Talk:Malik Ayaz

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It seems when someone powerful in the Islamic world indulges in homosexuality it gets described as pure love of one man for another while in the Islamic law such acts as Mahmud Ghazni had with Ayaz would be considered sacrilege and punishable with death. This is the kind of hypocricy that permeates Islamic history. Another example is drinking alcohol, banned by the Koran and indulged in by thousands of Muslim rulers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.210.182.230 (talk) 18:00, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

While not documented on the page, I've seen all these anecdotes before. Since they seem to have been removed by someone with an AGENDA, they've been restored. I'll be watching.Tapered (talk) 04:02, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Evidently not watching enough. Just reverted POV edits of sourced material. Tapered (talk) 09:29, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

I think the same-sex love tone has been elaborated to be more inline with western agenda of gay rights promotion. I have never came across one anecdote that mentions they had sex relation. A simple friendship has been given how wrong a meaning. In Sufi literature it is very common for Mridain (disciples) of a Shaikh (sufi-teacher) to write poems in their praise. I am afraid that will also be considered gay with same crooked thinking? The referenced book "The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies" By James Neill can by no means be considered the original description of events. It does not mention a source for the intended meanings. The passage from Bostan by Saadi Sherazi just mentions a bond of heart which is common for two friends to have. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gujjar123 (talk • contribs) 09:03, 20 July 2016 (UTC)

Sources?

The article is a complete mess. The cited sources mention him as a 16th-century Georgian ex-slave active in Gujarat, while the current article describe him a 11th-century Ghaznavid vassal. This needs to be clarified.--Kober^Talk 18:57, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Malik Ayaz in Sufism

Amjad Farid Sabri the slain Qawwal of Pakistan preformed a song dedicated to Malik Ayaz, which praises the man for his feudalistic loyalty to Mahmud of Ghazni, the song also mentions Ajmer and how the tomb of the Sufi Baba attracts female devotees. --Groiil000 (talk) 14:09, 2 July 2016 (UTC)

Removal of references to homosexuality

I don't pretend to know anything about the actual nature of this historical relationship, but that medieval Muslim sources attributed a homoerotic dimension to Mahmud and Ayaz' relationship is undeniable.

I'll quote first from the Encyclopædia Iranica:

AYĀZ, ABU’L-NAJM B. ŪYMĀQ, favorite Turkish slave of the Ghaznavid Sultan Maḥmūd, whose passion for Ayāz is a recurrent theme in Persian poetry, where he is also called Ayās or Āyāz. . . . Sultan Maḥmūd’s relationship with this Turkish ḡolām had many parallels in the category of royal love for a slave, but this one was presented in Persian literature as something different and exceptional. Neẓāmī ʿArūżī in his Čahār maqāla (text, pp. 55-57), written just over a century after Ayāz’s death, tells a story which is meant to absolve Maḥmūd of sinful love for Ayāz, but confirms the sultan’s great fondness for this slave. In other literary works, however, and particularly in Sufi writings, where the love of Maḥmūd and Ayāz often comes up, Ayāz is presented as a paragon of purity and sincerity: e.g., in the story of Ayāz’s shoes and fur coat as told in ʿAṭṭār’s Moṣībat-nāma, Rūmī’s Maṯnawī, and several other works. Sufi writers also drew mystic inferences from the love of Maḥmūd and Ayāz. The subject was pursued and poetically interpreted in various ways in the works of many Persian poets and several prose-writers. The consequence of this extraordinary fame was that in Persian literature Maḥmūd and Ayāz came to be placed in the same category as Laylī and Majnūn, Ḵosrow and Šīrīn, Vīs and Rāmīn, and Yūsof and Zolaykā. Long maṯnawī poems about the love of Maḥmūd and Ayāz were written by litterateurs such as Faḵr-al-dīn ʿAlī b. Ḥosayn Wāʿeẓ Kāšefī, Anīsī Šāmlū, Zolālī Ḵᵛānsārī; another was once wrongly ascribed to ʿAṭṭār.

"Abu'l-Najm Ayaz", Encyclopædia Iranica, J. Matīnī, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/ayaz-abul-najm-b, originally published 1985, updated 2011

Here is a line from one of Ubayd Zakani's (1319-1369/71) satires:

Sultan Mahmud accompanied by Talhak, the jester, attended the sermon of a certain preacher. When they arrived the preacher was saying that whoever had made love to a young boy, on the day of judgment would be made to carry him across the narrow bridge of Sirat, which leads to heaven. Sultan Mahmud was terrified and began to weep, Talhak told him: "O Sultan, do not weep, be happy that on that day you will not be left on foot either."

Obeyd-e Zakani: The Ethics of Aristocrats and Other Satirical Works, translated by Hasan Javadi, p. 78, 1985

From the Qabus-Nama by Keikavus (1050/70-1087), in the section 'On Romantic Passion' (Chapter 14):

I once heard a man of high rank declare that Sultan Masud [Mahmud's son] had ten slaves, Keepers of the Royal Robes, of whom one, named Nushtagin, was especially favoured by him. Several years passed without anyone's realising who the Sultan's favourite was, because the gifts he distributed were all alike. Then, after five years, in a fit of drunkenness he said: "Register in Nushtagin's name everything that my father granted Ayaz". Thus it became known that the object of his affection was Nushtagin.

A Mirror for Princes (The Qabus Nama), translated by Reuben Levy, pp. 74-5, 1951

Here is another semi-relevant excerpt from the section 'On Taking Your Pleasure' (Chapter 15). I mainly quote it to prove the sexual dynamic at play in the culture of the time:

As between women and youths, do not confine your inclinations to either sex; thus you may find enjoyment from both kinds without either of the two becoming inimical to you.

A Mirror for Princes (The Qabus Nama), translated by Reuben Levy, p. 77, 1951

And here's an extended section from Zulali Khwansari's Masnavi:

Mahmud, Sultan of Ghazna, has purchased young Ayaz as a slave. / Mahmud set a cup beside him and a decanter before him / Full of burgundy wine, as if distilled from his own heart / He filled the cup with wine like his love’s ruby lips / Entangled in the curls of Ayaz, Mahmud began to lose control / He filled the cup with wine from the clouds of forgetfulness / The glow of Ayaz set the glass aflame with scintillating colors / He lifted the cup to Ayaz and bade him drink / His heart melted as he held the cup to his lips / Mahmud urged him to drink wine from his own hand / Yet a complaint showed in the eyes of Ayaz, a fear of intoxication / But as a servant, Ayaz drank from the cup / As a ruby droplet rolled from his lip to his shirt / His words lay in jumbles as the drop rolled to his foot / And the wine sent him spinning in drunkenness / Hard of breath, Mahmud said, “In this intimacy one can pursue desire / But I can only utter sighs while watching you delicately drink! / Tonight, I’m in the mood to finally reach you / How long has my only wish from God been delayed / Your lips have become ruby red, as intense as the wine / Such a ruby spells the death of better discretion / Your mouth is a wine bottle overflowing / Since the color of wine flows over your lips / Those are not black curls nestled against your cheeks / Since your glance is aflame they must be wisps of smoke / Gazing at you, they seem not like musk-scented curls / For where there is burning desire there must be smoke / Come to me now, bare all, that I may kiss your lips / Those very rose petals that make a beard tender and soft / Your lip is a single drop of wine distilled / My heart’s desire is only to taste it unconstrained / Against the black lashes, how bright are your eyes / Am I fated to glimpse them only from a distance? / You never look at me directly in the eye / Though with one glance you will rob me of my heart / This is the last breath I will release from my soul / Without your beauty open before me, I will surely die / If you let me embrace your full form / From my grave stately box-trees will grow tall like you / That idol of Kashmir, like a rose blooming in a graceful cypress / From head to toe your elegant form has set me boiling!” / Ayaz’s sweet mouth drawing close, closer / His smile fully prepared, his lip set for the charge / Then from his smile, sweetness boiled over / He took the wine-cup from the Sultan’s hand / Ayaz’s sweet mouth drawing close, closer / His smile fully prepared, his lip set for the charge / Then from his smile, sweetness boiled over / He took the wine-cup from the Sultan’s hand / From that moment, Ayaz was the cupbearer of Mahmud / Whose whole world became drunk with his playful grace.

translated by Scott Kugle in "Sultan Mahmud’s Makeover: Colonial Homophobia and the Persian-Urdu Literary Tradition" in Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society, pp. 33-34, 2004

Anyway, that's just what I could find on Google. I think there's more extensive stuff in Attar of Nishapur's works.Hmmmok (talk) 09:25, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

I agree that this should be at least mentioned, even if it cannot be proven as historical reality, and the reasoning for it's removal (discussed in topics above on this page) do not seem particularly neutral on the subject. There is no debate that credible and scholarly sources have stated there was a possibility their relationship was homosexual. As for Attar of Nishapur, The Conference of the Birds (the one I'm reading was translated by Afkham Darbandi) explicitly calls the two "lovers." 50.247.181.41 (talk) 17:16, 4 May 2022 (UTC)

I added several mentions alongside with sources to the contrary to make sure the various possibilities are all represented to best fit NPOV. I think this suits wikipedia's policies regarding neutrality well but I would like to hear other opinions on this Cannotpick (talk) 14:17, 20 January 2023 (UTC)