Love, madness, death: the two faces of love in Arabic tradition.

Abstract

Abstract: The subject of love was studied and interpreted by the ancient Greeks, who divided it into: "Eros" or passionate love, "Agapé" or mutual attachment and "Philia" or love as friendship. In the Arab tradition love has also been very important. Before islam poets described the feeling of love and passion for the beloved until it became an essential part of the poem. In the Omeya period the critics looked at two types of love: "udhrī", which was pure and chaste, and "ibāḥī", or lustful passion. Between the 10th and 12th Centuries several doctor-philosophers like Rhazès and Avicena regarded passionate love as a spiritual disease. This was at the time when romantic fiction became a successful literary genre in medieval Europe. The Arab erotic treatise, always linked to the subject of love, started to circulate at the beginning of the Abbasi period. It was mostly written by jurists, judges and famous religious figures. Its aim was to offer the layman a handbook with set of rules to help him improve his sexual life.