While opposite-sex and same-sex sexual intercourse are obviously as old as humanity, the discourse of sexuality as an identity is a quite recent phenomenon, an invented tradition. The terms...Show moreWhile opposite-sex and same-sex sexual intercourse are obviously as old as humanity, the discourse of sexuality as an identity is a quite recent phenomenon, an invented tradition. The terms heterosexual, homosexual, monosexual and heterogenit (bestiality) did not exist until the 1860s when they were coined by journalist Karl-Maria Kertbeny. Not only was this theory present in the West, it was also prevalent in the Ottoman Empire, where dominant religion Sunni Hanefi Islam condemned all sexual intercourse outside marital or concubinage relation between a man and a woman, including sexual intercourse between men. Although marriage/concubinage between a man and a woman has always been regarded as the favourable way of life in the Ottoman Empire, heterosexuality as a concept did not exist. Moreover, sexual contacts outside a marital or concubinage relationship did also happen. These included sexual contacts between men, sexual relations between women and sexual contacts with (female and male) prostitutes. Although female same-sex sexual relations did occur as attested by scarce sources, women’s activities seem to have gone unnoticed and consequently, undocumented. My aim in this thesis is to show that Ottoman men were not the conquering,“heterosexual,” pious Muslims the current Turkish president likes to portray them in order to create an ideal image to which the modern Turkish male citizen should mirror himself. Male same-sex sexual relations were omnipresent in the Ottoman Empire. These relations happened in the form of (love) relationships between adult men, adult men and (pre-) pubescent boys, between similar-aged pubescent boys and between paying men and boy prostitutes. Male prostitutes seem to have been mainly boys/youths and not adult men.Show less
