The Book of Exposition
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The Book of Exposition (Arabic: Kitab al-Izah Fi'ilm al-Nikah b-it-Tamam w-al-Kamal) is a 15th-century work of
Contents
Among the feature tales is "The Strange Transformation that Befell a Certain Believer's Prickle", which tells of a man granted three divine wishes. On learning of the wishes, his wife urges him to use one to lengthen his "instrument", but upon the wish being granted his penis becomes as "as straight as a column", rigid and permanently erect, displeasing his wife. The man then wishes for his condition to be reversed and his penis all but disappears. He is forced to use his third and final wish to return himself to normal.[1]
Others are "The Pious Woman and What Happened to Her From Behind",[1] "The Lascivious Savant", "The Bath Keeper Who Lent His Wife", "The Lady and the Barber", and so on.[2]
Translations and editions
The work was first translated into English in 1886 by Charles Carrington a British publisher of erotica, who titled it Marriage-Love and Woman amongst the Arabs.[1]
The first effort to contextualise the work was the 1896 edition by Maison d’Editions Scientifiques, which included a foreword by a translator known only as "An English Bohemian".[1]
The 1896 edition also featured a section entitled "Excurses", including other short erotica and notes,
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Book of Exposition: A Collection of 15th-Century Erotica from the Middle East (1900)". The Public Domain Review. 10 April 2018.
- ^ a b Anonymous ["An English Bohemian"], ed. (1896). "The Book of Exposition". Maison d'Editions Scientifiques [English translation, with Translator's Foreword] (1900 reprint).