
Aphrodisiacs? Search This Medieval Islamic Encyclopedia - diodorus
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/books/review/shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition.html
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altendo
> In whittling down al-­Nuwayri’s opus, his selections skew to the crowd-
> pleasing. Large chunks of history (which made up the bulk of the original
> text) and scribal etiquette are jettisoned, while the heart of the
> translation consists of marvelous chapters on wildlife (“mute beasts”),
> botany and “sexual medicines.”

I'm a little disappointed by this. I understand the need to abridge it, but to
skew towards the "crowd-pleasing" is a bit much. Maybe it's just me but I'd
have rather had things more proportionally represented (ie have some more
history!). From the sound of it, every part of this has its own wonder, and
I'd rather the translation reflect that.

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M_Grey
I have an idea that any sufficiently large volume of general knowledge, will
contain supposed aphrodisiacs. The corollary is that any mysticism around food
or drinks will conclude that virtually everything is an aphrodisiac.

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ramgorur
the first statement is obvious, isn't it? replace the aphrodisiacs with
anything, like 'hammer', it still holds.

the second one is interesting, but I didn't quite get how this can be deduced
from the first statement.

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M_Grey
Considering that aphrodisiacs don't exist, and hammers have for thousands of
years, I see a small difference.

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duaneb
> Considering that aphrodisiacs don't exist

What do you mean? You're denying the existence of a) libido, b) drugs, or c)
the effect of drugs on libido. Could you elaborate? None of the above
statements strikes me as true.

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M_Grey
C... obviously, since neither A nor B fit the definition of "Aphrodisiacs".
There are no drugs that I'm aware of which increase sexual desire, can you
name some?

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thomyorkie
Anecdotally, I've noticed a consistent marked increase in my sexual desire
from eating certain things. Cayenne pepper, ginger root, garlic, and in
particular tongkat ali. I naturally have a very high sex drive so perhaps I'm
more susceptible than most.

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thomyorkie
It appears there are indeed drugs that have libido enhancing qualities. These
include bremelanotide, and phenethylamines

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodisiac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphrodisiac)

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M_Grey
First was discontinued in safety trials, and phenethylamines require an MAOI.

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samer66
The original is open source (in Arabic)
[https://archive.org/details/waq66201](https://archive.org/details/waq66201)

