Kitab Rujû' al-Shaykh ila Sibâh fî al-Quwa 'ala al-bâh [The return of the old man to youth through the power of sex].

2 vols. 4to (182 x 260 mm). Arabic manuscript on paper. Black naskh script. 61 ff; 69 ff. (1st vol. missing a few leaves, wanting part of chapter 4 and chapters 5-7). Late 18th or early 19th century full leather elaborately ruled in blind, fully rebacked with modern leather. A defining survival: the earliest known manuscript of the most important Islamic work on sexuality, whose dating serves to narrow down the work's long-elusive authorship as never before. - Often erroneously attributed to its famous Ottoman Turkish translator, Ibn Kemal (1469-1534), the original "Kitab Ruju' al-Shaykh" was not an Ottoman invention nor even a compilation of several Arabic texts, but an original and incredibly scarce Arabic work in its own right, of which few other copies survive. Two are held in institutions in America, one at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and one in Sharjah's Al Qasimia University. Of the two American witnesses, the Yale manuscript is dated to 1713 CE (Muharram 1125 H), and Princeton's tentatively to the 16th century; the BNF's is from the 18th century. Al Qasimia's copy is not dated in the catalogue, but the manuscript's incipit cites Ibn Kemal as its author, placing it after his death, and likely later. - The present example of the "Kitab Ruju' al-Shaykh" predates all its known fellow Arabic manuscripts - as well as the more common Ottoman Turkish translation - by hundreds of years. Its paper and paleographic style place it in the early 1300s, and this date has been supported by radiocarbon dating, which gave a range of 1280-1390 CE with the higher-level 2-sigma confidence rating, indicating 94-95% accuracy (digital C14 scientific report by CIRAM, Martillac, is included). Its early date makes this manuscript, to our knowledge, the earliest of its kind: a remarkable survival of a remarkable handbook of sex in the Arab world. - The author behind the "Kitab Ruju' al-shaykh" cannot be Ibn Kemal, and the work is sometimes instead considered anonymous. However, the contested author was very likely the 13th century physician Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmed ibn Yusuf al-Tifashi (d. 1253 CE). Brockelmann, as well as the Yale, Princeton, and BNF manuscript catalogues and others (see Artan and Schick, p. 158) have already identified al-Tifashi as the author of the original "Ruji' al-Shaykh", and the early date of this manuscript helps to confirm the attribution. Al-Tifashi is in many ways a sensible choice: born in North Africa (either Tunisia or Algeria), he studied first in Tunis and then in Cairo, where he was widely known as a physician and for a book on gemstones. He wrote one other work on sex, too: "The delight of hearts, or what you will not find in any book" ("Nuzhat alalbab fima la yujad fi kitab"), which has attracted particular scholarly interest for its homoerotic content. Most importantly, al-Tifashi fits perfectly into the dating of this early 14th century manuscript, which would have been written only a generation after the author's death. - The full title of the "Kitab Ruju' al-Shaikh", loosely translated, is "The return of the old man to youth through the power of sex". It comprises two volumes, into which the manuscript has been physically divided. The second volume covers erotic anecdotes, bawdy poems, and detailed stories of trysts covering a variety of sexual preferences; some of these are well known from Ibn Kemal's translation and made the Turkish "Ruju' al-Shaykh" the most famous of all Ottoman bahnameh erotic literature. The first volume, however, comprises thirty chapters (of which the latter half of chapter 4 and chapters 5-7 are sadly missing from this text, owing to the loss of several leaves) which cover an incredible collection of medical and pharmaceutical sexual science missing from the Ottoman version: lessons on anatomy, sexual hygiene, and recipes for various aphrodisiacs (especially for older men), and for drugs which would promote or prevent pregnancy. Recipes range from the bark of the cashew tree steeped in turpentine and sucked on like a lozenge to anal supplements and erection enhancers, as well as treatments which enhanced a woman's enjoyment of the act. - This scarce and remarkably early Arabic manuscript of the "Ruju al-shaykh" combines an erotic romp with a thorough lesson in the history of Arab medical science. In so doing, it has preserved a masterpiece of erotic literature in the earliest form available to scholarship, completed shortly after the author's lifetime, definitively rules out Ibn Kemal's authorship, and helped to define modern understanding of sex and sexuality in the pre-modern Arab world. - First volume is complete in 30 chapters. Second volume near complete, wanting the latter part of chapter 4, and chapters 5-7 (the final four lines of chapter 7 are present), of 30 chapters. The entire work is thus only lacking 3 chapters of the complete 60. Endpapers replaced, and subtle professional paper repairs throughout; light soiling. A well-preserved set. - From a private family collection in France, held since 1975. The Carbon-14 scientific report issued by CIRAM Materials Analysis Laboratory is available. - GAL I, 495 and S I, 904. Ahlwardt 6388. T. Artan & C. Schick, "Ottoman pornotopia: Changing visual codes in eighteenth-century Ottoman Erotic miniatures", in F. Leoni & M. Natif (eds.), Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art (Farnham, 2013), pp. 157-207. J. Ruska & O. Kahl, "Tifashi", The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) X, 476. M. Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam, Hdb. der Orientalistik, Abt. I, S VI, 1 (Leiden, Brill, 1970), p. 196. Cf. three ms. copies also attributed to al-Tifashi: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Dépt. des Manuscrits, Arabe 3057; Princeton University Library, Islamic Manuscripts, New Series no. 1121; Beinecke Arabic MSS 572.