The Sultan's Sex Potions: Arab Aphrodisiacs in the Middle Ages

The Sultan's Sex Potions by Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī, a 13th-century scientific text, explores aphrodisiacs, sexual practices and potency. Written for a ruler, it offers a guide to desire without a physician. This bilingual edition includes key manuscripts, a translation and an introduction to Arabic erotic literature.

Arabic erotic literature has a long and rich history, which goes back as far as the ninth century. Far from being the pursuit of prurient pornographers, eroticism and sexuality received considerable attention from scholars.

The Sultan's Sex Potions was written by Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī (1201-1274), one of the leading scientists of the age, and is part of a group of works devoted to aphrodisiacs as well as sexual practices and positions. Sober and measured in tone, the treatise was intended as a guide for self healing, to be used by those afflicted with various sexual ailments, especially impotence. It was composed at the request of the ruler and so its potions, electuaries, syrups and enemas enjoyed a 'royal warrant of appointment' to arouse the lust for coitus and enhance sexual potency.

This revised edition includes three Arabic manuscripts (Berlin, Cairo and Glasgow), accompanied by an English translation as well as a new introduction to Arabic erotic literature.