The erotic scenarios of al-Ḥijāzī (d. 1470), through The Penetrating Ginger to Copulate with those who Wear the Burqa

Abstract

In the following article we study the three erotic scenarios in one of the most extensive poetic compilations on the subject of the Mamluk legacy, that is, The Penetrating Ginger to Copulate with those who Wear the Burqa of the Egyptian al-Ḥiŷāzī (d. 1470). The main objective of this work is, first of all, to connect all the theories and hypotheses linked to the attribution of the work, not exempt from certain investigative controversy, and to fit it into the literary corpus of the Egyptian poet. Secondly, we discover the unpublished content of the erotic poem collection, precisely examining its three main scenarios: the imagined sexual exaltation of the poet before his beloved, the explanation of the different positions of pleasure, and finally the presence of flirting and the situation of nostalgia after the lovers’ separation.