Book on Coitus

Moses Maimonides composed his Book on Coitus (Kitāb fī ’l-jimā‘) for a leading government official who was facing difficulties with sexual potency. Maimonides’ medical advice focuses on psychological factors, but he also addresses diet, including his own recipe for a kind of meat-and-egg fritter. Maimonides wrote his medical works originally in Arabic, in Arabic script, as they were intended for Muslim patients, but they were later copied into Hebrew characters. This text was eventually translated into Hebrew (three times) and Latin (twice) as well. In this society, men often demanded to have intercourse with their slaves.