The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals

A captivating look at the history of the pure females of Islamic paradise known as the houri

The fascination with the houri, the pure female of Islamic paradise, began long before September 11, 2001. Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals demonstrates how the ambiguous reward of the houri, mentioned in the Qurʾan and developed in Islamic theological writings, has gained a distinctive place in the cultural eye from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century.

The houri had mult...