Table of contents; Acknowledgements; Reflections on Love, Gender, and Sexuality: Perspectives from Classical to Modern Persian Culture - Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab; Of Earthly and Heavenly;1. The Vale of Soul Making: The Evolution of the Persian Verse Romance from Gurgani to Jami - Dick Davis; 2. The Earthy Roots of the Heavenly Beloved - Ali-Asghar Seyed-Gohrab; Ethics of Love, Gender, and Sexuality in Persian Poetry;3. An Emperor Accused of Sexual Transgression. What is Really Happening between Bahram Gur and his Musician Slave Girl? - Christine van Ruymbeke;4. The Character of Vis in Gurgani's Vis-u Ramin and the Functioning of Love - Mira de Boose;5. A Pact Between Conflicting Codes: Javanmardi in Niami's Layli and Majnun - Allison Kanner-Botan;6. The Many Faces of Humayun: Portraying a Chinese Princess in Persian Epic Poetry - Christine Kämpfer;7.

The Sword of Lovesickness: Exploring Gendered Identities in Feyzi's Nal-u Daman - Fatemeh Naghshvarian;8. Estranged Sun? Gurdafarid of Firdowsi's Shah-nama - A Female Warrior in Pre-Islamic Iran - Joanna Szklarz;9. The Psychic-Civic Operability of Early Modern Persian Shahr-ashub(s): Emergence of Text through the Muamma(s) of Love and Craft - Mahroo Moosavi; Modern Gender and Sexuality Revisited;10. Beyond Anachronism: Questioning Modern Gender and Sexuality Language in Classical Persian Literature - Mehrdad Alipour;11. Past Heroines, Modern Champions: Gurdafarid in the Shah-nama and the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement - Bregtje T. van der Zaag; 12. Woman Life Freedom in the Mirror of Scholarship: Responses from the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences - Pooyan Tamimi Arab.