wide for specialists who took on the task of producing female slaves. These schools were centers where female slave singers learned the Arabic language in preparation for taking lessons and they became creative singers and poets capable of competing with men in this field. However, the process of selecting female slaves requires great precision and experience from the examiner, in addition to the fact that this selection is made according to the standards of beauty, intelligence and melodious voice primarily. It must be emphasized that the types of female slaves in the Mamluk era were divided into three categories:

• Female slaves of pleasure

• Female slaves of mothers of children

• Female slaves of service

It is noteworthy that the acquisition of concubines was not limited to sultans and rulers only, although the caliphs had a large number of them, as the sons were also fond of concubines. It is noteworthy that despite the status that the concubines enjoyed it with the sultans in this era, as some of them used extreme cruelty with these concubines [26]. Thus, the beautiful concubines infiltrated the sultans' courts and the homes of the princes and commanders and they captured the hearts of their masters, until the latter did not issue an order except when they wanted them. Due to the increase in their numbers, they had a clear impact on the life of the palaces and the rulers used them, gave birth to them and sometimes sold them and disposed of them as the owner does of his property.

No wonder, there is a group of jobs that the concubines performed in the palace, including:

• Concubines who were singers and dancers

• The stewardess - supervising the affairs of the army

• The presenter of the honorable table [the teacher

• The cooks

• The workers in the stable

• The employees of the high authorities [the servants of the sultans' women, their wives and their concubines]

• The steward of the wine cabinet

• The owner of the Caliph's inkwell [specialized in preparing pens and inkwells J- Introduction to Zain al-Khazana [supervising the Caliph's clothing [38]

In addition to that, no woman or slave girl could attain high political or other positions, "from the countries that obey the command of Islam, except that some slave girls were able, with their cunning, to have the upper hand in managing the affairs of the state and they achieved that by possessing the reins of their masters who fell under their influence, as the narrations mentioned, The royal titles that some slave girls obtained are nothing but evidence that they had influence or impact [27]. Among these slave girls is Shajarat al-Durr; she is a Turkish slave girl from the slave girls of Najm al-Din, who freed her and then married her. The sources mention that she is "Queen Shajarat al-Durr bint Abdullah, the slave girl of Sultan al-Malik al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub and his wife and the mother of his son Khalil and she was a concubine with him to the end [28].

Luck and wisdom played two major roles in enabling Shajarat al-Durr to ascend to the throne of the sultanate; her master died in critical political circumstances, namely the Franks’ siege of the Muslim lands, so she concealed his death and began to mark with her handwriting like the mark of King al-Salih and to assure everyone who wanted to meet him that he was ill and did not wish to see anyone and she brought his son al-Muazzam Turanshah [d. 648 AH] from the fortress of Kifa, to fight the enemies and defeat them. Here, Shajarat al-Durr sought throughout the period in which she ruled to win over two parties to her side, namely the Bahri Mamluks, the servants of her master King al-Salih on the one hand and the Egyptian people on the other hand. 

However, this does not negate the fact that they - the concubines- "played an effective role in the decline of political life and there is no wonder in that, as they are strangers to Islamic civilization and it is difficult for them to integrate into it no matter how hard the controlling authority tried to do so and for this reason their interest was the supreme goal for which they lived. And for this reason they formed the Mamluk state. But the question remains, what is the impact of the concubines on poetic life in the Mamluk era? In answer to that, the concubines had a great impact on poetic life, as they were a source of inspiration for poets and an incentive to compose poetry about them... Moreover, most of the concubines had the ability to compose poetry   and worked to spread it, in addition to their role in the singing movement [29].

It is noteworthy that with the beginning of the Mamluk era, “we found in Egypt and the Levant many Turkish boys and captive children, as a result of the many wars against the Crusaders and Tatars, which made many people of different classes use them in service and companionship in settlement and travel” [30].

It seems that the phenomenon of boys spread in this era and began to grow and spread and there were factors that nourished it and provided it with life, “and perhaps the reason for the spread of this type of saying goes back to the war captivity of Frankish boys and what slave traders brought of Turkish children from the regions of Asia and these became, with their charm, a place of closeness to the people, so that the princes and sultans and even the jurists and scholars, were not prevented by religion and piety from taking the morning boys with them to their gatherings and they did not see any defect or harm in one of them choosing one or two of them to accompany him in his private moments, using them for his food and ablution” [31].

It is known that this phenomenon expanded in the Mamluk era and appeared in the poems of its poets and the writings of its writers; as a result of "the Mamluks' interest in bringing boys and the arrivals of some Tatar groups such as the Oirats who came to Egypt during the reign of Sultan Kitbugha and settled them in the Al-Husayniya neighborhood and its boys were known for their beauty; until the share of women in flirting diminished in that era if compared to what the poets and writers were drawn to of the temptation of male beauty” [32].

In this context, this phenomenon reached its peak in the Mamluk era; because of those tributaries that were feeding it, flowing and active, "there are slave markets that throw out every day all kinds and kinds of boys and there are the captives of wars and there are the incoming groups... [and] their boys were known for their beauty to the point that it was said: Al-Badr so-and-so and Al-Badr so-and-so...” [33].

The sultans used to take the morning slaves from the Mamluks for service and pleasure and they would make them Jamdariyya - that is, water-carriers - "and most of them were handsome, beardless boys, whom the kings and princes would take turns with and they would stay with the master until he slept. The desire for them had reached its peak, as the lust for the handsome beard had taken over the hearts of most people in the world. The Jamdariyya began to vary in clothing that aroused human desires and they would adorn themselves in that way and they would raise women in it and they would seduce people with their beauty” [34].

From that, they were inclined towards the morning slaves and many of them preferred the Tatar Oirats for their beauty and they used them for water-carriers... and the sultan might pay fifty thousand dirhams for a Jamdari slave and whenever he became attractive to him, he would pay fifty thousand dirhams, just as Sultan al-Nasir paid for [Maliktamur], the water-carrier, whom he loved intensely [35].

The boys were “wine-bearers, drinking companions, or servants bought by their owners to serve, or free men who hunted and people were fond of all of these and enjoyed them. They loved the boy with a slender build, soft-spoken, adolescent, extremely beautiful, with a beautiful tan, a beautiful blush, dark-eyed, rosy-cheeked, with a sweeping waist, a pure mouth and curly hair, whose buttocks were pulled and whose curves were shaken” [36].

A wave of “licentious debauchery”spread through society in the Mamluk era, helped by the spread of taverns and entertainment venues that were frequented by the free and pleasure-seekers to satisfy their desires. These taverns were crowded with Turkish and other young men who were cupbearers from different regions and they were very erotic and had a sufficient amount of training in serving wine with effeminacy and coquetry” [37].

The “writers of the pen” have specified the moral characteristics of these young men. They advised that they should have soft, thin flesh, a radiant face and hair that is neither too long, nor too short, nor too black. These characteristics differ from the characteristics of a young man for service and companionship, who is expected to be of moderate height, short, dark-skinned, thin, white, red, thick, delicate, with curly hair, black eyelashes and blond eyes.

The Mamluks used young men in their palaces. The young men enjoyed the affection of the sultans and the people of the palace. Each member of the ruling family had an entourage and servants who were with him to meet his needs. The sultans often treated them well and showered them with many gifts and presents, especially on occasions and holidays.

In addition to the common daily jobs, "the slaves played many roles that demonstrated the masters' trust in their slaves. Among them were the treasurer, the agent, the supervisor of the master's money, the tutor of the sons, the muezzin, the doorman, the baker, the cook and others who carried out the necessary daily tasks that were indispensable within the palace in order to organize matters and the smooth running of work”. In this era, homosexuality spread "among the handsome boys and the elite of the people would acquire their young boys and children to prevent them and the common people would find what they wanted in taverns and inns... The disease of having sex with men is an old custom and al-Nasir ibn Qalawun was also famous for it.

Whatever the case, "in their private lives, the Mamluks would give free rein to their whims and desires and would acquire for their pleasure beautiful slave girls and young boys and singers and female singers of every color and gender.” It is worth mentioning that the owners of the boys "enjoyed them as if they were their right hand and the dissolute ones who did not own boys would hunt them down from the roads or alleys, or taverns and the lessons of scholars and jurists in the mosques were crowded with boys who came to receive knowledge” [38].

Returning to the actions of the boys, their reactions were mainly characterized by violence, “We found them beating, burning, slapping, kicking, slaughtering animals and people and eating their flesh. Aggression is a characteristic of masculinity and this cruelty hides behind it hatred and a desire for revenge and it was motivated by inferiority complexes and the arousal of contempt and mockery that remained with them because they were slaves, no matter how high their status or position. Their revenge was due to the castration they were subjected to in their youth, especially since most of them were eunuchs and it may be revenge for their enslavement” [39].

As for the duties of the young men, they "undertook to perform every task that required precision and honesty inside and outside the palace and their responsibilities included many sensitive political tasks that were limited to free men in the early ages of Islamic civilization. The expansion of the Mamluks' influence in recent times was due primarily to the influence of the Persians and Romans and to the strengthening of the masters' confidence in this type of young men and their increasing preoccupation with a life of amusement “.

It is clear from the above that the abundance of concubines in this era was what caused men to turn away from them and desire young men, so young men were the second source of self. Accordingly, the Mamluk era was the era of concubines and young men together [40].

Concubines in the Poetry of Poets

It is noteworthy that the influence of concubines was not limited to social, cultural, political and economic life in the Mamluk era, but rather extended to the emergence of their influence in poetry, “as they occupied an important space in the poetry of poets and constituted a source of inspiration for poets and a motive for creativity and competition among them; as a result of several reasons, including: their beauty, knowledge, literature and the ease of mixing with them had an effect in stimulating the talent of poets in the Mamluk era [41].

From this standpoint, they "mingled with men and captivated them with their beauty, delicacy and precision of movement and the system based on the dominance of male authority was broken. This role enabled some female slaves to emerge and occupy a place in history and literature books, just like the boys who lived with them ". Here we know "that female slaves had the greatest credit in the renaissance of literature in general and poetry in particular and that the status that poetry reached in the era... [of the Mamluks] is due to them, for it was about them that poets spoke, described, created, flirted and went crazy... and presented to us images of the emotions of the soul and the awakening of the conscience ".

Debauchery was widespread in Mamluk society and poets rushed to praise the beauty of women, so erotic love became widespread, “and the poet lived in it an experience far from the depths of the soul, an experience that was not squeezed by the pain that might claim it and he attacked pleasure without deprivation and stormed the obstacles of values - moral and religious - without effort, answering the call of his passion, declaring and declaring his adventures and movements, not caring about a lover with whom he spent hours only to move on to another, he loves beauty and follows it from one beauty to another and moves behind it from one woman to another as a bee moves from flower to flower” [42].

In general, concubines contributed to enriching the poetic corpus with the poems composed about them. A concubine could charm poets “with her beauty, art, literature and eloquent speech. She was the focus of their thinking. The poetry composed about the concubine differed according to the relationship that linked her to the poet. What he said about his beloved was different from what he composed about the Caliph’s concubine, or about the slave girl, or about the waterwheel, or about any other slave girl who aroused his admiration with one of her movements or one of her glances without a relationship of love connecting him to her” [43]. We must not overlook the role of concubines in the councils of the sultans; the slave girl formed the backbone of the council and occupied three main positions in it: She was a cupbearer, a female slave who played or chanted and she was a concubine. However, these councils required “elegance in dress and the decoration of the figures, which led to the refinement of tastes and the guidance of souls to the secrets of beauty... Thus, [the Mamluks] lived in this world that was full of pleasures and delights, so the ship sailed with them in this sea and they sailed with it...”.

There is a note here: “It may be said that the poetry that was said about the slave girls in these councils is a type of description, but it should not be overlooked that the erotic poetry represents in one of its aspects a description of the beauty of the woman being eroticized and then the poets were very attached to these slave girls and were greatly fascinated by them and the pleasure of listening was coupled with the pleasure of looking, so the source of pleasure was not only singing, playing and dancing, but also beauty”.

The poets loved beauty absolutely; “Because their taste for beauty, like their taste for the fine arts in general and poetry in particular... they feel sweetness, sweetness and gentleness with a mysterious feeling that is not restricted by definition, nor confined by borders. Their measurements differ from person to person, because beauty is a subjective consideration or an individual internal feeling”. However, beauty was one of the reasons that prompted the Mamluks to buy female slaves, “because they entertain their masters and spread pleasure and joy wherever they are and they make people happy with their pampering and capture attention with their beauty. They also use all the beauty, pampering and methods they have learned to possess the hearts of their masters until they become slaves who obey their orders”.

In short, when the Mamluk poet met the slave girl, “he was impressed by her charms and sang praises to her slender figure, her sleepy eyes, her flowing hair, her teeth, her saliva and her mole. He also sang praises to her enchanting voice that flowed like gold from her silver lips. He did not stop here, but sang praises to her daughter-in-law, the articulations of her voice, the delicacy of her fingers, her playing and her melodies. He also noticed her adornment and the styling of her hair and he told her about everything that had crossed his heart and mind. The poet did not hesitate to sing praises to her physical charms and to talk about the details of their private relationship and he mentioned the pleasure that overcame him when he held her close to his chest and kissed her mouth until dawn.

Among the phenomena of love poetry in the Mamluk poet is the mention of the nationality of the slave girl, due to the mixing of races in his era of Mamluks who were brought from different countries, such as the saying of the poet Ibn al-Wardi [AD. 749 AH] about a Samaritan Jewish woman:

I stayed up late with a Samaritan woman, like a fresh branch. Her limbs and figure remind us of Moses and Al-Khidr [44].

The question here is, what is the relationship between Moses and Al-Khidr [peace be upon them] with the limb and stature of this slave girl? What is the moral and verbal connection between the limb and stature? For the poet to link between them, does her eye resemble a razor or a knife? And they have always likened the eye to a sword and did he mean that her stature is a green branch? Or is it the limbs at any price and love has no share in this saying [45].

And similar to that is his saying in Mughalism:

Among the Mughal daughters, who can expose what I conceal.

So what is the condition of a Muslim who has become a captive of the Tatars.

It is clear that the poet's flirting is artificial and his goal in these verses is to catch a meaning that seems new and there is no point behind it, as he did not point out what distinguishes the Mongol girls in their appearance and morals, nor did he mention his experience with one of them and all that is in the matter is craftsmanship and participation in the context of the poets of his era, who were feverish to record a precedent in meaning, image, or craftsmanship, no matter how trivial this precedence was.

The poets of the Mamluk era did not stop at Arab beauty or the Arab woman, but rather their flirting extended to Turkish and non-Turkish beauty, so they flirted with concubines "Frankish, Roman and Kurdish, aided in that by an environment open to all these colors of elements that lived in these countries and assumed the reins of government in them [46]". The Mamluk poet combined Arab beauty with Turkish beauty, as in this era Turkish concubines were numerous and in this regard Ibn Nabatah al-Misri [AD. 768 AH] draws for us the image of the Turkish beloved, who resided in his heart, saying:

My eyes are narrow, my pupils are shedding tears and I am delighted, neither Zainab nor Rabbab. Oh, the Turkish slender, not the flock of Amer, my heart is ruined from the dwelling of tranquility. On your face, from the water of salt, a source for thirst and the flock of Amer is a mirage [47].

Thus, the Mamluk poet in this era became fascinated by narrow eyes. Our poet Ibn Nabata stopped at the narrow eyes of the beloved, which is considered a departure from the beauty of Arab eyes. However, narrow eyes are a characteristic of some Asian peoples such as the Turks and Tatars and they were abundant in the Islamic countries of the East; as they filled the slave markets [48].

The poet did not limit his poetry to flirting with Arab women; Rather, he went beyond that to flirting with Turkish gazelles and this falls within the framework of realistic flirting, as the poet lived in “an era in which the Islamic world became awash with activity, filled with races and nationalities that filled the Islamic capitals and the palaces of the rulers and we see the poet fascinated by the narrow eyes of the Turkish gazelles at times, just as he was fascinated by the wide eyes of the houris of his people, the Shaibanis and others. And he depicted for us his suffering in reaching them, just as he endured hardships in reaching the Arabian gazelles” [49].

Al-Tala’fari al-Shaibani Said:

O you who made his eyes from the trap of your abandonment of your love, the end of polytheism I did not know when I saw you walking, walking, whether it was your stature or a rod that I saw Or have you narrated the full moon on the night   of its fullness, so that the narrated magnified the narrator’s stature.

He also said:

• She turned over her glasses and made us forget the dark nights

• She showed her red cheek and we were Magi there, to the fire of her cheek

• We had never seen before her a candle-like cheek, turning the palm of her hand, a sun 

If poets before the Mamluk era were “fascinated by the wideness of the eyes to the point that they likened them to the eyes of the gazelle and it became a measure of the beauty of the eye, then this measure underwent a development in the Mamluk era, as some poets sang about narrow eyes; due to the large Turkish element in Mamluk society and they were famous for their narrow eyes, which became a source of fascination for poets” [50].

Ibn Nabatah said:

• And a thought that passions were unable to astonish

• The roots of the Turks are not like the Arabs

From every slender man whose eyes are narrowed, when will the one I meet be generous with what I want.

However, he sees the narrowness of his beloved’s eyes, even if it is like the eye of a tailor, but in his view they are a wide field, as he says:

I am from the Banu Turks, with a serene glance and a sharp spear, from whom the pouring is not a refuge and he is a charmer. I am narrow-eyed, they protected him, so I said to them, the needle’s eye is with the beloved, a field.

If we have spoken about the eyes of the slave girls, we should not neglect the female cupbearer, as he has led poets to flirt with them and describe them in a description that drips with ease and charm. The charming young man [d. 688 AH] asks his beautiful cupbearer to bring him the cup of fever, then sing to him, as he says:

• Give me the cup in the morning, then sing to me over my cup

• Turn your face towards me,    the light of the sun has not yet appeared [51]

In another image, the poet confirms that he is drunk from both, the water-carrying slave girl and the wine, as he says: A gazelle has captured my mind and heart with cups of wine and notes.

I obeyed love in my passion for it and my heart disobeyed the sermons.

It became a common thing in the drinking and singing gatherings of the Mamluk era, “as many of the [Mamluk] rulers were fond of it and they displayed great extravagance in these gatherings, as they were accustomed to every sultan or king having a choir of songs in his house”. Here is the poet Badr al-Din Ibn al-Sahib [AD. 689 AH], combining the pleasures of listening and drinking, after he was intoxicated by the voice of the slave girl and the melodies he heard and became intoxicated by both of them. He says:

• She sang and made the cups of sugar-coated wine redundant with the pleasures of those melodies

• I said, as her voice overwhelmed me, “In such a throat, the beards are trembling [52]

Therefore, the poets of the Mamluk era found in drinking gatherings a wide field for flirting and attributing the qualities of wine to the slave woman and the qualities of the slave woman to wine and mixing their qualities. Ibn al-Wardi wonders about the reason for his drunkenness, was it the wine or his cupbearer after he became confused about the matter? He says:

From what wine are you drunk from two cheeks, two cups, or eyes.

She did not roll up her legs to give you dew except to be amazed by the beauty of legs.

Safi al-Din al-Hilli [AD. 750 AH] stands at a Christian waterwheel with a radiant face and smooth cheeks and he and his companions spend the night there drinking wine, saying:

• And a Christian woman we lived next to, so we have a place in her courtyard

• We proposed to her and she brought comfort to our souls, with which they find rest

• And she showed a beautiful sight, so we remained, each one of us suffering from his longing When she approached me with a cup,    the light of which was doubled by the fair face, I wiped my hand over a smooth cheek and after death a spirit returned to me

She shook her heart with joy and said, “Hezzzz died in mourning and the Messiah revived him [53].

He said about a slave girl dancing with wine:

• And the dancers, who have tightened their belts on waists like the middle of dinars

• As if there were in the span of their desires and they danced at a morning in which the heart of darkness is shakenTending the beats with their hands and feet and preserving the original from deficiency and change

• And articulating the dance from a tune and what accompanies grammar from deletion and estimation accompanies it [54]

Returning to the element of the non-Arab beloved, the poets of the Mamluk era depicted “her beauties and did not leave anything of this account without presenting it briefly or extensively, so they surrounded the element of the beloved, her origin, her appearance, her face, her eyes, her hair, her figure and her waist... [55]. This poet, Saif al-Din al-Mushid [d. 656 AH], is fascinated by the eyes of the Turkish slave girl, in his saying:

In another picture, Al-Talaafari walks, admiring his Turkish girl, infatuated with her. She is a beautiful woman with a body like a branch, foliated with locks of hair. She protected her rosy cheek with a sword to catch her glance. 

He says:

• I was entrusted with a squinty-eyed man from the Turks, with a branch as tall as a leafy forelock

• I was entrusted with a squinty-eyed man from the Turks, with a branch as tall as a leafy forelock

Graceful in his swaying and his coats, the most delicate of the veils, his eyes are deaf when he glances. He protected with the sword of glance a rosy cheek from which the sleeves of the brother have become. He has a looker within him, and he is black, an enemy to the masters of passion Blue.

It seems that "Turkish beauty was the dominant force in the arena, so people were fascinated by it. Poets saw in Turkish women an ideal image of beauty, so they frequently flirted with Turkish women and praised their beauty” [56].

Juban al-Qawwas [AD. 692 AH] flirted with an Abyssinian slave girl, saying:

Dark-skinned, like a fresh branch, her figure captivates people with her cold eyes.

She throws an arrow with a bow of eyebrows from her glance    that hits the lover’s fighter [57].

Thus the poet Muhyi al-Din Ibn Abd al-Zahir [d. 692 AH] proceeds, depicting his Persian slave girl, about whom he does not accept the words of a slanderer or critic, for she has a face as bright as the full moon and jet-black hair that reminds him of the people of Abyssinia, as he says:

I am in love with someone like her. I am not afraid, nor do I accept the words of a snitch. Ghazal is one of the daughters of Khagan, but we have seen               her hair from him, Al-Najashi. The sun set when it saw her during the day,     not seeing the shadow of her hair, not walking Or if you walk at night, you will say, “I see     that she is a full moon and the stars are its edges [58]. As for Ahmed bin Musa bin Yaghmur [AD. 693 AH], he flirts with his African slave girl, saying:

Black, white, beautiful, beloved in movements and words Musky, musky, her breaths are Indian, Indian notes.

The image of the beautiful slave girl who mastered the methods of love was the inspirational example in many of the works of the poets of this era, "and you are standing in the literature of this era on many examples of these images and you are also facing many names of slave girls that were popular in this era, such as Warda, Haddaq, Hakam Al-Hawa, Naseem and Ishtiaq. In addition to others, who had a wide influence in literary life and before that in social and economic life; and even political life as well [59]. This is a slave girl called [Sabah], about whom Badr Al-Din bin Al-Sahib flirted and he was infatuated with her with passion, attachment and love, so he says:

A slave girl called Sabah has become a wanderer in her beauty in the palaces. She turns away and her eyes are awake. Laila says, “What’s wrong with him since morning And Muhyi al-Din Ibn Abd al-Zahir, flirting with a slave girl named [Wardah], saying:

I sacrifice my father for the doll that gave birth to beauty. They called her the rose of the garden. In pictures, there is no one like her, so they say, “A rose like paint.

As for Shihab al-Din Ibn Fadl Allah al-Omari [d. 749 AH], he was infatuated with a slave girl named Hadaq. He says:

I got drunk on the love of the one I love, his coats made my ribs willing to be hurt and burned.

They said, "So I said to them,  'Do not ask what happened to my eyes'.

Shihab al-Din Ibn Abi Hajla al-Tilimsani [AD. 776 AH] was madly in love with [Hakam al-Hawa], infatuated with it, melting in passion and sorrow for it, saying:

• With the intensity of passion and longing

• Oh, you who criticize me, do not blame me for loving her has been carried out and thus passion has ruled 

The rule of love turned away, so I spent the night for this, infatuated poets of this era talked most about singing, singers and music and its instruments. We notice that the slave girls had “prestige in the field of music and that many of them excelled in playing its various instruments. There were those who mastered playing the oud and there were those who mastered playing the flute and there were those who played the tambourine and so on. We see all of this clearly in what we read of the poetry of this era [60].

This is Saif al-Din al-Mushid, depicting that slave girl who embraces her oud with tenderness and adjusts its strings with skill, saying:

And she nurtures a speaking fetus and honors his resting place like a child. Tickling his insides when he is good and rubbing his ears when he is bad [61].

Ibn Nabatah says about a group of beautiful girls who played with sticks and tambourines:

And the beautiful girls are not worthy of perfume and jewelry,        so they are called beautiful girls. Drum beaters in an army of amusement, stabbing worries with their eyes.

Shams al-Din al-Kufi al-Wa’iz [AD. 675 AH] said about a slave girl who played the tambourine: In her hand is a youth that gathers desires, so we are silent and love speaks.

And He breathes into her the spirit by her command.

And who is Gabriel and who is Mary.

As for Ibn Daniyal al-Mawsili al-Kahhal [AD. 710 AH], he also depicted a slave girl playing the tambourine, as he said:

The stature of a pure branch that sways             if a bird passes by it one day, it sings She shows her wrist on the tambourine like hot coals, with a fingertip like a date.

Her singing is mixed with delicate coquetry, so only those who are perceptive are dripping [62].

Female singers also had a share of poetry, including the words of the poet Ibrahim bin Al-Ma’mar [ADd. 749 AH] about a female singer:

And a singing slave girl gently tapped her heels to the rhythm and a singing slave girl gently           tapped her heels to the rhythm 

Ibn Fadl Allah Al-Umari [AD. 749 AH] says something similar in his description of a black singing slave girl:

Oh God, her eyelids are black, as the whiteness of India has an effect.

I am delighted by the repetition of her melodies, but how could a blackbird not be delighted.

If we go beyond the singing slave girls to the dancing slave girls, we find the poet Jamal al-Din Hassan bin Ali bin Dawud al-Farqi [AD. 689 AH], flirting with a dancing slave girl, saying:

To God is a dancer who sways like the shadow of a rod when it sways in bloom.

She flourishes and returns like a shadow, so you do not see her movements except as the knocking of sleep and like this is the saying of Ali bin Abi Al-Yusr [AD. 732 AH]: Haifa, if she dances in a gathering, the hearts around her dance with joy at her skill.

Light in her step, if she walks with her steps     in the eyelid of a person with conjunctivitis, he will.

Boys in the Poetry of Poets

Some researchers believe that the phenomenon of flirting with boys spread in the Abbasid era since the middle of the second century AH due to its arrival by way of the Persians. While another group believes that the roots of deviant flirting go back to the pre-Islamic era. However, this phenomenon has roots in the pre-Islamic era, but they were individual cases that did not spread to become a clear trend except in the Abbasid era; as the houses of female singers and prostitutes spread and the houses of deviant entertainment that brought together female singers and boys , so a group of free people appeared who used to go to those houses seeking deviant pleasure and among them was a group of poets , who conveyed what was going on in those gatherings and narrated their licentious stories and their encounters with female slaves and boys, in many poems and pieces. Whatever the case, the phenomenon of the inclination towards boys is ancient and has been known to non-Arabs since the most ancient times. This inclination was common among the people of Lot-peace be upon him-to the point of committing an immoral act, so God sent him to them to forbid them from.

This is an ugly, reprehensible act. God Almighty said: {And Lot, when he said to his people, “Do you commit such immorality as no one has ever done before you among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.”}. In this era, flirting with female slaves and boys became widespread in Islamic society; “as a result of the focus on the pleasure of women and physical pleasures due to the lack of political concerns that occupied such a society, especially in the later eras of stagnation, decline and deterioration, so people did not find anything to fill the great void they felt except seclusion with women and boys”.

Naturally, “flirting with boys is one of the phenomena that flourished in this era and it must be pointed out, because it has become a phenomenon that embodies immorality, debauchery, debauchery and moral decadence in this era, as boys crowd homes and palaces, taverns and places of entertainment and luxury”. There is no doubt that this phenomenon "left strong traces on the aesthetic taste of the era and this was reflected in turn on literature. We saw that singing about the beauty of young boys, or flirting with men, occupied a large space in the love poems of this era. We are not exaggerating if we say: women's share of love poems has diminished if compared to what writers have been drawn to in terms of temptation by male beauty”.

This phenomenon has spread to all classes of society, but "in every society and every era, the class of the licentious and the dissolute has its own style of life. The phenomenon remains confined within its scope. However, in this era, the phenomenon has bared its fangs until it has almost swallowed all classes of society, including the ascetics, the worshippers and the people of knowledge and determination...”. The phenomenon of boys spread with the spread of luxury and poetry was composed about them in its various forms, so poets flirted with them and interacted with their behavior and mourned them and satirized those among them who deserved satire”.

It is rare to see a poet or writer who did not contribute in this field "and it is sufficient to indicate that there are some literary works written specifically for that, as Al-Safadi limits his work to flirting with boys and Al-Shihab Al-Hijazi devotes an entire chapter in his book [Rawd Al-Adab] to this male flirtation, in addition to what is scattered in other chapters”.

Undoubtedly, Islamic culture produced young boys in “a garb that dazzled the onlookers present in the gatherings and enchanted their hearts and the knowledge they received gave them the sweetness of logic and the softness of poetry that captivated the minds and the talents were stirred. The poets described the beauty of their slaves and expressed their amazement at what they saw of the beauty of the garments that culture had bestowed upon them and they revealed their longings and yearnings… for the young boys they loved and in some situations the poets interacted with the illness or death of the slaves and in other cases the poets were disturbed by these Mamluks, so they satirized them”.

The poets of the Mamluk era tended to flirt with young boys and excelled in broadcasting their secrets; They drew various images in this way, expressing their attachment to the male, but some scholars have gone so far as to say that “the decline of the role of women in this era led to the lack of explicitness of love relationships between poets and their beloveds, unlike what is found in the Arab heritage, where some poets used to boast about their emotional relationships and mention the names of their beloveds explicitly and respond to their opponents from the slanderers an d envious people. However, at this stage, flirting with the male is considered a cover for emotional relationships with women, or in line with the general taste that approved of flirting with young boys”.

However, this opinion is plagued by weak evidence, as erotic poetry was widespread in the Mamluk era and there were many deviant boys who had their own taverns, frequented by those who frequented this type of debauchery. “It became natural for this debauched type of poetry to spread, until it became a necessity of the era. Its existence continued... in society, as an art in poetry... [It was] characterized by the fact that most of it is filled with longing, pain, separation, distance, union, suffering and tears... just as it is prevalent in tangible, physical description, tainted with exaggeration”.

This trend of flirting with boys was carried away by “some scholars of the era who had a widespread reputation, a long history and a prestigious position and who assumed worldly and religious responsibilities. The inclination towards young men was a custom of the kings of that time.

This means that flirting with boys increased in this era “and the best of the era, including jurists and judges, did not hesitate to mention it, as if the matter had become normal, without reproach or embarrassment and some poets before the Mamluk era had spoken about it, while in the Mamluk era it is rare to find a poet who did not say a little or a lot about boys”.

Thus, the poetry of flirting with boys expanded in this era, “and poets rushed to compete and excelled in broadcasting their secrets, depicting the pangs of their hearts and drawing the features of their lovers… in poems that no female hostess had the likes of and they did not hesitate to use obscene words and vulgar expressions that offended modesty”.

This phenomenon became widespread, until it became an apparent topic in flirting and debauchery and there was little protest against it and denial of it, rather scholars participated in it without embarrassment, “and poets were fascinated by it and competed, relying on general flirting at times and trying to find a special feature for flirting with boys at other times, so some of them excelled in expression and poetic craftsmanship and some of them regretted form and content and some of them approached debauchery and they were all showing a reality and common in their era and society”. It is well known that poets considered the young man a moving idol distinguished by his beautiful face, with signs of both masculinity and femininity on his cheek, which made the poet combine the beauty of the virginity, the beauty of the cheek and the mole.

Poetry about young men was not limited to the image of love; "rather, masters sometimes mourned their young men. The content of the elegy differed according to the relationship between the mourner and the mourned. If there was a love relationship between them, the poem would be filled with feelings of pain and sorrow and if the young man was merely a servant who performed the duties of his master, the poet would compose a poem in which he depicted his longing for the services of his slave”.

There is no escape from saying that the flirting with the male replaced the flirting with the female in much of the production of this era. “Poets began their poems with it and devoted sections and poems to it and the approaches to saying it varied, just as the approaches to saying it in female flirting varied. There is the sensual one that seeks pleasure and enjoyment and there is what soars in the horizons of virginity, crying over rejection and abandonment and finding life in the meeting and death and destruction in the separation”.

If this indicates anything, it indicates the poets’ attachment to these young men and the description of aspects of beauty in them, in addition to the description of the cupbearers and companions, from whom a new class was formed in Mamluk society, combining the qualities of women and men and concerned with adornment and effeminately as women effeminate and the frivolous and the playful played with them as they play with concubines and singing girls. What arose in society is most likely a type of sexual deviation in psychology due to the love of sex.

Trends in flirting with boys [male] in Mamluk poetry:

The first trend - flirting with young water-bearers:

This type of flirting was commonly mentioned in drinking gatherings, as it is repeated in poems and poetic pieces in the poetry of poets of this era; as flirting with cupbearers is the common denominator among all types of wine poetry.

And flirting with the male, perhaps this special status that the cupbearer occupies is what prompted poets to depict the cupbearer's beauty and the splendor of his countenance; so they were fascinated in depicting him and chose for him the most wonderful qualities and the most beautiful similes and therefore they said: He is a full moon sometimes, or he is a gazelle at other times.

The cupbearer has conditions and etiquette that must be observed, including "that he be of exquisite beauty, exceeding in charm and coquetry, surpassing his peers in his exquisite beauty and astonishing with the gentleness of his features the minds of the wise, the hearts leap to him from the intensity of longing and the limbs travel to him with kisses and embraces, the roses are picked from his cheeks and the gazelle is repelled by his moments, if he speaks, it is with the most eloquent expression and the most gentle speech or kindness, it is sweeter than the nights of union, or if he sways, it is better than drinking the whole and gentler than the breezes of the north". This poet from Talafari, composes poems in praise of young men, depicting the physical beauty of the young boy, from the thinness of his waist and the trembling of his affection, in his saying:

A bright, full moon, fifteen years old, circles around us. A belt runs around his waist and he has no place to stay.

We have in his cups and his eyes,  as love has decreed, drunkenness and gratitude. We return it to him and it is white and he takes it to us and it is red. 

If he meets her, he will sway with affection, like a pure branch, a morning sun and a full moon. He has a soft cheek like dew and like its grains there is speech and gaps.

Whenever I tried to pull away from his embrace, he forbade me from breaking his eyelids. One of the innovations of love and passion is that I turn away from its sights.

Abu Al-Hussein Al-Jazzar [AD. 679 AH] expresses his love for his slave and his eyes and cups were equal in his drunkenness, saying:

The breeze cast its rays upon you and its radiant face grew brighter.

And the myrtle of his virginity turned green in his temples, and the apples of his cheeks turned red. I got drunk on his moments and cups, so my eyes and cups became equal.

He would not have been more deserving of my sip of his nectar  if that mouth of his was permissible.

Safi al-Din al-Hilli stands next to a young man holding a cup and the rays of the sun’s rays are reflected on his cheeks and his eyes do to lovers what aged wine does to minds, as he says:

He held the cup and his cheeks were covered with the twilight of its reflected rays. We witnessed from his cheek and her light how the moons are clothed in the light of the suns.

From the hands of Shaden, he almost makes the soul drunk again with his familiar character. His eyes did in the souls of lovers the work of the black-eyed lion. The most fragile cod, the one who snatches the waist, the sage of the party, Anas Al-Nadim, the soul of the sitter. Lovers are not to be blamed for wasting their lives in his love and sacrificing their souls. They looked at that beauty and they found it precious, so they risked the precious.

Al-Hilli admired external beauty, with everything that the senses represent: visible, tangible, smelled, heard and tasted. “He flirted with stature, cheeks, hair, waist, eyes and lips. He flirted with saliva, perfume and sweet speech. He also flirted with lisping, coquetry during speech, swaying and drowsiness in the glance and other sensory descriptions... It is worth noting that most of Al-Safi’s flirting was in the language of the masculine and his pronoun and that the best of his flirting was masculine flirting and boyish flirting”.

Salah al-Din al-Safadi [d. 764 AH] speaks about the wine that the handsome boys are circling around, as if it were a fire that the boys from Paradise are circling around and the joy of it has spread from the hands of these boys, so the bottles of wine are dancing, as he says:

As if it were in the hands of those who circumambulate it, there is a fire that circles around it in the earth, paradises. From every beautiful woman in Dinar and his paradise, grains of people’s hearts were distributed. She swayed in his hands with joy, until those bottles danced.

And I spent the night drinking from his mouth and fermenting it, a drink with which he launches raids on the mind. May those past nights be watered, as if life were those nights.

In this sense, Ibn Nabatah expresses his magic with the eyes and cups of his servant, the cupbearer, who stole his mind with the wine of his coffee and the wine of his eyes, as he says:

You stole my mind with eyes and cups, O you with tranquil eyes or O you who pours wine Drunk on the cupbearer's coffee and his eyes, so leave your blame on the drunk, my friend And throw away the burdens of blame in your life, for you have not borne my burden nor been charged with my reform. And similar to that is what Burhan al-Din al-Qayrati [AD. 781 AH] said:

I complained to him about his cheek and his fire, so his lips extinguished my fire with their nectar.

And the one who pours it gets drunk twice if he drinks it with his jug, sometimes with his spit and sometimes with his saliva.

The poet Shams al-Din al-Nawaji [d. 859 AH] likens wine to the sun and the young man to the moon, in a poetic painting depicting the young cupbearer, recalling a Quranic scene from the Almighty’s saying: {It is not for the sun to overtake the moon}.

Shams al-Din al-Nawaji said:

A leg like a full moon, running in the morning sun among the companions, surpassing the branch if it strays. So marvel at the sun that shines in the hands of the moon, “and the sun should not overtake the moon.

Ibn Malik al-Hamawi [AD. 917 AH] comes, confirming that the saliva of his servant, the cupbearer, without whom intimacy is not complete and that his cheek was as red as an apple, saying:

If his saliva did not contain wine, his cheek would not have been like an apple. The nights of pleasure are complete with the saliva of wine and the light of the lamp.

On his face is a garden of beauty, his cheek is a rose and those lips are full of chrysanthemums. The breezes inhale his Lord and it is no wonder that souls are infatuated with him. The second trend-flirting with young boys [sensual, non-obscene description]:

Those who “flirt with the masculine-like lovers flirting with the feminine-often mention the aspects or organs that fascinated them in this masculine, as if they were seeking excuses for themselves and trying to convince people that they could only submit and obey the authority of beauty and the statue of temptation and seduction”.

Among the qualities of young men that fascinated poets were: “tallness and thinness and therefore they likened such young men to a branch at times and to the swaying stick of the araka tree at other times and perhaps they said: Such young men have raised the stature of the poet, expressing extreme admiration and intense infatuation. The eyes had their share of this flirtation, so they said: she is kohl-lined and swarthy, or she resembles the eye of a gazelle”.

Hence, poets in this direction borrowed most of the qualities that describe the charms of women, "from the slenderness of the body, the redness of the cheeks, the thinness of the waist, the fullness of the buttocks and the comparison of the eyes to narcissus and the glances to arrows... and other descriptions and they described the members of young men with them.

Whatever the case, there is confusion between the image of the beloved woman and the image of the beloved young man, "and the confusion of the masculine pronoun with the feminine pronoun in many poems and if it were not for some few references to things that are only in the masculine such as the mention of the virgin and the virgin and other things that are only in the female such as the breasts and the use of feminine pronouns sometimes, the image of the woman and the young man would be equal and it would be difficult to differentiate between the two colors [56].

This is Saif al-Din al-Mushid, depicting his beloved young man, who is unique in beauty and has acquired the meanings of beauty, as he swims in the Gulf of Cairo and he says:

When it appeared in the Gulf, its circles clear and the waves revealing their charms.

I imagined it to be a full moon rising in a galaxy surrounded by halos and clouds [57].

Recalling the words of Al-Nabigha Al-Dhubyani [d. 18 BC] in praise of King Al-Nu’man bin Al-Mundhir:

For you are the sun and the kings are planets. When you rise, not a single planet of them will appear.

He also employed the words of the Umayyad poet Naseeb bin Rabah [AD. 108 AH]:

He is the full moon and the people are the stars around him. Do the stars resemble the bright full moon.

Al-Talaafari is fascinated by his beloved’s sensual descriptions, saying:

I was not the first to be infatuated with the most enchanting and arrogant of glances. Rasha shows you, when he appears and bends, a moon on a branch of crystal.

His mouth, cheeks and forehead are for the light, nay for the fire, nay for the light [58].

The poet Yusuf bin Lulu Al-Dhahabi [d. 680 AH] describes what happened between him and his slave, when he wanted to kiss him on the mouth, but the kiss came on his cheek, saying:

You prevented the lips from sipping, Oultimate desire, and you moved me away from it to your red cheek. If I missed out on the chrysanthemums,  I got fresh roses and basil.

Mujir al-Din Ibn Tamim [AD. 684 AH] says about a young man with a mole on his cheek: The one I love has a mole that increases my confusion and obsessions. On a cheek plate whose water has not dried up     and whose eyes have not been disturbed by people.

He also said about a young man with weak eyelids:

Look at his cheeks, which are tinted with modesty and the colors of them are more beautiful than the wild rose.

And when his eyes met the moon of his lips, they were overcome with intoxication, so his eyelids swayed [59].

The charming young man flirts with a young man whose saliva is like wine, saying:

I love the one whose saliva is sweet,    but who has no desire to drink from it [60].

Taqi al-Din al-Saruji [AD. 693 AH] relates to his Turkish slave who lives in al-Husayniyah, complaining of the intensity of his longing and abandonment, saying:

Oh seeker of longing, since you have flowed, my tears have flowed, for they are his helpers. Get me an answer to my letter, which     is addressed to Al-Hussainiya.

And ask me to join him and if he says: Yes, then say: He has fulfilled his promise, his separation has been too long.

Shihab al-Din al-Azzizi [d. 710 AH] composed a poetic panel about the virtues of his beloved boy, mentioning the thinness of his waist, the magic of his eyelids, the freshness of his face that had become a beautiful garden of basil and apples and the magic of his eyes until he could no 

longer distinguish between his glance, his saliva and his palm in intoxication. He says:

His eyelids are sleepy, his moments are sick and beauty is where his sickness and health are. His areas were darkened by the thinness of his waistand his belt and his scarf took a toll on him. The garden of his beautiful face, in his temples his basil and on his cheek is his apple His eyes did to us what his cups did, as if his pupils were his goblets.

We wonder which of the three is his wine: His glances, his saliva, or his spirit?

He let down his locks and lowered his veil and I saw a night whose morning had risen above it. And a face appeared in the darkness, a traveler, his lamp glowing with light.

Ibn Daniel continues, describing the beauty of the boy’s beloved, saying:

Tongues fail to describe your beauty,   for your beauty is the most beautiful beauty.

I have among you a gazelle whose beauty reminds me of the eyes of Paradise, red and squinty-eyed.

They swore that the rose was the flower of his cheek. The slanderers were right and his rival was a lily.

And similar to that is what Safi al-Din al-Hilli said, flirting with the beauty of his slave:

The excuse crept in, so the excuses arose, and the blackness appeared, so the lights increased. It is no wonder that darkness increases its light, for in the dark moons shine.

Darkness appears in its light as if it were a moon with a veil over the clouds.

Ibn Nabatah mentioned the virtues of his beloved, whose cheek was redder than a rose and he was amazed at the greenness of his cheek, in his saying:

A handsome man annoys the rose with the redness of his cheek, but the rose's talk of amber is folded up and spread. As if his necklace was arranged by what was in the mouth, or else his necklace was arranged by what was in the mouth. I was amazed at the greenness of his cheek, although it was burning and its embers were blazing [59].

In this regard, Ibn Abi Hajla al-Tilimsani says:

Because of the redness of his cheeks, my complexion turns yellow, with the green plants in it. He has a maternal uncle, a slave to kings, a charming glance and a pearly mouth [60].

If we move on to Shams al-Din al-Nawaji, we find him drawing an artistic picture of his beloved, who surpassed beauty and handsomeness, saying:

I saw a face like the full moon and a cheek like the cheeks of a rose, in shyness.

All sailors are slaves and he is their master, as he sets out to take people captive with his beautiful eyes.

In this context of non-obscene sensory description, Ibn Malik al-Hamawi says:

• A full moon hid in me from its guards, wary of the eyes of its guards

• He surpassed the brightest full moons in his beauty and the sun shines with the brilliance of his radiance. Swaying in his affections, his youthful inclination, his pleasant praise of his wind

The garden is fragrant from it and its fragrance spreads when it is covered with the excess of its cloak. As if the scent of musk mixed with its soil, or the pearls of camphor on its pebbles.

The flowing water of beauty split his cheek with redness, and the water is the color of his vessel [61].

The third trend: Flirting with young boys [obscene sensual description].

The poets of the Mamluk era expanded in drawing the scandalous image, "and their boldness reached the point of impudence in describing the physical charms of young boys, the charms and their effects on their souls and the audacity to attack religion and quote from it and seek refuge in it [62].

It seems that most of the poetry of this trend is of the explicit erotic genre, "in which the poet focuses on exposing the private parts and depicts the raging animal desire in the human soul and the extent of man's eagerness to extinguish the flame of that desire [63].

It is obvious that the poet here does not hesitate to depict his adventures with young boys, in addition to describing perversion, obscenity and debauchery, such as the saying of the poet Al-Tala'fari:? Did you not forget our night, while sleep has taken hold    of the reins of those drowsy eyelids?

• When I said: Where is the comfort? I said, deceivingly, The sip from my lips will suffice you

• And I embraced from you a branch that was not less than the riches, covered with groves

• How beautiful is that night, which was marred only by the dawning of its breathing morning

• You have directed arrows to the guards in it from your eyes, for which your eyebrows are the bows.

• Before it, I had not hoped for the likes of it, but you have brought me back the likes of it and I have not despaired [64]

Among these scandalous images is the flirtation of Ibn al-Dhahir al-Irbili [d. 677 AH] about young boys, saying:

• He shed my blood intentionally with the sword of his glance and his rejection made my eyelids sleepless

• His love separated the heart from patience and his cheek united water and fire

He turned away from me and destroyed me, while my patience was close,  and I used to count the days of separation, How many nights did he come unexpectedly, at dawn and the darkness of night had softened So he sipped from his lips the cold that restored peace, the fire of my heart, his cold [65].

In line with what was mentioned, most of Ibn al-Dhahir’s poetic verses are of explicit love poetry, which contain words or meanings that reveal private parts, embody charms, arouse hidden desires and ignite the flames of burning desire in the human soul [66].

Al-Azzazi stands at the hour of the meeting and his beloved, the young man, visited him in the dead of night, depicting how he met him by embracing, kissing and sipping wine’s coffee from his lips; as he says:

The morning visited me and it was about to thrust its teeth into the darkness.

In a shirt that dragged its tails in wonder, and flexed its tunics as it walked and its two scarves wandered around its waist, complaining of its full buttocks so I received it with an embrace and a kiss, calming my palpitating longing.

And I called for the wine in the cup and the mug and he called: Leave the wine alone and sip from my mouth and from my sips, coffees that will suffice you from every tavern.

Pick the roses of my cheeks,   and gather the daisies of my smiling face [67].

Ibrahim bin Ali Al-Ma'mar is not satisfied with his beloved boy, whom he likened to a wild gazelle, except with a sip of his sweet saliva, hoping that it will restore his hope, cool his anger and extinguish his flames. He says:

A young man who has no moustache or beard, but has a forelock one sip of his saliva is enough for me and I regret his dregs [68]

The architect flirted with boys of different classes, races and professions. He loved them and was infatuated with them. “He went hunting for them everywhere. There was no handsome boy he saw that he did not become obsessed with and he sought him out and did not leave him until he had achieved what he wanted from him. His speech was not in the way of humor and jest, but rather we see him being vulgar and obscene, until he descended to vulgar meanings that we may not find even among the poets of debauchery themselves. He expresses an experience he lived with these boys” [69].

Hence, Al-Hilli resorted to depicting what took place between him and his slave in a licentious and dissolute manner, saying:

I obeyed the youth in you until I placed you in the highest ranks with two ranks. When the place of singing was empty and we spent the night naked with chastity, belted, we completed the Hajj, embracing and touching and we did not feel what was in the two sacred places [70].

Including the saying of Salah al-Din al-Safadi:

• I embrace him and my soul is still yearning for him. Is there anything more to come after the embrace?

• I kiss his mouth so that my heat may subside and my passion intensifies

• It is as if my heart cannot satisfy its thirst except by seeing the two souls mingling. The amount of love I have cannot be        satisfied by what the lips quench [71]

Ibn Nabatah also went on to describe his slave’s drinking glasses, saying:

• I fell in love with his delicious sip and said, "Woe to me, what a bribe!"

• I sucked his honeyed sips and held his honeyed lips

And I found in my waking hours a seclusion from him that I had never imagined in my dreams.

And whoever kisses the mouth and neck of his beloved young boy, Ibn Malik al-Hamawi stops, drawing a sensual picture of the physical beauty of young boys, saying:

• The cheeks' garden bloomed with roses which increased my passion and love

• I kiss his mouth and neck and examine his forehead and cheek

   

A gazelle from the Turks, Badr Tam, captivates you beautifully when he appears in its rich horizon, you wish you were a necklace for his neck.

The crescent moon may wish to be its belt and its banner.

He has gained the collection of splendor, but when he sways, you see him alone. The king of beauty, all the beauties have become his soldiers [72].

The poetry of flirting with boys expanded in the Mamluk era and its poets did not leave a school without composing in it and they did not leave a method without following it and they varied greatly in their mastery of it and they renewed its meanings, images and styles and added to it things inspired by their era and its culture and from what their imaginations created.

1. The Slaves and Boys in Egypt in the Fatimid and Ayyubid Eras, Dr. Najwa Kamal Kira, Zahraa Al-Sharq Library, Cairo - Egypt, 2007, 1st edition, p. 233.

2. Introduction to the Study of Arabic Literature in the Mamluk and Ottoman Eras, Dr. George Musa Haddad, Modern Book Foundation, Tripoli - Lebanon, 1st edition, 2012, p. 27.

3. Igathat al-Ummah bi-Kashf al-Ghummah, al-Maqrizi [AD. 845 AH], Dar Ibn al-Walid, Damascus - Syria, Dr. 1st ed., 1956 AD, p. 72.

4. Abdul Fattah Al Sayed Muhammad Al Damasi, Dar Al Zaini for Printing, Cairo - Egypt, 1st ed., 1976 AD, p. 22.

5. Mahmoud Salem Muhammad, National Library, Abu Dhabi - UAE, 1st Edn., 1433 AH - 2012 AD, p. 14.

6. Salam, Muhammad Zaghloul. Literature in the Mamluk Era. Mansha’at al-Ma’arif, Alexandria, Egypt, 1st ed., 1970, vol. 1, p. 60.

7. Literature of the First Mamluk Era - Issues of Society and Art, Dr. Fawzi Muhammad Amin, Dar Al-Ma'rifah Al- Jami'ah, Alexandria - Egypt, 1st Edn., 1993 AD, p. 332.

8. Literature of Successive States - Zengid, Ayyubid and Mamluk, Dr. Sami Youssef Abu Zaid, Dar Al- Masirah for Publishing, Distribution and Printing, Amman - Jordan, 1st ed. - 1433 AH - 2012 AD, p. 31.

9. Al-Durar Al-Kamina fi Aayan Al-Mi'at Al-Thamina, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani [d. 852 AH], edited and corrected by Abdul-Warith Muhammad Ali, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st ed., 1997 AD, vol. 4, p. 219. See: Introduction to the Study of Arabic Literature in the Mamluk and Ottoman Eras, p. 29.

10. The Mongol and Tatar State between Expansion and Defeat, Dr. Ali Muhammad Al-Sallabi, Dar Al-Ma'rifah, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st Edn., 1430 AH - 2009 AD, p. 47.

11. The Aesthetics of Flirting with Women in the Mamluk Era - A Socio-Historical Study, Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Majid Al-Tawanisi, Maktabat Al-Adab, Cairo - Egypt, 1st ed., 1432 AH - 2011 AD, p. 25.

12. Literature in the Mamluk Era, Muhammad Kamil Al-Faqih, Egyptian General Book Authority, Cairo - Egypt, 1st ed. 1976 AD, p. 35. See: The Image of Life and Death in Mamluk Poetry, p. 18. 

13. Poetry of Social Criticism in the First Mamluk Era - An Objective and Artistic Study, Muhammad Musa Hussein Al-Awisat, Master's Thesis, Al-Quds University - Faculty of Arts, 1429 AH - 2008, p. 114.

14. Concubines and Boys in Islamic Culture: A Gender Approach, Wafaa Al-Drisi, Believers Without Borders for Publishing and Distribution, Rabat - Morocco, 1st ed., 2016 AD, p. 46.

15. The Aesthetics of Flirting with Women in the Mamluk Era - A Socio-Historical Study, p. 25.

16. Sexual Life Among the Arabs from the Pre-Islamic Era to the End of the Fourth Century AH, Salah al- Din al-Munjid, Dar al-Kitab al-Jadid, Beirut - Lebanon, 2nd ed., 1975, p. 78.

17. The Singing Slaves, Fayed al-Amrousi, Dar al-Maaref, Cairo - Egypt, 3rd ed., 1984, p. 45.

18. Sexual Life Among the Arabs from the Pre-Islamic Era to the End of the Fourth Century AH, pp. 78-79.

19. Slaves and Their Influence on Arabic Poetry in Andalusia, Janan Izz al-Din Shabana, Master's Thesis, Hebron University - College of Graduate Studies, 2005, pp. 5-19.

20. Slaves and Boys in Egypt in the Fatimid and Ayyubid Eras, pp. 278-284.

21. The slave girls and the young men in Egypt in the Fatimid and Ayyubid eras, pp. 278-292

22. The slave girls and their impact on Arabic poetry in Andalusia, p. 69.

23. Ibn Taghri Bardi. The Shining Stars in the Kings of Egypt and Cairo. Introduced and commented on by Muhammad Hussein Shams al-Din, Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut, Lebanon, 1st ed., 1992, vol. 6, pp. 332–333.

24. The Aesthetics of Flirting with Women in the Mamluk Era: A Socio-Historical Study, pp. 25–29.

25. The Art of Love in Mamluk Poetry: An Analytical and Critical Study, Dr. Hassan Abdel Rahman Salim, Library of Arts, Cairo - Egypt, 1st ed., 1427 AH - 2007 AD, p. 99.

26. Literature in the Ayyubid Era, Dr. Muhammad Zaghloul Salam, Mansha’at Al-Maaref, Alexandria - Egypt, 1st Edn., 1990 AD, p. 323.

27. Reading and Expression, Dr. Walid Samir, Open Education Program, Benha University - Faculty of Arts, Egypt, 1st Edn., p. 48.

28. Literature of the First Mamluk Era, Issues of Society and Art, p. 358.

29. Restorer of Blessings and Destroyer of Retributions, Taj Al-Din Al-Subki [d. 771 AH], verified, edited and commented on by: Muhammad Ali Al-Najjar and others, Dar Al-Kitab Al-Arabi, Cairo - Egypt, 1st Edn., 1367 AH - 1948 AD, p. 35.

30. Concubines and Their Influence on Arabic Poetry in Andalusia, p. 103, and see: Love of Concubines - from the book Decorating the Markets with Details of the Lovers' Desires, Sheikh Dawoud Al- Antaki, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyyah for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, Baghdad - Iraq, 2nd Edn., 1441 AH - 2019 AD, Vol. 2/ p. 208.

31. Arabic Poetry in the Era of the Mamluks and Those Who Were Contemporaries of the Powerful, p. 410.

32. Concubines and Boys in Islamic Culture: A Gender Approach, pp. 283-284.

33. Al-Diwan, Ibn Al-Wardi [d. 749 AH], edited by Dr. Abdul Hamid Handawi, Dar Al-Afaq Al-Arabiya, Cairo - Egypt, 1st Edn., 1427 AH - 2006 AD, p. 275.

34. Ibn Al-Wardi, the writer of Bilad Al-Sham, Dr. Mahmoud Salem Muhammad, Dar Saad Al-Din, Damascus - Syria, 1st Edn., 1423 AH - 2002 AD, p. 49.

35. Literature of the successive states of the Zengid, Ayyubid and Mamluk, p. 58.

36. Al-Diwan, Ibn Nabata Al-Masri [d. 768 AH], Dar Ihya Al-Turath Al-Arabi, Beirut - Lebanon, n.d., n.d. T, p. 28.

37. Literature of the Successive States of Zengid, Ayyubid and Mamluk, p. 59.

38. Al-Diwan, Shihab al-Din al-Tala’fari [d. 675 AH], edited and introduced by Dr. Reda Rajab, Dar al- Yanabi’, Damascus, Syria, 2nd ed. 2004, p. 54.

39. The Art of Love in Mamluk Poetry, an Analytical and Critical Study, p. 146.

40. The Diwan of the Young Gentleman [d. 688 AH], introduced, explained and indexed by: Dr. Salah al-Din al- Hawari, Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, Beirut - Lebanon, first edition, 2004 AD, p. 115.

41. Means of Entertainment in the Era of the Mamluk Sultans in Egypt, Lutfi Ahmad Nassar, Egyptian General Book Authority, Cairo - Egypt, first edition, 1999 AD, p. 113.

42. The Treasury of Literature and the Goal of Desire, Ibn Hijjah al-Hamawi [d. 837 AH], edited by: Dr. Kawkab Diab, Dar Sadir, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st edition, 2001 AD, Vol. 3/p. 440.

43. The Diwan, Safi al-Din al-Hilli [d. 750 AH], explained, punctuated and introduced by: Dr. Omar Farouk Al- Tabbaa, Dar Al-Arqam Bin Abi Al-Arqam Printing, Publishing and Distribution Company, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st ed., 1418 AH - 1997 AD, p. 364.

44. Matali' Al-Budur fi Manazel Al-Surur, Alaa Al-Din Ali Al-Ghazouli [d. 815 AH], Library of Religious Culture, Cairo - Egypt, n.d., 1426 AH - 2006 AD, vol. 1/ p. 282.

45. The Aesthetics of Flirting with Women in the Mamluk Era, a Socio-Historical Study, p. 6.

46. Al-Diwan, Saif Al-Din Al-Mushid [d. 656 AH], investigation and introduction by Muhammad Zaghloul Salam, Mansha'at Al-Ma'arif, Alexandria - Egypt, 1st ed., n.d., p. 120.

47. Literature of the First Mamluk Era, Issues of Society and Art, p. 308.

48. Bada'i' al-Zuhur fi Waqa'i' al-Duhur, Ibn Iyas al-Hanafi [d. 930 AH], edited by Muhammad Mustafa, Dar al- Sha'b, Cairo - Egypt, first edition, 1960 AD, Vol. 1, Section 1, p. 505.

49. Ta'heel al-Gharib, Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Nawaji [d. 859 AH], edited and studied by Dr. Ahmad Muhammad Atta, Maktabat al-Adab, Cairo - Egypt, first edition, 2005 AD, p. 660.

50. Al-Jawari fi Som'at al-Mamluk Cairo, Dr. Ali al-Sayyid Mahmoud, Egyptian General Book Authority, Cairo - Egypt, first edition, 1988 AD, pp. 48-63.

51. Al-Mukhtar min Shi’r Ibn Daniyal, Ikhtiyar Salah al-Din Khalil al-Safadi [d. 764 AH], edited and commented on by Muhammad Nayef al-Dulaimi, Bassam Library, Mosul - Iraq, n.d., 1399 AH - 1979 AD, p. 189.

52. Poetry in the Arab East in the Middle Ages from 656 AH to 1413 AH, Dr. Muhammad Shaker Al-Rubaie, Dar Al-Radwan for Publishing and Distribution, Amman - Jordan, 1st ed., 1433 AH - 2012 AD, p. 168. See: The Image of Life and Death in Mamluk Poetry, p. 214.

53. Poetic Trends in the Levant in the Ottoman Era, Dr. Muhammad Al-Tunji, Publications of the Arab Writers Union, Damascus - Syria, 1st Edn., 1993 AD, p. 289.

54. Arabic Poetry in the Era of the Mamluks and Their Contemporaries of Power, p. 421.

55. Literature of Successive States - The Zengid and Ayyubid States, Dr. Mahmoud Salem Muhammad, National Library, Abu Dhabi - UAE, 1433.15 AH - 2012 AD, p. 114.

56. Slaves and Boys in Islamic Culture, a Gender Approach, p. 294.

57. Literature of the First Mamluk Era, Issues of Society and Art, pp. 362-363.

58.  Poetry in Baghdad until the End of the Third Century AH, Dr. Ahmed Abdel Sattar Al-Jawari, Arab Foundation for Studies and Publishing, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st ed., 2006 AD, pp. 149-153.

59.  Iraqi Poetry in the Sixth Century AH, Mazhar Abdul Sudani, Dar Al-Rashid for Publishing, Baghdad - Iraq, 1st ed., 1980 AD, pp. 271-273.

60.  Halbat Al-Kumait, Shams Al-Din Al-Nawaji [d. 859 AH], Al-Alamiyya Library, Cairo - Egypt, 1st ed., 1357 AH - 1938 AD, p. 145.

61. Al-Diwan, Abu Al-Hussein Al-Jazzar [d. 679 AH], investigation, introduction and study: Dr. Muhammad Zaghloul Salam, Mansha’at Al-Maaref, Alexandria - Egypt, no date, no date, pp. 31-32.

62. Safi Al-Din, Yassin Al-Ayyubi, Dar Al-Kitab Al-Lubnani, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st ed., 1971 AD, p. 231. See: The Love of Boys, Animals and Plants from the Book of Decorating the Markets in Detailing the Desires of Lovers, Sheikh Dawood Al-Antaki, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyyah for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, Baghdad - Iraq, 2nd ed., 1441 AH - 2019 AD, Vol. 4/ pp. 26-35. See: Adultery and Homosexuality in Arab History, Al-Khatib Al-Adnani, Arab Diffusion Foundation - Beirut - Lebanon, 1st ed., 1999 AD, p. 150.

63.  The Grief of the Complainant and the Tear of the Weeper, Salah al-Din al-Safadi [d. 764 AH], edited, explained and corrected by: Sheikh Muhammad Abu al-Fadl Mahmoud Harun, al-Rahmaniyah Press, Cairo, Egypt, 1st ed., 1341 AH - 1922 AD, p. 65. See: Horizons of Arabic Poetry in the Mamluk Era, p. 362.

64. Diwan Al-Nafhat Al-Adabiyyah Min Al-Zahrat Al-Hamawiyyah, Ibn Malik Al-Hamawi [d. 917 AH], presented and investigated by: Israa Ahmed Fawzi Al-Haib, General Syrian Book Authority, Damascus - Syria, first edition, 2010 AD, p. 190.

65. Al-Diwan, Al-Nabigha Al-Dhubyani [d. 8 A.H.], explained and presented by Abbas Abdul Sater, Dar Al-Kutub Al-Ilmiyyah, Beirut - Lebanon, 3rd edition, 1416 AH - 1996 AD, p. 28.

66. Poetry of Nasib bin Rabah [d. 108 AH], collected and presented by: Dr. Daoud Salloum, Al-Irshad Press , Baghdad - Iraq, 1st Edn., 1967 AD, p. 59.

67. Al-Diwan, Youssef bin Lu'lu' Al-Dhahabi [d. 680 AH], compiled, investigated and studied by Dr. Abbas Hani Al-Jarakh, Al-Furat Printing House Publications, Babylon - Iraq, 3rd Edn., 2008 AD, p. 151.

68. Al-Diwan, Mujir Al-Din bin Tamim [d. 684 AH], investigated by: Dr. Nazim Rashid and Hilal Naji, Alam Al-Kutub for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st Edn., 1420 AH - 1999 AD, p. 47.

69. Al-Diwan, Taqi al-Din al-Saruji [d. 693 AH], compiled, edited and studied by: Dr. Abbas Hani al- Jarakh, Dar Sadir, Beirut - Lebanon, 1st Edn., 1435 AH - 2014 AD, p. 57.

70.  Al-Diwan, Shihab al-Din al-Azzazi [d. 710 AH], edited and introduced by: Dr. Reda Rajab, Dar al- Yanabi’, Damascus - Syria, 1st edition, 2004 AD, p. 281.

71. Diwan, Ibn al-Dhahir al-Irbili [d. 677 AH], compiled, verified, explained and studied by: Dr. Abdul Razzaq Hawizi, Maktabat al-Adab, Cairo - Egypt, 1st Edn., 1427 AH - 2006, p. 44.

72. Al-Diwan, Jamal Al-Din Ibrahim bin Ali Al-Ma'mar [AD. 749 AH], study and investigation: Dr. Hussein Abdul-Aal Al-Lahibi, Tammuz for Printing, Publishing and Distribution, Damascus - Syria, 1st Edn., 2017 AD, pp. 144-145.