Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World, 1500-1800 (38 page)

(d. 1599), who wrote an influential work on love, asserted that
ʿishq
is an especially problematic disease since it affected the soul, the very part of man that was responsible for administering a regimen. Being itself of an ethereal nature,
ʿishq
initially impressed itself on the most incorporeal part of the person. For this very reason, it only afflicted those whose soul was sufficiently delicate and sensitive: “Passionate love is inconceivable in the case of an ignoramus
(ja
hil)
with a coarse character.”
¹³⁹
This seems to have been a widespread assumption, already encountered in a previous quotation from Mulla S
adra
. Those who were sympathetic toward profane love often made use of this point, hinting that those who frowned on the phenomenon did so because of a character flaw. Both Ant
a
ki
and ʿAbd al-Ghani
al-Na
bulusi
quoted sayings according to which only those of a “dry” and “insensitive” character remain impervious to love.
¹⁴⁰
The Meccan scholar ʿAbd al-Muʿi
n ibn al-Bakka
ʾ (d. 1630/1) also stated that “I have not seen a man of eminence and refinement anywhere who is immune to love.”
¹⁴¹
The Damascene poet ʿAbd al-H
ayy T
arrazalrayh