Moshko the Jew and his gay friends: Same-sex sexual relations in Ottoman Jewish Society

Journal of Early Modern History

Volumn 9, Issue 1-2, 2005, Pages 79-105

  Ben Naeh, Yaron ^a  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 64949116694     PISSN: 13853783     EISSN: 15700658     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/1570065054300257     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. The word bahur in Hebrew also means a bachelor. Hebrew names in this paper have been transliterated as pronounced
2. R. Shmuel de Medina, Responsa, Even Ha'ezer (Salonica, 1596), 50: 58b. I translated the Hebrew as "sodomize" in both active and passive ways
3. For summaries, updated surveys, and references, see: The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden and Paris, 1986), 5:776-79, s.v. "Liwat"
4. A. Abu-Khalil, "A Note on the Study of Homosexuality in the Arab/Islamic Civilization," Arab Studies Journal 1, (1993): 32-34
5. M. Daniel, "Arab Civilization and Male Love," in Reclaiming Sodom, ed. J. Goldberg (New York, 1994), 59-65
6. B.W. Dunne, "Homosexuality in the Middle East: An Agenda for Historical Research," Arab Studies Quarterly 12 (1990): 55-82
7. S.O. Murray and W. Roscoe, eds., Islamic Homosexualities: Culture, History, and Literature (New York, 1997), 14-54, 302-19
8. J.W. Wright and E.K. Rowson, eds., Homoeroticism in Classical Arabic Literature (New York, 1997)
9. As for sexual relations between women, see S.O. Murray, "Women-Women Love in Islamic Societies," in Islamic Homosexualities, 97-104
10. Al-Quran, Sura 7:79
11. Sura 26:165-66
12. Sura 27:55-56
13. On this, see: S.M. Oberhelman, "Hierarchies of Gender, Ideology, and Power in Medieval Greek and Arabic Dream Literature," in Homoeroticism, 65
14. T. Monroe, "The Striptease That Was Blamed on Abu Bakr's Naughty Son," in ibid., 119-20
15. In certain cultures, homosexual relations bolster the masculine status, and a man who has sexual relations with both men and women is thought to demonstrate great virility. On boasting about homosexual relations in a provincial city, see A.K. Rafeq, "Public Morality in 18th Century Ottoman Damascus," Revue du monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée 55-56 (1990-92): 187
16. On present-day Turkey, see H. Tapinç, "Masculinity, Femininity and Turkish Male Homosexuality," in Modern Homosexualities, ed. K. Plummer (London, 1992), 39-49
17. Ottoman law mandates that the young boy is punishable for consenting to have relations with an older man, just as a woman who was raped is punished since the deed was ostensibly committed with her consent. Nonetheless, there is no evidence that the law was enforced: C. Imber, "Zina in Ottoman Law," in Studies in Ottoman History and Law (Istanbul, 1996), 187
18. A certain picture of the attitude of the Ottoman religious law authorities of Sunni Islam towards offenses of same-sex sexual relations may be found in the collections of religious rulings (fetvas or fatwas) of those who fulfilled the role of the supreme legislator of religious law in the empire - Sheikh al-Islam. Most of them are still in manuscript, and only a small part has been published. Noteworthy are the fetvas of Ebu Su'ud Efendi (in office between 1545-1574), and of 'Ali Efendi, who fulfilled this function in the 1670s. For their rulings on this topic see Imber, "Zina," 177-80, 191-98
19. M.E. Düzdaǧ, Şeyhülislam Ebusuud Efendi Fetvalari (Istanbul, 1972), 159
20. I. Ural, Şeyhülislam Fetvalari, Ali Efendi (Istanbul, 1995), 121-22
21. S.S. Kuru, "A Sixteenth Century Ottoman Scholar and his Dāfi'ü'l-gumūm ve rafi'ü'l-humūm," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 2000, 214
22. For more on homoerotic and pornographic Ottoman writing see J. Schmidt, The Joys of Philology, vol. 1 (Istanbul, 2002)
23. On the kanun in this context and of an undated injunction prohibiting sexual relations among children, see Imber, "Zina," 180-81, 188
24. U. Heyd, Studies in Old Ottoman Criminal Law (Oxford, 1973), 102-3, 136, 262 n. 7, 278 n. 13
25. Imber, "Zina," 177-82, 188-89
26. On Vani Efendi see M. Zilfi, "The Kadizadelis: Discordant Revivalism in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 45 (1986): 264
27. Sending out young boys to accompany the soldiers was also described by an English traveler in the early eighteenth century: A. Hill, A Full and Just Account of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire . . . (London, 1733), 63
28. Imber, "Zina," 188-89
29. On the public attitude and the authorities' response to offenses against morality, see also E. Ginio, "Marginal People in the Ottoman City: The Case of Salonica in the 18th Century," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998, 76-77, 84-87 [Hebrew]
30. On enforcing the law in the city of Aleppo, see A. Marcus, The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity (New York, 1989), 110-20
31. Rafeq, "Public Morality" (n. 5 above): 183
32. On Intisab relations as based either on blood relations, marriage, sexual relations, or friendship, see C.H. Fleischer, Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali (1541-1600) (Princeton, 1986), 19
33. P. Rycaut, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (London, 1668), 61, 63-64
34. On the image of Arabs and Turks as immersed in homosexuality in English and French travelers' literature, see at length: G. Poirier, "Masculinities and Homosexualities in French Renaissance Accounts of Travel to the Middle East and North Africa," in Desire and Discipline, ed. J. Murray and K. Eisenbichler (Toronto, Buffalo, and London, 1996), 155-67
35. N.I. Matar, "Sodomy and Conquest," in Turks, Moors and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery (New York, 1999), 112-27
36. On the erotic image of the Orient in European eyes, see A. Bray, Homosexuality in Renaissance England (New York, 1995), 75
37. B. Melman, Women's Orients: English Women and the Middle East, 1718-1918, 2nd ed. (Houndmills and London, 1995)
38. On the "Turk" in travelers' literature as the personification of un-Christian behavior, including sexual permissiveness, see R. Kool, "French Travel Accounts to the Ottoman Empire on the Eve of Enlightenment (1640's-1720): Observation or Duplication," unpublished MA thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996, 44-46
39. His book was intended to fill this lack. R. Efrayim Hayout, Mikraey Kodesh (Constantinople, 1829), 15a-25a, 27b. The author dedicated more than one fifth of the book to a rebuke of homosexuality
40. R. Yitzhak Molkho, Orhot Yosher (Salonica, 1769), 145a
41. Other rabbis, however, claimed "that homosexual relations are not common in Israel [among Jews], God forbid" (R. Yosef David, Beit David [Salonica, 1746], Even Ha'ezer, 2:34:29b)
42. R. Hayim Benbenesht, one of the eminent sages of the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century, forbids sending children to study with a Turk because "we see their deeds every day, that they prefer homosexual relations over relations with a woman" (R. Hayim Benbenesht, Shyarei Knesset Hagdola, Yoreh De'ah [Salonica, 1757], 26a)
43. On homosexual acts among Sabbatean believers, and in Sabbatean context see E. Shai, Messiah of Incest (Tel Aviv, 2002), 412-15 [Hebrew]
44. Reference to this specific act is also found in Lurianic penitence manuals such as those prescribed in R. Hayim Vital, Sha'ar Ruah haKodesh (Bnei Brak, 1963), 57-62
45. R. Eli'ezer Papo, Pele Yo'etz (Constantinople, 1824), 68b-69a, 2:79b-80a, respectively
46. R. Hayim Palaggi, Tochehat Hayim, Shmot (Salonica, 1853), 102a. See also there: 8b; 122b
47. Tochehat Hayim, Bereshit (Salonica, 1850), 51b-52a (partial quote below)
48. He also wrote about young boys of other nations who caught his eye during his travels: Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatnamesi (Istanbul, 1314 [1896/97]), 1:434 [Ottoman Turkish]
49. On the beauty of Jewish boys in Mangup in Crimea, see there, (Istanbul, 1928), 7:584
50. S. Erdoǧan, Sexual Life in Ottoman Society (Istanbul, 1996), 76-77, 83-85
51. On the man and his essays, see also: Schmidt, Joys of Philology (n. 8 above), 35-45
52. Compare with the increase in the number of petitions and suits on matters of morality in the Muslim courts of eighteenth-century Istanbul; F. Zarinebaf-Shahr, "Women and the Public Eye in Eighteenth Century Istanbul," in Women in the Medieval Islamic World, ed. G.R.G. Hambly (London, 1998), 315
53. On these troupes of young boys [Kul] in seventeenth-century Istanbul, see Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname, 1:646-49
54. See also M. Rozen, A History of the Jewish Community in Istanbul: The Formative Years, 1453-1566 (Leiden and Boston, 2002), 270-73
55. For a brief study on these dancers, see E. Popescu-Judetz, "Köçek and Çengi in Turkish Culture," Dance Studies 6 (1982): 46-58. The term "köçek" was extended to denote a passive boy who adopts feminine manners and appearance
56. On the participation of young boys as actors in a celebration held at Aleppo in 1663, see, for example, the description of Jean de Thevenot, The Travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant, part 2, trans. A. Lovell (London, 1686), 36. According to le Bruyn, these boys used castanets and danced with great sensuality. They appeared before European ambassadors and even in the sultans' court
57. Corneille le Bruyn, Voyage au Levant (Rouen, 1725), 1:437
58. E.W. Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th ed. (London, 1871), 2:92
59. See, for example, R. Hayim Avraham Istrosa, Yerech Avraham, (Salonica, 1811), Hoshen Mishpat 2:50:60c
60. R. Eliyah Kapsali, Seder Eliyahu Zuta, ed. A. Shmuelevitz, et al. (Jerusalem, 1976), 1:83, 129
61. The story was also brought in R. Yoseph Sambari, Sefer Divrei Yosef, ed. S. Shtober (Jerusalem, 1994), 249
62. On the bath houses in this context, see Erdoǧan, Sexual Life, 94-107
63. On coffee houses as places of diversion, see at length R.S. Hattox, Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (Seattle and London, 1985), 92-111, esp. 109-10
64. For an account of beautiful youth as attracting customers, see George Sandys, A Relation of a Journey Begun an. Dom. 1610 (London, 1621), 66
65. On the erotic attraction of beardless boys serving as waiters used by coffeehouse owners, see also A. Cohen, The Guilds of Ottoman Jerusalem (Leiden, Boston, and Köln, 2001), 55-56
66. The last two both derive from the name of the biblical Lot. For a discussion of various designations see J. Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago, 1980), 41-46
67. On the Arabic terminology, indicating the absence of such a category, see Monroe, "Striptease" (n. 5 above), 115-16
68. In the Hebrew sources the act is mentioned occasionally by allusion, and disapproval is expressed: "an ugly offence." See, for example, R. Moshe Mitrani, Responsa (Venice, 1630), 1:287:137b. The root word raises associations of cohabiting with an animal
69. Lev. 18:22; 20:13
70. My translation from R. Hayim Vital, Sefer hattezyonot, ed. A.Z. Eshkoli (Jerusalem, 1954), 33-35
71. The book has recently been translated into English: Book of Visions by Hayyim Vital, ed. and trans. M.M. Faierstein (New York, 1999). The story was later censored
72. Further on this subject see R. Lamdan, "Deviations of Moral Behavior in the Jewish Society of Eretz-Israel and Egypt in the 16th Century," in Sexuality and the Family in History, ed. I. Bartal and I. Gafni (Jerusalem, 1998), 119-20, 124, 127 [Hebrew]
73. "The nineteenth-century homosexual became a personage. . . . It was everywhere present in him. . . . It was consubstantial with him, less a habitual sin than as a singular nature . . . the machinery of power that focused on this whole alien strain did not aim to suppress it, but rather to give it an analytical, visible and permanent reality: it was implanted in bodies, slipped in beneath modes of conduct, made into a principle of classification and intelligibility, established as a raison d'etre and a natural order of disorder. . . ." (M. Foucault, History of Sexuality, I: The Will to Know, trans. R. Hurley [New York, 1980], 43-44). David Halperin shows that Foucault does not rule out the existence of a homosexual identity prior to the nineteenth century but rather the category, the labeling of the deed and the doers (as compared with other crimes) as a deviant minority
74. See D.M. Halperin, "Forgetting Foucault: Acts, Identities and the History of Sexuality," Representations 63 (1998): 93-120
75. Shulhan 'Aruch, Even Ha'ezer, 24a
76. Awareness of the influence of life in the Muslim city in this context is evident in Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Forbidden Intercourse, 22b
77. Concerning Islam see Abu-Khalil (n. 3 above), 32-33
78. and in Christianity see J.A. Brundage, "Playing By the Rules: Sexual Behaviour and Legal Norms in Medieval Europe," in Desire and Discipline (n. 15 above), 23-41
79. In Hebrew it makes a word play: Orhot Yosher, 145a-b. Most illuminating is the mild response of Moroccan Rabbi Ya'akov Sasportas to a similar occasion in 1674 Amsterdam: "the act of youths is vain, we should only flog them as perjurers"
80. see I. Tishbi, "New Information on the 'Converso' Community in London . . ." in Exile and Diaspora, ed. A. Mirsky, A. Grossman, and Y. Kaplan (Jerusalem, 1988), 495 [Hebrew]
81. For example, in R. Eliyah de-Vidash's extensive lecture in his book Reshit Hochma (Venice, 1579)
82. Or a hare, or, god forbid, even in a woman, for "punishment is meted out in like measure": R. Eli'ezer Azkari, Sefer Haredim (Venice, 1601), 41a-b
83. Orhot Yosher, 190a
84. citing R. Nathan Shapira, Matzat Shimurim (Venice, 1660), 9a
85. R. Ya'akov Magrisso, Me'Am Lo'ez, Vayikra (Constantinople, 1753), Parshat Aharei Mot, 64a
86. On the symbolic meaning of this transgression and its penance see also Sha'ar Ruah haKodesh (see n. 17)
87. Shevet Mussar, 12a-b. This widespread and influential work of ethics was written by R. Eliyah haCohen, a Kabbalist and a prominent orator and moralist living in Izmir (d. 1729)
88. In the Yiddish translation the text was abridged and censored, apparently because of its irrelevance to the conditions of the time and place, at least for the translator: Shevet Mussar (Lublin, 1877), 21a
89. For a similar reasoning, see Orhot Yosher, 193b. From what is written it is clear that deeds of this nature, including anal penetration, were common in adolescence
90. Further in his writings (Shevet Mussar, 12c), the writer mentions additional options - relations with gentiles and copulation with animals
91. haCohen also proposes measures of penitence for atoning for these crimes and for the emission of semen in vain, which apparently were common offenses: Shevet Mussar, 61c-62a
92. The demand for sexual purity was primarily an ideal rather than a reality, just as one finds in the writings of Muslim religious law: Imber, "Zina," 189
93. On the importance of marriage, in spite of the nuisance and difficulties it entails to the man, see, for example, R. Hayim Palaggi, Tochehat Hayim, Bereshit, 2a-b
94. On the Jewish family see Y. Ben-Naeh, The Jewish Society in the Urban Centers of the Ottoman Empire during the Seventeen Century, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1999, 321-27
95. R. Lamdan, A Separate People: Jewish Women in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt in the Sixteenth Century (Leiden, Boston, and Köln, 2000), 127-38
96. D.M. Halperin, One Hundred Years of Homosexuality (New York, 1990)
97. In contrast, in medieval Ashkenaz, people sought penitence for sexual offenses, apparently under the influence of Christianity. For evidence of the absence of a sense of sin among Levantine Jews in the sixteenth century, in reference to anal relations with a woman, see R. Eliyah de-Vidash, Reshit Hokhma, 298b-99a
98. It appears that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, men's age of marriage was rising, and some married only in their thirties: see R. Ya'akov Khuli, Me'am Lo'ez, Bereshit (Constantinople, 1730), Parashat Bereshit, 20b-21a
99. Orhot Yosher, 128b
100. Sefer Takanot veHaskamot uminhagim . . . Yerushalayim, ed. R. Hayim Avraham Gagin (Jerusalem, 1842), 52: 40b [Hebrew]
101. On age groups, the passage from one to the next, and the sexual threat embodied in bachelor males, see L.P. Peirce, "Seniority, Sexuality and Social Order: The Vocabulary of Gender in Early Modern Ottoman Society," in Women in the Ottoman Empire, ed. M.C. Zilfi (Leiden, 1997), 177-81
102. See now Y. Ben-Naeh, "'El onor no se merka kon paras': Honor and Its Meaning among Ottoman Jews," Jewish Social Studies 11 (2005)
103. R. Yosef David, Beyt David, Even Ha'ezer 2:37:31b-c
104. This is particularly striking in comparison with the complaints about having sexual relations with a wife who is ritually impure or not in a "natural" way, or failing to have them at all. On a wife's complaint that her husband cohabited with her during her ritually unclean days, see, for example, R. El'azer Rephael Nahmias, Hon Rav, (Salonica, 1784), Even Ha'ezer, 2:49b
105. R. Lamdan, "Female Slaves in the Jewish Society of Palestine and Egypt in the Sixteenth Century," in The Days of the Crescent, ed. M. Rozen (Tel Aviv, 1996), 367 [Hebrew]
106. T. Alexander-Frizer, The Beloved Friend-and-a-Half: Studies in Sephardic Folk Literature, (Jerusalem and Beer-Sheba, 2000), 275 [Hebrew]
107. P. Rycaut and R. Knolles, The History of the Turkish Empire (London, 1700), 3: 221b. In the third quarter of the fifteenth century, R. Eliyah Kapsali attributed the severe plague that carried off many victims in the capital to the sin of prostitution and homosexuality (see n. 23 above)
108. For investigations and acts of penance by the entire public during periods of plague, see, for example, R. Shmuel Yitzhak, Ne'eman Shmuel (Salonica, 1723), 67:88c
109. R. Yitzhak haCohen Hassid, Ohel Yitzhak (Salonica, 1801), Hoshen Mishpat, 38:72d
110. See n. 10 above. On the attitude that what is not said and discussed does not exist, see Murray, "The Will Not to Know" (n. 23 above), 14-18
111. See on this very topic Foucault, History of Sexuality, 36-49
112. Thus, for example, during a quarrel over seating arrangements in the synagogue in Lepanto in the 1560s, the rivals called each other and this aroused serious discord: R. Yitzhak Adrabi, Divrei Rivot (Salonica, 1582), 82d
113. Responsa de Medina, Even Ha'ezer, 122:121a
114. See also op. cit. 50:58a-b (cited above, opening section of the article)
115. And not because the percentage of hazzanim (those who lead the public in prayer) was higher among this population, as might be assumed by the large number of cases in which hazzanim were involved. Thus, for example, R. Eliyah Ibn Hayim, Mayim 'Amukim (Venice, 1647), second pagination, 41:70b
116. R. Hayim Shabtay, Torat Hayim (Salonica, 1722), 3:1:1a
117. R. Yehosef Almoshnino, Edut biYehosef (Constantinople, 1711), 1:27:63c, and others
118. There is a demand for remorse and penitence also among the Muslim religious legislators (see n. 6 above). Dismissing someone from a job was not common: Ne'eman Shmuel, 149a
119. and perhaps also R. Meir Melamed, Mishpat Tzedek (Salonica, 1799), 2:35:70a
120. On teachers, see also Mayim 'Amukim, second pagination, 41:70b
121. Responsa de Medina, Yoreh De'ah (Salonica, 1596), 141:92a
122. Sefer Takanot . . ., (see n. 42), 52:40b-41a
123. R. Hayim Palaggi relates to his own city, Izmir: "And we saw that the rabbis who were before us would declare in their holy congregations that a young man who has not yet married shall not go to the studyhouse at night nor to the Selichot [special prayers said before the high holydays] at the night watch unless his father or older brother go with him" (Tochehat Hayim, Shmot, 67b)
124. Orhot Yosher, 145b-46a
125. From another source it seems that the reform was in effect already in the seventeenth century: "Not to allow people to go to the bride's house on the night before the wedding nor to the groom's house on the night that he is requested because of several well-known [moral] obstacles, just as our old rabbis have instructed on this matter" (R. Joseph David, "Ma'aseh Hatzdaka," in Yemei David [Salonica, 1846], 133b, the 9th bylaw)
126. R. Hayim Palaggi, Masa Hayim (Izmir, 1872), 70; 21a. His words were left as a recommendation only, and the threat was of unspecified divine retribution
127. Putting the responsibility on the father is demonstrated for example in R. Eliyah De Vidash, Reshit Hochma, Discourse 71. The shariate law also mandated male guardianship (father, brother, or other relative) as responsible and accountable for the morality of the women and children subject to him
128. If he was derelict, he was subject to punishment and his honor was impinged: Heyd, Studies (n. 9 above), 102
129. Imber, "Zina," 185
130. Orhot Yosher, 145a-b
131. Pele Yo'etz, entry: zenut, 69a
132. R. Hayim Palaggi, Tochehat Hayim, Bereshit, 52a. Palaggi was one of the most eminent sages of Izmir and a chief rabbi (Hakham Başi). The text was written before 1828 and the language clearly indicates that the fear of anal relations was even more relevant than cohabiting with a serving-woman or slave girl. See also the words of R. Eli'ezer Papo, above
133. R. Hayim Palaggi, Tochehat Hayim, Shmot, 102a
134. M. Idel, "R. Yehudah Haleva and his book Tzofnat Pa'aneah," Shalem 4 (1984): 122-23 [Hebrew]
135. In Safed, in those very years, a man who was "tainted with heresy and also doted on homosexuality" was seized and handed over to the city authorities, thrown into prison, and flogged (R. Moshe Mitrani, Responsa [Venice 1630], 1:22:9a)
136. This is the only piece of information we have about physical punishment, and it is possible that it was easier to punish transgressors in a small and remote city. On the limits of self-government, see J.R. Hacker, "Jewish Autonomy in the Ottoman Empire: Its Scope and Limits - Jewish Courts from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries," in The Jews of the Ottoman Empire, ed. A. Levy (Princeton, 1994), 153-202