Mujùn : Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature

This book is about an aspect of mediaeval Arabic culture and literature known in Arabic as muj ugrave;n (roughly 'libertinism, licentiousness, frivolity, indecency, profligacy, shamelessness, impertinence', etc.), a concept that students of mediaeval Arabic texts may find rather hard to define but which is a recurrent term and a widespread phenomenon in mediaeval Arabic literature, and probably common in real life. The social implications and the background of muj ugrave;n are focussed on in an attempt to learn what the popularity of muj ugrave;n during a specific period of the mediaeval Middle East can tell us about the society and the culture that produced such works. It is a study of the society in which such literature flourished, of the values and norms of that society, and of the májin (the man who does or writes muj ugrave;n) rather than of muj ugrave;n in itself. The author uses many excepts from primary source texts to explore the nature, concepts and content of muj ugrave;n, including its vernacular

language, religious irreverance and not infrequent indecency of subject matter, within its socio-religious context. It provides a critical inventory of the varied motifs of muj ugrave;n in literature so as to define this elusive term by way of an accumulation of concrete examples. [Publisher's text].

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