# Why did medieval scholars like al-Nawawi write that boys are prettier than women?

*Al-Nawawi as a voice of his age: pederasty among medieval Muslims and Greeks, and a Saudi refuter*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/otqqc3k4hwa/s/6/
- Date: 2019-08-21 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: A Reply to Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi on Sahih Al-Bukhari| Mufti Abu layth (16:59–20:54)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtQqc3K4HWA&t=1019s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/otqqc3k4hwa/

**Topics:** Sexuality and orientation; Scholars and imams of the past; Responses to critics

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says al-Nawawi voiced a sentiment of his age, shared by many medieval Muslims and by the Greeks, in which attraction to adolescent boys was assumed; reporting this is not mockery. A Saudi critic's reply that many women are ugly, he says, proves the point.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that Imam al-Nawawi was articulating the sentiment of his age, in which, as among the ancient Greeks, attraction to adolescent boys was taken as a given, and that reporting this from his book is not mockery.

**Evidence, his words at 17:46:** “the medieval Muslims and the medieval Arabs and the medieval kind of times people had a what a kind of sense of there was pederasty okay which is like what the Greeks had with boys” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtQqc3K4HWA&t=1066s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says al-Nawawi was not alone in making this claim; many before him did, because in that age it was seen as a given. He stresses that they were not homosexual in today's sense and that he is not saying al-Nawawi was, but that al-Nawawi acknowledges a fundamental bisexuality he takes to be intrinsic and ubiquitous in human nature. He says there is nothing shocking in this: medieval Muslims and Arabs had a sense of pederasty, as the Greeks had with boys, meaning youths in their mid to late teens; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle would all have had such relationships, and he quotes a saying attributed to a contemporary of Socrates [?] about seducing men from their wives as a boy and wives from their men as a man, mentioning also Thrasymachus [?], who held that might is right. Al-Nawawi, he says, was simply articulating the sentiment of his age, and reporting what is written in his book is not mockery. He adds that a Saudi Wahhabi made an hour-long live video calling him a deviant, read out al-Nawawi's line that boys are prettier than many women and answered that this is because many women are ugly; Mufti ridicules the critic's appearance and says the answer amounts to saying one is not gay, there are just many attractive boys around.

## Sources and names cited

- al-Nawawi
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Thrasymachus [?]
- Salafi (Wahhabi)

## Transcript (machine tier, 16:59–20:54)

[16:27] tempted to steal it now mom no we saying any person left alone with a young boy would be tempted to have sex with him or at least look at him sexually now I would I would think huh what oh boy that escalated quickly so you see now if somebody because Imam no we made that claim and he's not the only person many people before him made it because in the

[17:06] day and age they saw that as a kind of given now they weren't homosexual in today's day and age sense and I'm not saying Imam no he was homosexual but I said he acknowledges a fundamental bisexuality that he feels is intrinsic in human nature and ubiquitous ba now just quote that back to me you see but he does feel that he feels that this is these people or you know this is a given that der everybody would relate to what I'm saying so and there's

[17:46] nothing so shocking about that that these the medieval Muslims and the medieval Arabs and the medieval kind of times people had a what a kind of sense of there was pederasty okay which is like what the Greeks had with boys that they had these sexual and romantic romantic relationships with bullies and they felt a sense of attraction to boys and by boys they didn't mean they meant like boys in their mid late teens that's what they meant so Socrates speaks about it Plato Aristotle these people would have all had relationships with boys

[18:25] through Symmachus who's a contemporary of Socrates says in his famous quote that as a young boy I seduced the men from their wives and as a grown man I seduced the wives from their men ha ha var threesome ACCA's grew I'll kick a can me okay also another eminent philosopher of the past racemic us was a also very intriguing philosopher who believed in might is right but put that aside fast-forward to what a man know we were

[19:02] simply articulating what an expressing was the sentiment of his age yes oh I wasn't mocking him when I'm saying that I was saying what he was saying mocking if you if you mean by mocking I'm making this up it's written in his book and some War hobby from Saudi tried to refute me on it by he made a live video that went on for an hour where he says this Abu layth guy is a deviant that jarate he says he says I'm gonna read it out and he reads it out and go and he says and they are prettier than

[19:40] most women or many women and he says well duh that's because he goes I can answer that that's because many women are ugly [Laughter] needless to say this guy looked like a Neanderthal that had on that had gone long term that suffered from chronic depression himself that's what this Saudi Wahhabi looked like but yet he had the audacity to say many women are ugly I thought but see so this is this is the

[20:19] thing it's like he could have just said this Saudi maja B could have just quite easily said I'm not gay you could have said I'm not gay it's just that this it's just that there's so many sexy boys around that's the equivalent of what's going on here right so so my and the other thing with His Eminence his eminence is his eminence because his his eminence chef yaku be sorry I just find that

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment OtQqc3K4HWA/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/otqqc3k4hwa/s/6/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.