[EARLY EROTICA / BISEXUALITY] Defter-i ask, Hubannâme, Zenânnâme, Çenginâme, Sevkengîz

ENDERÛNÎ FAZIL, (1757-1810), SÜNBÜLZÂDE VEHBÎ, (1718-1809), Ali Riza Efendi Matbaasi, Kostantiniyye [Constantinople - Istanbul], [AH 1286] = 1870.

Contemporary cloth bdg. Rebacked spine. Roy. 8vo. (23 x 14 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). 143 p. Slight tear on two leaves, wear on extremities of original marbled boards, otherwise a good copy.

Early printed edition of this exceedingly rare collection of early Ottoman erotic poems of homosexuality and bisexuality, of the 18th century including the multiple works of Enderunlu Fazil and Sünbülzâde Vehbi.

This book includes five works originally: Defter-i ask [i.e. The book of love] (pp. 1-21); Hubannâme [i.e. The book of male lovers] (pp. 22-55); Zenannâme [i.e. The book of beautiful women] (as well as "Çenginâme" of Fazil Bey in Zenannâme, pp. 102-111); and Sevkengiz [i.e. Inspiring] (pp. 112-143).

"Defter-i ask" [i.e. The book of love] by Fazil, in which he tells about his own romances, is a mathnavi of 438 couplets. It begins with a description of divine love and tells the story of the poet's romances, which he fell into only to regret and repent afterward. "Hubannâme" [i.e. The book of male lovers] consists of 796 couplets with various titles and it has a mystical analysis of beauty in the first chapter. After an introduction that gives geographical information that may be considered novel for its period, it describes the beauties of male bodies in many countries from India to America. This style is unique and the first in Turkish / Ottoman literature. In the work titled "Zenannâme" [i.e. The book of beautiful women], which is a mathnavi of 1101 couplets, women of various nations are described. The poet indicated in the introduction of his work that he does not want to talk about women, and that he has no orientation towards women. Enderunlu Fazil was an Ottoman poet who depicted the beauty of men from various lands of the Ottoman Empire. He achieved fame through his erotic works, which were published posthumously. Among his most famous works is The Book of Women, which was banned in the Ottoman Empire. The book describes the advantages and disadvantages of women from different nations. Fazil was born in Acre into an Arab family originally from Medina. He spent his early years in Safed in Ottoman Palestine. His grandfather Zahir al-Umar and his father Ali Tâhir were both executed (in 1775 and 1776, respectively ) for participating in a rebellion. After his father's death, Fazil moved to Istanbul. There, he was admitted to the Enderun palace school (thus taking on the name Enderuni or Enderûnlu) but was expelled in 1783 as a result of his love affairs with other men there. In 1799, he was exiled to Rhodes because of his satirical writings and was only allowed to return to Istanbul after becoming blind. He spent the rest of his life there, ill and bedridden.

Sümbülzâde's "Sevkengiz" [i.e. The Inspiring] is an erotic and mystical poem in which heterosexual and bisexual narratives compare male and female beauties and eventually turn to divine love. It has 770 couplets in the "münâzara" genre.

Özege 7711.