8vo. xxvi, 288 pp., publisher’s original wrappers, soiled & worn round edges, paper browned, spine professionally repaired, appendices, published by En Vente Chez Tous Les Libraires, Paris, first edition (1906).

Synopsis

A rare pseudo-scholarly guide to the mysticism of Islamic sexuality. Translated by Paul de Régla, a scholar and doctor at the Ottoman Court (he also treated the poor). The book is supposedly a translation from a manuscript acquired in 1880s Istanbul from the Khodja Omer Haleby, at his deathbed actually. The work first published in 1893, analyses the sexual and amorous life of Islamic society in Istanbul, it treats matters of relations, sex, love, prostitution, slavery, circumcision, eunuchs, etc… in his introduction of the book, de Régla says that the manuscript has 3 parts of which this is the third, the other 2 dealt with magic and occultism (so he predicted that they would not survive),he also asks the reader not to just stop at the “Erotica” in the text but to read between the lines and understand the deeper meaning of love and relations as explained in the Holy Quran.