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al-Jahiz on miser thwarting kid’s pissing ploy for eating dates
Ninth-century Arabic literary master al-Jahiz took mundane stories and weaved them into subtle, complex literature. In his book On Misers, al-Jahiz recounted many stories that he explicitly attributed...
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absurd others: al-Jahiz declares laughing alone safer
After prayers at the Jama Masjid, al-Naqqāsh and al-Jahiz left together for the journey home. Al-Naqqāsh invited al-Jahiz to spend the night at his house, which was much closer to the Jama Masjid....
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killing Patricida frees men’s inner selves from political oppression
I am the leader, I am the victor, a gift I seek: grant it. Yet, because he performs honorable services that you bestowed on him, your king ceases to be king over himself. Swiftly I lay aside the royal...
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Luxorius: sixth-century African poet against dinner invitations
Early in the sixth century in the prominent north African city of Carthage, Luxorius wrote a poem about the burden of receiving hospitality. Arabic tribal culture within Carthage probably contributed...
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Macrobius’s Saturnalia shows social constraints on men’s behavior
In Rome about the year 431, the Right Honorable and Illustrious Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius wrote a series of books for his son. With these books, father offered son “a fund of knowledge...
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castration culture shows ancient, bloody grip in Hesiod’s Theogony
Students wondering how university officials today can support policies that viciously disparage and persecute men’s sexuality should study Hesiod’s Theogony. That influential work, written in Greek...
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slave girl Bid’ah lifted up despondent caliph al-Mu’tadid
Bid’ah al-Kabirah grew up as a slave in the ninth–century Abbasid caliphate. But she wasn’t a slave like slave men laboring in rags at dirty, dangerous jobs. She was the slave of ‘Arib al-Ma’muniyyah,...
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original understanding of chivalry retained in ancient poetry
Chivalry is now understood as men holding doors open for women, men being ready to fight on behalf of women, and men putting women first into lifeboats while men drown. That oppressive idea of...
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Alexandreis solved ancient, poetic problem of man-hating Amazons
Ancient Greek epic poets addressed Amazons — women who act like men and hate men. For poets, hatred of self-constructed representations is particularly troubling. Amazons could simply be ignored if...
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love poetry of slave girl Mahbubah for her owner caliph al-Mutawakkil
About 1150 years ago in what’s now Iraq, the caliph al-Mutawakkil received as a gift four hundred slave girls. He loved above all others Mahbubah. She was a poet and singer, with a beautiful face and...
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privileged women promoted men’s education in medieval Islamic world
Under the heading of gender equality and development, international organizations today prioritize educating women and girls. That makes about as much sense as prioritizing violence against women. In...
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Luxorius on women’s desire to compete with men
Sex typically delimits sharply status competition in non-human animals. Females compete with other females to determine the female status hierarchy. Males compete with other males to establish the...
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Alexander the Great is exemplum for men: do less, value being more
I pluck my twenty-stringed harp, striking an octave cord; and you just are, young Leucaspis. [1] In the medieval European global schematic, Asia covered half the world, and Africa and Europe, each a...
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Dante’s eternal death evokes Alexander’s quest for glory
In the last canto of Dante’s Inferno, in the sinkhole of Hell, Virgil told Dante to behold Satan. Dante wrote: How faint I then became, how turned to ice, Reader, ask not; I will not write it down,...
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Cicero unpacked: piss on learned hypocrites to cultivate public fields
About 2050 years ago, the revered Roman philosopher, statesman, and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero eloquently stated the importance of education. Cicero, who chooses his words carefully, used an...
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