Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (53 page)

BOOK: Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800
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Liwa
t,
is narrower than homosexuality in another sense. In the four Sunni
schools of law, it referred specifically to anal intercourse rather than to “homosexual” acts in general. Kissing, caressing, and intercrural intercourse between males were considered reprehensible acts that merited chastisement, but were not cases of
liwa
t.
117
The standard manuals on Islamic law were quite explicit about this point. An authoritative Sha
fi‘i
manual thus defined fornication (
zina
) as “the illicit insertion of the penis into a vagina” (
i
la
j al-dhakar bi-farj muḥarram
), and added that inserting the penis into “the male or female anus is as [inserting it into] the vagina, according to the school” (
wa dubur dhakar wa untha
ka-qubul ʿala
al-madhhab
)
.
It went on to state that
hadd
punishments did not apply in the case of intercrural intercourse (
mufa
khadhah
) and other things that do not involve penetration
(mimma
la
i
la
j fīhi)

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