The Sultan's Sex Potions
Arab Aphrodisiacs in the Middle Ages
$38.60
- Paperback
288 pages
- Release Date
17 March 2026
Summary
Arabic erotic literature has a long and rich history, which goes back as far as the ninth century. Far from being the pursuit of prurient pornographers, eroticism and sexuality received considerable attention from scholars.
The Sultan’s Sex Potions was written by Nasr al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274), one of the leading scientists of the age, and is part of a group of works devoted to aphrodisiacs as well as sexual practices and positions. Sober and measured in tone, the treatise w…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781849250757 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1849250758 |
| Author: | Daniel L. Newman |
| Publisher: | Saqi Books |
| Imprint: | Saqi Books |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 288 |
| Edition: | 2nd |
| Release Date: | 17 March 2026 |
| Weight: | 300g |
| Dimensions: | 216mm x 135mm x 30mm |
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Critics Review
‘Provides a much-needed, compact guide to the genre … generally serious in tone, but also rather amusing … accessible and inviting to both specialists and non-specialist readers.’ –School of Abbasid Studies
About The Author
Daniel L. Newman
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) was a Persian polymath and prolific writer, who built up a huge oeuvre (in excess of 150 works in both Arabic and Persian), covering a large number of fields, including mathematics, geometry, mineralogy, astronomy, medicine, philosophy and theology. He also re-edited and wrote commentaries on Greek and Arabic mathematical works, which became crucial resources in the spread of the Greek sciences in the Muslim world. He was of the Ismaili and subsequently Twelver Shia Islamic belief. The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) considered Tusi to be the greatest of the later Persian scholars.
Daniel L. Newman is Head of the Arabic Studies Department, Professor of Arabic and Course Director of the MA in Arabic-English Translation and Interpreting at the University of Durham, UK.
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