Arabic "Patron of Knowledge" was Gay

     This relates to my previous post: "Gay Guys from History"...

http://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2013/07/fascinating-history.html

     Al-Hakam II, born January 13, 915 A.D., was a caliph in Moorish Iberia (modern Spain).  He is renown for two things: his improvements, and his flagrant homosexuality.  

     Al-Hakam improved agriculture via irrigation, and constructed highways and marketplaces.  A fan of science, immersed in data collection and experimentation.  He employed a mathematician as his private secretary.  As the "patron of knowledge", his reign experienced massive translation efforts from Latin and Greek into Arabic.  He owned 600,000 books; the catalogue of his library was 44 volumes long!  He also established supremacy over other caliphs and peace with the Catholic kingdoms of Iberia.

     Accounts also indicate that his loves were entirely homosexual, involving his own male harem.  

     In order to produce an heir, the courtiers dressed up a concubine as a ghulam (young man)--with a short haircut and male attire.  The technique worked, and a son was born: Hisham.  
     Al-Hakam's death in 976 A.D., forced his 11-year-old son onto the throne... under the regency of Hajib Almanzor.
     Almanzor had all the ancient science books destroyed.  In 1010 A.D., Al-Hakam's flourishing palace, Medina Azahara ("shining city"), was looted during civil war and then abandoned.  

Only ruins remain of the ceremonial reception halls, mosques, government offices, 3 gardens, aqueduct, mint, treasury, workshops, villa and baths... 112 hectares in all.

     According to the Encyclopedia of Medieval Iberia, homosexual pleasures were enjoyed by the intellectual and political elite.  During the final centuries of Islamic Spain--in part because of Christian opposition to it--homosexuality became suppressed.  The Roman Catholic/Castilian emphasis on virginity, marriage, and clerical celibacy also pushed a rejection/terror of homosexuality.  The anti-gay attitude began.