ABSTRACT
Although it may be difficult to envision such a phenomenon in this day and age, among the famous composers of secular poetry in Muslim Spain were men who were not only themselves religious but also functioned as religious scholars and authorities. While serving as jurists, rabbis, imams, exegetes, religious philosophers, khatībs, liturgical poets, and religious communal leaders, they also composed verses extolling the beauty of nature, the delight of imbibing alcohol and sitting in gardens, the value of friendship and the pain of loss. Most startlingly, they wrote of love and desire, physical and powerful, hetero- and homoerotic, words that leap off the page and cross the centuries of time to grab hold of both our hearts and our guts.
