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Naá¹£ir Al-Din Al-Tusi (ed. and trans. Daniel L. Newman ): The Sultan's Sex Potions: Arab Aphrodisiacs in the Middle Ages . 208 pp. (English), 72 pp. (Arabic). London : Saqi Books , 2014. £17.99. ISBN 978 086356 747 6 .
Reviews: The Near and Middle East
Naá¹£ir al-Din al-Tusi's (d. 1274) short work on aphrodisiacs KitÄb AlbÄb al-bÄhiyya wa-l-tarÄkib al-sulá¹Äniyya (The Book of Choice Sexual Stimulants and the Sultan's Mixtures, as Newman translates, p. 63), is one of numerous works of medieval Arabic erotological literature. In his introduction to his edition and translation of this work, Daniel L. Newman promises that this is the first volume of an ongoing project that aims to share and elucidate more examples of this important genre. Perhaps the most useful feature of Newman's volume is in fact the "List of erotological works" found in the appendix (pp. 163-74), and the introduction to "Arabic erotic literature" at the beginning of the volume (pp. 15-49). These two resources provide a much-needed, compact guide to the genre, even if the introduction, in its attempt to cover briefly a very broad topic, is unable to address certain issues with the nuance they require.
The first chapter, "Arabic erotic literature", begins with a brief history of the reception of Arabic erotological literature in the West, focusing on Sir Richard Burton's famous interest in such works (especially al-NafzÄwi's Perfumed Garden), and more generally on the Orientalists' exoticizing fascination with foreign sexuality. The next section, "The genre: history and typology", gives a very brief overview of the various strands of Arabic erotology, including the medical, legal, ethical and...