Lazzat al Nisa (Pleasure of Women)

Ebrahimnejad, Hormoz, Floor, Willem and Javadi, Hasan (2018) Lazzat al Nisa (Pleasure of Women) , vol. 1, M. Moleiro ed. Barcelona. M. Moleiro, 204pp.

Abstract

In Muslim India numerous treatises were written on sexology. Many of them included prescriptions concerning problems dealing with virility or, more precisely, with masculine sexual arousal. The Sanskrit text which is considered the primary source for all Persian translations is known as the Koka Shastra (or Ratirahasya) —derived from its author’s name, Pandit Kokkoka—, a title that was later given to all treatises in the genre. The Koka Shastra by Kokkoka was probably not the only such text known to Muslim authors.

The Lazzat al-nisâ is a Persian translation of the Koka’’stra, which contains descriptions of the four different types of women and indicates the days and hours of the day in which each type is more prone to love. The author quotes all the different works he has consulted, which have not survived to this day.

The introduction of Lazzat al Nisa in the erotic literature in the Persianate world created a paradigmshift in the perception of woman as an agency in sexual relationship, which was often neglected. The title "pleasure of women" can be ambiguous: the pleasure men receive from women and pleasure experienced by women. However, in the tale narrated by Koka Pandit, Jukni Batra, far from a passive woman letting herself to men's pleasure, imposes herself as a human agency, whose own pleasure must to be taken seriously. We find later in the modern period, the impact of this discourse on women ascertive attitude in society and even in sociopolitical movements.

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