Ibn Ḥazm on Homosexuality. A case-study of Ẓāhirī legal Methodology

Abstract

This article discusses the views of the teologian and legal scholar Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba (d. 456/1064) on homosexuality. Although reference is made to his literary work Ṭawq al-ḥamāma, which is rich in anecdotes on homoerotic attraction, the article focuses on Ibn Ḥazm's multivolume legal tract Kitāb al-Muḥallā, a work written from a Ẓāhirī, or literalist perspective. A step-by-step analysis of Ibn Hazm's legal reasoning on homosexuality, both male (liwāṭ) and female (siḥāq) is provided, and comparisons with the views of other jurist, especially Mālikis, are made. Unlike his Mālikī contemporaries, Ibn Ḥazm holds that homosexuality is not to be equated with fomication (zinā), which incurs the death penalty. Instead, he advocates a relatively mild punishment of up to ten lashes for homosexual practices, based upon his idiosyncratic interpretation of the revealed sources which is illustrated here. Although Ibn Ḥazm is believed by some modem authors to have had homosexual leanings himself, he categorically condemns sexual contacts between members of the same sex as immoral and sinful, and believes that homosexuals should be reformed.