Noor's Notes on: "Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women" (2009) by Sahar Amer

A delve into one of my personal favorite queer SWANA academic sources, ever!

Jun 14, 2024

About a month ago, I started volunteering at the Lesbian Herstory Archives in NYC to expand on their SWANA (especially Palestinian) sources and research. In my short time there thus far, I have found myself re-falling in love with introductory sources to queer SWANA women and GNC, as well as invigorated to seek those which I have yet to know of. Additionally, I have felt compelled to bring these resources more into the public eye as, although I find spending hours in an archive or JSTOR deep-dive to be incredibly entertaining, I know for many that may not be the case. As such, I’ve wondered how to make these sources, which could be so life-changing and revolutionary to so many who might otherwise not read them, into something more personal.

So, I’ve started “Noor’s Notes on…” in which I will take a source, annotate and analyze it, and share those notes on here and social media, in an attempt to make things more fun, accessible, and communal! Did a little trial run on Instagram last week with the source: “Cross-dressing in Photographs of 1920s and 1930s Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon” by Yasmine Nachabe Taan (which seemed to be received quite well!)

As of right now, I have yet to find a program that can transcribe my handwritten notes — though am working hard on that front to make this work more legible and accessible to all! If you have any suggestions on that front, please feel free to leave a comment as I would love any feedback.

Without further ado, I would love to introduce to you all “Medieval Arab Lesbians and Lesbian-Like Women” by Sahar Amer, from the Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 18, No. 2 (May, 2009). ←This link will direct you to the un-annotated version of this source, for you to download/read/annotate as you please :)

From medical explanations of the ‘causes of lesbianism’ to (quite… detailed) descriptions of medieval SWANA scissoring (interestingly referred to as “the saffron massage”), to some of the most revered love stories of ALL time (let alone the fact that they are all sapphic ones) to lesbian pleasure schools to gender-bending warrior-Amazons, this source TRULY has it all.

Amer’s meticulous dive into queer SWANA women & GNC history in the medieval era here is unparalleled, and the analysis and conclusions of her findings (unfortunately) still reflect so much of the barrier to entry and expansion needed in queer SWANA studies today, especially pertaining women & GNC. That said, Amer also provides some of the most ground-breaking, heart-warming, and exciting examples and proof that the wealth of materials surrounding SWANA lesbians & GNC is vast, it is only a matter of time before we will uncover even more of it.

Now to get into it, below are my annotations on the source. I truly hope you enjoy reading them even a fraction as much as I did taking them! Let’s go lesbians, let’s go: