"The Emasculated Eros"

[germar (imported)]

Piotr O. Scholz: "Der entmannte Eros: Eine Kulturgeschichte". Artemis & Winkler 1997; 308 pages.

Scholz relates castration to the history of civilization. In his opinion, eunuchs have their origin in the political system of sacred monarchism, because god-like rulers never allowed ordinary man in their entourage - a not completly convincing supposition. Nevertheless, the rest of the book is interesting. It deals with the role of eunuchs in ancient Rome and Greece, China and the European middleages. There is an interesting chapter about the arabian harems. While castration is not allowed by the Koran, eunuch mainly from Eastern Europe had been imported by jewish slave traders. The book includes a map showing the castration centres and routes of eunuch trade in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. There had been three castration manufaktories in Europe: one in Verdun (France), one in Prag (Czechia) and another on in the south of the then islamic Spain, the city of Pechina.

[Bagoas (imported)]

I have read the "glorious" Qu'ran in translation several times and have found no mention of castration or of eunuchs in it. There may have been a policy against it established by some Moslem clerics, but, if so, it was not supported by the authority oif the Qu'ran

[strassenbahn (imported)]

Piotr O. Scholz: "Der entmannte Eros: Eine Kulturgeschichte". Artemis & Winkler 1997; 308 pages.

Scholz relates castration to the history of civilization. In his opinion, eunuchs have their origin in the political system of sacred monarchism, because god-like rulers never allowed ordinary man in their entourage - a not completly convincing supposition. Nevertheless, the rest of the book is interesting. It deals with the role of eunuchs in ancient Rome and Greece, China and the European middleages. There is an interesting chapter about the arabian harems. While castration is not allowed by the Koran, eunuch mainly from Eastern Europe had been imported by jewish slave traders. The book includes a map showing the castration centres and routes of eunuch trade in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. There had been three castration manufaktories in Europe: one in Verdun (France), one in Prag (Czechia) and another on in the south of the then islamic Spain, the city of Pechina.

Interestingly the (otherwise not very sympathetic) Roman emperor Domitian forbad the castration of boys, but it didn't stick: there were eunuchs under the Roman Empire towards the end, when it had been officially Christianized. During Rome's pagan period of course the most conspicuous eunuchs were the "galli", who were the self-castrated priests of the "Great Mother".

[John W. (imported)]

Eunuchs were employed, as Orthodox Church singers and in other capacities, in the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, at least until Constantinople was sacked in 1204 by Frankish soldiers ostensibly on their way to the Holy Land for a crusade. After it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Turks continued the practice, although possibly copied in part from the Chinese practice, mostly for harem servants, until their empire fell after WW1 in about 1920. Their eunuchs were mostly black, and recruited as boys from many nationalities (except Turkish). Even today, it is believed that boys, mostly black, are still being illegally abducted from countries like Sudan for use as eunuch servants in some Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Yemen.