Adonis Diaries

Love Tales (June 8, 2009)

The Moslem Caliph of Baghdad, Haroun Al Racheed, had expanded the Arab Empire to its apogee.  He still had insomnia thinking on the meaning and sensations of amorous passion; he wanted to learn more about love and desires, though he had all kinds of concubines.

Caliph Al Rasheed fell in love with his cousin Zubaida, and married her in 781, and she conserved her privilege in Haroun’s heart because of her intelligence and refinement.

The erudite Al Asmai described to the Caliph what love is:  “A light that illuminates the mind and permits life to vibrate through its radiation.”  Apparently, the caliph was satisfied enough to bestow a fortune to the interpreter.

Al Rasheed was the son of a powerful love affair between Caliph Al Mahdi and his concubine Khizarane whom he married.  The early caliphs liked to communicate with women more than with men: they had realize that women made the effort to increase knowledge in varieties of disciplines that Caliphs shared interest in such as poetry, playing musical instruments, medicine, theology, astronomy, and mathematics.

Ibn Hazm who lived in Andalusia (994-1064) was a prolific writer, scientist, statesman, and politician; he wrote the famous “Treatise of Love” which was translated in all kinds of languages and was the main source for Medieval Europe to educate their sentimental and chivalrous behaviors.

Have you ever fallen in love?  How do you know that someone is falling in love? Examples of Ibn Hazm description of falling in Love:

“When I get up to leave you, my gait resembles the one who is taken to be executed.  When I rejoin you, I hurry as the moon crosses the sky.  When I say good bye I am as slow as the fixed stars.”

“When you move I follow you.   I take the same direction as yours as the chameleon trails after the sunshine. When you stop I contemplate you intently: the eye is the wide open door for the soul’s secrets.

When I speak to you I utter incongruities. I listen intently at anything you say, I am astonished of whatever you divulge to me, I acknowledge your opinions, and I believe your lies.”

“I feel sensational pleasure being squeezed with you in enclosed quarters.  I extend my hand toward the same object you desire to grab.  I love to drink from your same glass, where you placed your lips.  I am constantly aching to touch your hand and to lean on you.”

“I am discovering that with you, what I loathed is gorgeous and colorful; what was hard is pretty easy to take and do.  My inert heart is burning amidst this storm.  I am ready to open up on my deepest secrets. If I had not met you I would have never known why my mother conceived me.”

The energy released by Eros is devastating and all consuming.  Falling in love is a transforming source of energy; it excites inert and dessicated hearts; it pacifies frenzied tendencies.

It is a bad sign when your lover acts normal when he meets with you or speaks evenly.  It is a bad omen when you realize that your lover has excellent appetite and is gaining weight.

Are you a man who likes mostly the company of men?

Are you a woman who likes mostly the company of women?

Then, most probably, you are seeking love in the wrong spheres of society.  Falling in love within the same gender is easier than facing the challenge of knowing a different type of love partner; routine communication is the sure way to killing a relationship.

Remember, in matter of feeling, an experienced man is twice better than a regular man; an experienced women is four times better than a novice girl.

Note: I translated many sections from the French manuscript “Love in the Moslem countries“. You may refer to my post “Seduction Tales” on how the French writer George Sand and the French novelist Stendhal describe “falling in love“