[THE FIRST TURKISH BOOK ON HOMOSEXUALITY FROM A MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE / LESBIANS / MASTURBATION / ONANISM] دلك و تماس و ظرفآلر / Delk ü temâs ve zürefâlar. Tibbî ve Mahrem Musâhabeler Külliyâti No. 2. [i.e., Friction and bodily contact, and the lesbians]

KASIM, MEHMED ALI.

Yeni Sark Kitabhânesi / Orhaniye Matbaasi, Istanbul, AR 1341 [CE 1925].

Original wrappers. Cr. 8vo. (19 x 13 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic script). 112 p. Light spotting to covers, taken from a multiple-volume, blue linen strip on worn spine. Overall, a good copy.

The first edition of this rare second work in a late Ottoman series on andrology sought to inform the public that masturbation was considered a disease, presenting the subject through an onanist framework that reflects the moral and scientific outlook of its time. This is the earliest work on homosexuality in Turkish literature from a medical perspective, focused on lesbianism.

Reflecting the moral understanding of the period, the chapters interpreted masturbation, especially that performed through "friction" and through "self-touch or sexual contact between homosexual partners", as a disease and even as potentially fatal.

The word zürefa derives from the Arabic ẓurafâ’ (ظرفاء), the plural of zarîf, meaning graceful, refined, witty, or possessed of fine taste. In Ottoman Turkish, zürefa was generally used to mean elegant people, refined individuals, or those of cultivated taste. In literary texts and writings describing urban culture, the expression “zürefa takımı” often referred to circles in Istanbul that were fond of adornment, fashion, and entertainment, and that had, to some extent, adopted an alafranga (Europeanized) lifestyle.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a shift in the meaning of the word can be observed through slang and indirect usage. The emphasis on “refinement” and “delicacy of taste” could serve as a veiled expression for gender roles or sexual orientations that did not conform to prevailing social norms. For this reason, in some memoirs and humorous writings, expressions such as zürefa or zürefa meclisi could, depending on the context, refer to effeminate men, male homosexual circles, and romantic or erotic relationships between women. (Aktunç).

Özege 3735., As of January 2026, OCLC shows only two copies worldwide, only held by the Princeton Library in the US (Leiden University Libraries, Princeton University Library): 83179602.