2025/10/10 by Ruhstorfer, Johannes
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Arabic Literary Debates #Islamic Studies and History #Language and Sexuality #Mamluk and Ottoman Arabic Literature #Medieval Sexuality #Medieval and Classical Philosophy #Turkey's Politics and Society #muǧūn
paper · doi:10.17885/heiup.mial.2025.2.25261
openalex publication_date 2025/10/10 · openalex created_date 2025/12/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
The ‘Literary Debate between Prick and Quim’ (Mufāḫarat az-zubb wa-l-kuss) of Cod. Mixt. 33 in the Austrian National Library is an Arabic literary debate from late Mamluk or early Ottoman Damascus. This article provides an edition along with philological comments and a translation. Furthermore, it situates the text in its literary context and analyses its linguistic representations of sexuality. In addition, it demonstrates how the attributes of beauty, attractiveness, and virility are used as instruments of power. By analysing metaphors, argumentation structures, and narrative framing, the article explores how gendered power dynamics are negotiated through personified genitalia. The text thus provides insight into premodern Arabic conceptions of sexuality, agency, and desire, revealing how erotic speech acts as a medium of symbolic domination. In doing so, the article contributes to broader discussions of gender and sexuality in the Arabic literature of the late Mamluk and early Ottoman periods.