MASA

5 September - October 2007

The word “Bahname” is a noun comprising “bah,” the Arabic word for sexual desire, sexual potency, and lust; and “name,” the Farsi word for book or booklet.

The texts featured in the works of this exhibition are excerpts from the 17th century bahname of Tabib (Doctor) Mustafa Ebu’l Feyz, “Tuhvetü’l Müteehhilin.”

“Tuhvetü’l Müteehhilin’I,” which roughly means “The Natural Impulse in the Desire for Sexual Intercourse” in today’s language, has been translated into modern Turkish by Prof. İtler Uzel as “Evlilik Armağanı (Wedding Gift).”

……The Republic of Turkey was founded after renovating itself at the end of the Empire’s century of destruction. Meanwhile, the language of its multi-layered sexual culture was unfortunately abandoned. Islam had never banned love-making outside of the male hegemony; instead had encouraged this. However, the Islamic language for this topic was now being locked behind closed doors.
…The first chapter of “Evlilik Armağanı (Wedding Gift)” explains the qualities of beautiful women. The second chapter classifies the female organ, or rather “ferç...”
…Ferç means “opening, cut” in Arabic. It is said that “if the mouth of the beloved is small, then her ferç is narrow; the redder her tongue, the drier her ferç shall be.” This is how the ferç has been classified and named by male doctors centuries ago.