Al-Hakem II (Spain ) Cordoba Caliph

b. January 13, 915

d. October 16, 976

ruled 961 - October 1, 976

Contrary to the modern perception that Islam is implacably opposed to homosexuality, the history of Islam, like that of Christianity, exposes factual evidence to the contrary. Numerous important men in Islamic history, especially the rulers and poets, are known to have had male lovers, or celebrated male love in their poetry. Al-Hakem II, Caliph of Cordoba in Spain, is an example - just like his father before him.

In his youth his loves seem to have been entirely homosexual. He was known to have openly kept a male harem.This exclusivity was a problem, since it was essential to produce an heir. A resolution was reached by his taking a concubine who dressed in boys' clothes and was give the masculine name of Jafar.

Successor of Abd-al-Rahman III, who had kept both male and female harems, Caliph Al-Hakem II in year 965 built the largest castle in Europe (446 m long, 89 m wide and 1,200 m in perimeter) at Gormaz (close to the road that goes from Aranda de Duero to Medinaceli). His rule assured a long period of peace to Andalusia. He was devoted to books and learning, and  the Muslim library reached up to 400,000 volumes. (this was sacked in the Berber siege of Cordoba in 1100). He even sent his agents to purchase 'first edition' books from the Muslim east, such as Kitab al-Aghani (Book of Songs) by Abu al-Faraj al.-Isfahani.

During his reign, a massive translation effort was undertaken, and many books were translated from Latin and Greek into Arabic. He formed a joint committee of Arab Muslims and Iberian Mozarab Christians for this task.  By mid tenth century most of existing Greek and Hellenic works were translated into Arabic. He enlarged and beautifully decorated Cordoba's Mosque.

Sources:

Crompton, Louis:  Homosexuality and Civilization 

Matt & Andrej Koymasky

Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow (149 - 1533), Russian Prince

b. 25 March, 1479

d.  3  Dec, 1533 

r. 1505 to 1533

Grand Prince Vasily III(also spelled Basil) Ivanovich, Ivan III's son, came to the Russian throne in 1505, and greatly strengthened the monarchy, consolidatingd the numerous independent Russian principalities into a united Muscovite state by annexing Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514) in a war with Sigismund I of Poland and Lithuania, Ryazan (1517), Starodub and Novgorod-Seversk by 1523.

Vasily was homosexual throughout his life. He went to the extent of announcing this fact to other gay men of his time by shaving off his beard when his twenty-year marriage to his first wife was terminated--being beardless was a sort of gay password at the time. 

During Vasily's second marriage, he was able to perform his conjugal duties only when an officer of his guard joined him and his wife in bed in the nude. 

After his death in 1533, he was succeeded by his better known son, Ivan III, who is also of queer interest, for his fondness for close male friends in female dress.  

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Vasily III (Matt & Andrej Komasky)

Alexander the Great * 356 + 323 BC

When the film version of Alexander's life was released a few years ago, it was notable that his homosexual love life was largely edited out. Apologists excused this by claiming that his he was "not really gay", as he was married. Of course he was: in the classical world, marriage and sex (for men)did not co-incide as they are assumed to do today. Men from leadership and priviliged classes were expected to marry and produce heirs who would inherit their name and property. Sexual and emotional satisfaction, however, they might seek elsewhere.  Alexander’s own father, Philip, was killed by a slighted male lover, Pausanius. In the classical world, marriage and male lovers were often complementary to each other, not necessarily in conflict.

Alexander, one of the greatest military leaders in all history, was indeed married - but also undoubtedly had passionate, intimate relationships with two men, Hephaestion and the eunuch slave, Bagoas. With Bagoas at least, the relationship was definitely sexual, although the evidence is less clear for Hephaestion.

Nevertheless, the intensity and passion of Alexander’s love for Hephaestion is undeniable, as was obvious to all contemporary observers.

One of them, Hephaestion, was clearly his lover. Alexander, like many ancient Greeks, cultivated an ideal of heroic friendship that did not exclude sexual expression. He carried with him on his conquests a copy of the Iliad, and sought to emulate its heroes. When he first crossed into Asia and reached Troy, he sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles while Hephaestion did the same on that of Patroclus.

So close did Alexander feel to Hephaestion that when the captured women of the Persian King's household mistakenly threw themselves at Hephaestion's feet rather than at his own, he found no offense in this and excused them by saying that his friend was another Alexander. Finally, his grief at the death of Hephaestion, one year before his own, was also--in its intensity and public display--to parallel that of the Homeric lovers.

The homosexual aspect of Alexander's life was so public that it could not be obfuscated, even at times of extremehomophobia. Alexander was a model for other homosexual or bisexual soldier-kings, such as Julius Caesar, Hadrian, and Frederick the Great. His devotion to his lover serves as a counterpoint to the sexual follies and frenzies of other homosexual historical figures such as Nero or Elagabalus.

-glbtq encyclopedia

Yet his undoubted sexual activities with men were no barrier to extraordinary military success, as this extract from the BBC makes clear:

Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient world in little more than a decade.

Alexander was born in the northern Greek kingdom of Macedonia in July 356 BC. His parents were Philip II of Macedon and his wife Olympias. Alexander was educated by the philosopher Aristotle. Philip was assassinated in 336 BC and Alexander inherited a powerful yet volatile kingdom. He quickly dealt with his enemies at home and reasserted Macedonian power within Greece. He then set out to conquer the massive Persian Empire.

Against overwhelming odds, he led his army to victories across the Persian territories of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt without suffering a single defeat. His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gaugamela, in what is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC. The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh of Egypt became 'great king' of Persia at the age of 25.

Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king, commander, politician, scholar and explorer, Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents and covered around two million square miles. The entire area from Greece in the west, north to the Danube, south into Egypt and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. This was united by a common Greek language and culture, while the king himself adopted foreign customs in order to rule his millions of ethnically diverse subjects.

Somebody should tell the guys at the Pentagon.


See also:
Matt and Andrej Komaysky LGBT biographies

Related articles 

• Right Royal Queens: Gay, lesbian and trans royals, near-royals and rulers in history.
• Roman Emperor Hadrian, and his lover Antinous
• Byzantine Emperor Basil I

• Major Events in Ancient Greece History (brighthub.com)
• Alexander the Great, Illustrated and Uncovered (online.wsj.com)

Roman Emperor Hadrian (76-138), and his lover Antinous

Hadrian was an accomplished military ruler, but owes his fame more to his success as a wise and civilized leader and administrator, who helped to stabilize the Roman Empire - and for his renowned devotion to his lover, Antinous. After his young lover drowned in the Nile in 130, the Emperor was publicly overcome with grief, and declared the young man to be a god, and founded an Egytpian  city,  Antinoopolis, in his honour.  The new cult was happily taken up bright across the empire, with and at least 2000 bronze and marble busts and statues made to honour him. In Greece at alone, thirty one cities minted coins with his portrait.

Bust of Hadrian’s beloved, Antinous

In total contradiction to some modern stereotypes, there is no sense in which Hadrian could be considered in any way wimpish or effeminate:

Hadrian was a brave, resourceful soldier and an intrepid hunter of bears, boars, and lions. He bore cold and bad weather with stolid endurance. He was bearded and dressed simply. He allowed no ornaments on his sword belt or jewels on the clasp.

His sexual taste, like that of Trajan, a cousin of his father and his predecessor as emperor, was predominantly for teenage boys, though ill-wishers accused him also of affairs with grown men (adultorum amor) and of adulteries with married women. He had no children. He often said that had he been a private citizen he would have sent away his ill-tempered wife Sabina.

-glbtq encyclopedia

Related Posts:   

•  Right Royal Queens: Gay, lesbian and trans royals, near-royals and rulers in history.
• Alexander the Great
• Byzantine Emperor Basil I

Basil I of Byzantium (867-886)

b. 830's
d. 29 August 886,

The story of Basil I is important as providing some of the evidence for the rite of church blessing of same sex unions in medieval Europe, and also for illustrating once again how marriage and and sexual activities with men are by no means contradictory – the existence of a marriage does not deny the existence of male sexual partners in parallel relationships, particularly in the case of political rulers who were (and are) under an obligation to produce heirs for their kingdoms.

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The barest bones of Basil’s story are that he arrived in Constantinople as a penniless wanderer, and finessed friendships with a series of influential men to a point of immense political influence of his own, before assassinating his last and most powerful patron, assuming control of the empire, founded the Macedonian dynasty, and ruled over what is regarded as Byzantium's most glorious and prosperous era.  A less discreet account would say that he slept his way to the top.

When he arrived penniless in Constantinople, Basil was befriended by a man called Nicholas, from the church of St Diomede. Two accounts make clear that Nicholas and Basil were joined in some formal of formal rite of union, one of them using precisely the term “adelphoeisis” (the liturgical rite for church blessing of same sex unions):

On the morning after finding him, Nicholas ‘bathed and dressed Basil and was ceremonially united to him, and kept him as his housemate and companion. 

and, more explicitly

“on the next day he went with him to the baths and changed his clothes and going into the church established a formal union with him and they rejoiced in each other”.

This was just one of two such formal unions, and other less formal unions, Basil contracted with men. What was the appeal? He was a hunk, with notable physical charms, as John Boswell points out  referring to Basil’s service with his next patron, Theophilos, who

‘had a great interest in well-born. good-looking, well-built men who were very masculine and strong’.and when he saw how exceptional Basil was in these respects he appointed him his chief equerry. Basil was ‘loved by him more and more with each passing day.’

(As Basil was not “well born”, he presumably had super-abundant charms in the looks and build departments).

The attachment to Theophilos did not last, however. Basil soon found a more useful patron, in the form of a wealthy widow (Danelis), who “showered him with gifts of gold and dozens of slaves”. Why? She clearly had a keen eye for a coming man, and asked nothing except that he form a ceremonial union with her son John. Basil made a good show of demurring so as not to look cheap – but he could see where his interest lay. He duly entered his second same sex union, this time with John – and accepted the money and salves which came to him as a dowry. A surviving medieval illustration clearly shows the ceremony, with John’s mother looking on.   (Danelis in time received her anticipated reward. After Basil later became emperor, John was an “intimate” of the Emperor in honour of his earlier union, and Danelis came to the Emperor on a litter – and showered on him still more extravagant gifts. It was not wealth she had sought, but prestige).

But first, Basil had other fish to fry, and other beds to occupy, on his climb to the throne. First was the young Emperor Michael III, who was still in his teens.

Michael became so attached to Basil that he named him ‘companion of the bedchamber’, a position usually held by a eunuch….Ultimately he named Basil co-emperor. 

Both contemporary and modern accounts see physical attraction as influential in Micahael’s choice:

Bad as Michael’s character was,..it seems clear that we must also credit him with homosexualism (sic); and this is confirmed, both by making Basil his bedfellow, and by his choice, when when he grew tired of Basil of a pretty boy to succeed him as favourite.

Basil was not content to share the empire, and in time assassinated Michael, and reigned alone.

(Basil was not exclusively “homosexual”. Even before taking up with Michael, he had been married, but then in a curious, bizarre arrangement the Emperor persuaded him to divorce his wife, and to marry his own mistress – who continued her relationship with Michael, while another mistress was secured for Basil. One embarrassing outcome was that it was not entirely clear who was the real father of Basil’s putative heir by his wife – who was intensely disliked by Basil, and was “probably” sired by Michael.)

Source:

Information has been taken primarily from John Boswell, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe ”.

Ivan IV of Russia ("Ivan the Terrible"), Russian Tsar

b 25 Aug 1530

d. 26 March 1584

r. 1547 - 1584

Ivan IV was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into geographically vast multiethnic and multiconfessional state.Ivan managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval nation state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All Russia. 

Ivan was a patron of the arts and himself a poet and composer of considerable talent. His Orthodox liturgical hymn, "Stichiron No. 1 in Honor of St. Peter", and fragments of his letters were put into music by Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin. 

Although he is better known in English as Ivan the Terrible, this is probably a mistranslation from the Russian: a more accurate term may be "formidable". 

Today, there exists a controversial movement in Russia campaigning in favor of granting sainthood to Ivan IV.The Russian Orthodox Church have stated their opposition to the idea

His last years alternated between debauchery and religious austerity.  He was married no less than seven times. But he was also attracted to young men in female attire. One of the most ruthless chieftains of Ivan's political police, Feodor Basmanov, rose to his high position through performing seductive dances in women's clothes at the tsar's court. The nineteenth-century poet A. K. Tolstoy (1817-1875) wrote a historical novel, Prince Serebriany (1862), set during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, where he described with great frankness the paradoxical character of Feodor: a capable military commander; the scheming initiator of murderous political purges; the tsar's bed partner; and an effeminate homosexual who discussed in public the cosmetics he used to improve his complexion and hair.

Sources:

• Wikipedia
• GLBTQ Encyclopedia
• Matt &Andrej Komasky Biographies of Famous GLTB People

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Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow, 1479 - 1533. 

Pharaoh Neferkare (Pepi II) and his lover, General Sisene

Neferkare’s Affair with General Sisene – Pharaoh Neferkare (Pepi II) and Sisene (or Sasenet), a military commander, lived during the 6th Dynasty (2460-2200 B.C.) in the Old Kingdom. Known from three fragmentary copies, from the 19th–25th Dynasties (1295-656 B.C.), this text also probably originated earlier and had a long reading history. Although the beginning of the text is damaged, there is a reference to Sisene amusing the king “because there was no woman [or wife] there with him”; and the word “love [desire]” is mentioned in the line above.

A little later we read that Teti, a commoner, saw “the divine person of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferkare, going out during the night to walk on his own… [Remaining hidden,] Teti said to himself, ‘if this is the case, then it is true what is said about him, that he goes forth during the night.’ … [Then Teti followed the king, who] arrived at the house of the general Sasenet. He threw up a stone and stamped his foot, at which a [ladder] was lowered down for him. He climbed up, and Teti son of Henet waited... When his divine person had done what he wanted to with [the general], he returned to the palace, and Teti son of Henet followed him...” Teti then notes that the king went to the general’s house at the fourth hour of the night [10 p.m.] and spent four hours there.”

 Montserrat notes that this tale stresses the “clandestine nature of the affair,” points to “rumors [circulating] of the king’s nocturnal cruising,” and “enhances the secrecy” of the affair by describing the king’s sneaking off to meet at the general’s house. Although the narrative implies a censure of homosexuality, Neferkari is “not criticized per se for having sex with another male but for being a bad ruler.” Some Egyptologists have suggested that this piece (including the affair) conveys an atmosphere of “royal corruption,” yet Greenberg notes that the description itself is fairly “neutral in tone and non-judgmental.” Still, contemporaries might have looked upon such activity on the part of a king, who was an incarnation of deity, as undignified and inappropriate.Yet, the pharaoh evidently had homosexual desires strong enough so that he found a secret lover and a nocturnal way to satisfy them happily, at least until he was discovered.

Source:  Homosexuality in Ancient Egypt, 

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• Alexander the Great 356-323BCE and Hephasteion

Right Royal Queens: Gay, lesbian and trans royals, near-royals and rulers in history.

Alexander the Great, Military Commander

b. July 20, 356 B.C.
d. June 10, 323 B.C.

There is nothing impossible to him who will try

At age 16, Alexander became a regent when his father, Philip the King of Macedon, was commanding his army in war. Alexander inherited the throne of Macedon and Greece at age 20. Beginning with no money and a small army, he conquered much of the known world and accumulated one of the world's largest treasuries. He captured the Persian empire, which stretched across Asia Minor, the Middle East, Mesopotamia, Egypt and modern-day Iran. After pushing all the way to India he finally turned back, his men tired and his empire starting to weaken.

From an early age Alexander showed great potential. He learned politics and warfare from his father; philosophy, ethics, politics, and healing from Aristotle; and the importance of an ascetic lifestyle from Leonidis. Alexander became a brilliant ruler and formidable military leader beloved by his soldiers.

Alexander and Aristotle experienced a falling out over the issue of foreigners. Like many other people at the time, Aristotle considered most foreigners barbarians. Alexander hoped to incorporate outsiders into his empire. His progressive method of appointing foreigners to army posts and encouraging native troops to marry foreigners helped create stability in his kingdom. Citizens welcomed Alexander as a liberator when he conquered Egypt in 332 B.C.

While Alexander married women and conceived children with them, Alexander also had male sex partners, including a eunuch named Bagaos. Alexander and his closest friend Hephaestion spent considerable time together. Scholars assume that their love was sexual. Although homosexuality was common in Greece, same-sex relationships occurred mostly between men and slaves or men and younger boys who were not yet citizens. Love between two males of similar age and social class was stigmatized and may have jeopardized Alexander's and Hephaestion's status had its true nature been public.

After halting his conquests and returning from the Punjab to Babylon, Alexander died at age 32. He never lost a battle, created a colossal empire, was revered by his army and controlled one of the world's largest treasuries.

Bibliography
“Ancient History: Alexander the Great.” The History Channel. June 29, 2007
“Historic Figures: Alexander the Great (356-323 BC).” bbc.co.uk. June 29, 2007
Cartledge, Paul. Alexander the Great. Vintage, 2005
Fildes, Alan and Joann Fletcher. Alexander the Great: Son of the Gods. Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004

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• Pharaoh Neferkare (Pepi II) and his lover, General Sisene
• Pharoah Akhenaten (c.1350 BCE) and his lover. General Smenkhkare
• Harmodius & Aristogiton: Gay Soldiers at the Foundation of Democracy
• Sacred Band of Thebes: Gay lovers as the military ideal
• Alcibiades 450?-404BC
• Anytus 4th C BCE
• Philip II of Macedon 359-336BCE
• 
  

• Navy officer weds partner as gay ban ends - CBS News (itsaqueerworld.blogspot.com)

'Abdur al-Rahman Khan (1844 - 1901), the "Father" of Afghanistan

'Abdur al-Rahman Khan was born in Kabul. After the death of Amir Shir Ali Khan, 'Abdur al-Rahman Khan, who was living in Samarqand at the time, returned to Afghanistan and after a fierce and long-drawn struggle for power waged by his father and his uncle, A'zam Khan, against his cousin Shir 'Ali, the successor of Dost Mohammad Khan, took the Afghan throne in 1880.

The British finally withdrew from Kandahar in April 1881, and the second Anglo-Afghan war ended soon after his arrival on the scene. The British recognized him as the Amir of Afghanistan, and later brokered various agreements with him. The boundaries of modern Afghanistan were drawn by the British and the Russians. The Durand Line of 1893 divided zones of responsibility for the maintenance of law and order between British India and the kingdom of Afghanistan; it was never intended as an international boundary. Afghanistan, therefore, although never dominated by a European imperial government, became a buffer between tsarist Russia and British India.

(Read more at  Matt & Andrej Koymasky , in their "Living Room- Biographies of LGBT People".)

Matt & Andrej do not provide sources, or details of his alleged homosexuality. It is clear though that any homosexuality was not exclusive, as he was succeeded by his eldest son:

at his death, his designated successor and eldest son, Habibollah Khan, succeeded to the throne without the usual fratricidal fighting.