The History of Sex: Istanbul -- Fruity Aphrodisiacs -- (Chap. II, Pt. 2)

To remedy this, Islamic culture produced an entire realm of erotology, documenting fruity aphrodisiacs, raunchy morality tales, contorted sexual positions (and forbidden practices), as well as the correct dimensions of the reproductive organs and even the correlation between a woman's face and her genitalia (an Ottoman warned that if a girl had a tongue like dried currants, she had a cold vagina).

One of the most famous erotic texts is The Perfumed Garden, penned by a Tunisian sheikh in the sixteenth century to disseminate lovemaking for 'the souls' recreation.'

To the sheikh's credit, he did try to coach readers on how to please a woman, but fundamentally, sex was all about the man: 'If you do not animate her with your toying, intermixed with kissing, nibbling and touching, you will not obtain from her what you are wishing,' the sheikh advises.

WISHFUL THINKING

Like other Islamic erotica, The Perfumed Garden also reeks of racism (blacks were particularly envied for their penile prowess) and misogyny, with lashings of wishful thinking.

As a palace underling prepares to ravish the sultan's daughter, for example, she exclaims: 'O Bahloul! I never saw a more beautiful dart than yours!'

And while 'Hamdonna' revels in the 'up-and-down dance,' she blames her lust on her gender: 'How lascivious has God made woman, and how indefatigable after her pleasures.'

Or, in the modern translation: 'Us bi-atches just gotta have it.'

Foreplay in the 1700s
(Sexual Life in Ottoman Society)