"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

LGBT+ Tag

Queer Voice and Urban Wit in the Poetry of Abu Nuwas In the glittering intellectual courts of Abbasid Baghdad, one poet spoke of queer desire with wit, joy, and unapologetic sensuality. Abu Nuwas (c. 756–814 CE) — satirist, court jester, and literary rebel — composed verses...

Unbound, Unnameable: Desire and Dissolution in Marguerite Porete’s Mirror “Love has no why,and the soul who loves has no need to ask.She is unbound. She neither wills nor does not will,for she is held, wholly,in the embrace of Love’s will.”-- Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple...

A Flame Between Us: Lament in the Poetry of Kassia “You meet your friend, your faceBrightens – you have struck gold.”-- Hymn and epigrammatic poetry by Kassia (Kassiani), 9th century Byzantium Kassia (Kassiani) was a Byzantine abbess, poet, composer, and intellectual who lived in Constantinople in the...

Swapped Lives, Eternal Forms: Visualising Gender Fluidity in the Torikaebaya Monogatari Torikaebaya Monogatari (literally "If only I could exchange (them)!" often translated as "The Changelings") is a 12th-century Japanese narrative that tells the story of two siblings: a boy raised as a girl and a girl...

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi: the Caliph’s Daughter Who Loved Women and Lived Free Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (Córdoba 1001 – 1091), daughter of a deposed Umayyad caliph, was not merely a noblewoman—she was a poet, provocateur, and cultural icon in the intellectually radiant courts of Al-Andalus. Refusing to...

7th-century icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Monastery of St. Catherine, Sinai (Egypt) Saints and Soldiers: the Embrace of Saints Sergius and Bacchus One of the oldest surviving icons from the early Byzantine world, this image depicts two Roman soldiers and Christian martyrs standing side by side—clad...