Erotica, Love and Humor in Arabia: Spicy Stories from the Book of Songs by al-Isfahani

The Book of Songs of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (AD 897-971) is the most extensive collection of anecdotes from pre-Islam Mecca, Medina, Damascus and Baghdad to the beginning of the tenth century. Entertaining and informative, these gems have remained largely inaccessible to Western readers. This translation presents a collection of love stories and poems, biting satires, daring erotic encounters, bathroom humor and hilariously detailed descriptions of feminine beauty, genitalia, sex toys and sex positions, along with stories praising and criticizing both homosexuality and heterosexuality--topics that set the tone for the Arabian Nights centuries later.

George Dimitri Sawa has written 50 articles and four books and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on medieval, modern, and religious music of the Middle East at the University of Toronto and York University. In 2005, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for his research in Arabic music history. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.