Erotic short stories forbidden passion1/23/2024 In the summer of 1588, the Venetian bailo in Istanbul –– in effect, the resident ambassador there –– investigated a sexual scandal. In the latter, religious and legal norms were more severe, affecting the degree to which such sexual behaviour was public and culturally expressed in the former, a strong cultural tradition of homoeroticism gave some legitimation to these same-sex relations, and made them more avowable. But although the practices were essentially the same, there were significant differences between the Ottoman/Muslim Mediterranean societies and those of the Christian western Mediterranean. The practices were not equally prevalent in western Europe they were specific to a pan-Mediterranean culture of same-sex relations between adult men and adolescents. While prejudice was indeed present, the observations were accurate overall –– as Ottoman sources confirm. This article contests both of those assumptions. Historians generally discount the comments of visitors to Ottoman territory on this topic, either dismissing them as mere prejudice, or arguing that the practices they observed were equally current throughout western Europe. The report of an investigation into a sexual scandal at the Venetian embassy in Istanbul in 1588, discussed here, shows special sensitivity to this issue. They depicted it as a common practice there, associated particularly with ‘renegades’ (converts to Islam). West European visitors to the Ottoman Empire in the early-modern period frequently referred to sodomy.
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