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How did early Muslims define sex? In this episode we examine the role of pleasure and specifically mutual pleasure as a key definition of sex in Islamic society. We trace the role of pleasure from the Qur’anic ethos to the subsequent development of Islamic law, literature, and medicine. We argue Muslims did not define sex as predominantly procreative, but treated pleasure as good in its own right. We examine erotic manuals on mutual orgasm, advice literature on sexual satisfaction of partners, and religious guidance on sex partners. From this we can see a society which viewed sex in mostly positive terms and what this means for broader understandings of relationships, sexuality, and gender.
