Geniza Lab

Leaves from Maimonides' Judaeo-Arabic draft of his Arabic treatise on sexual intercourse, commissioned by the Ayyubid prince Taqī al-Dīn Umar. Maimonides prescribes various concoctions to increase Taqi al-Din Umar’s vigour and recommends a diet that avoids ‘cooling’ foods (long pepper, galanga, ginger, aristolochia, cinnamon, anise, clove, mace, and nutmeg are recommended but lentils, vetch, and cold vegetables such as cucumber, donkey cucumber, melons, garden orach, spinach and especially lettuce are to be avoided). A drink of iron water boiled with the ox tongue herb, lemon peel, beaten carnation, wine and honey, is suggested. He also advises moderation, as the sexual act itself was ‘enfeebling’. (Information from CUDL.)