[EARLY ARABIC LITERATURE / HOMOEROTICA] Diwan Abu Nuwas. Edited and annotated by Iskandar Asaf.

ABU NUWAS, (747-813), Al-Matba'a al-Umûmîyyah, Cairo, 1898. Contemporary quarter calf in black, lettering gilt title on the second of raised five bands to spine in Latin letters, floral borders of front and rear boards. Contemporary pastedown and end-papers. Title page with an ornate frame, text with double fillet frame. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Arabic. 439 p. Slight cracking on the spine, period paper repair on the title page, some pages split up from the hinges, and occasional foxing on the margins and pages. Overall a very good copy. The very rare early uncensored Arabic and the first "Iskandar Asaf" edition of this classical Arabic collection of poems by the first Islamic gay poet Abu Nuwas (747-813) including his homoerotic lyric poems in eleven parts, written under the court patronage of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad during the reigns of Harun al-Rashid and Muhammed al-Amin. The book is opening with an introduction by Iskandar Asaf (pp. 2) and one of the earliest printed bio