A Penis-shortening Device Described by the 13th Century Poet Rumi

With great interest, I read Kompanje’s (2006) clinical case report about a remarkable penis-shortening device invented in 1593 by the surgeon Hildanus. With this letter, I want to point your readers to an even older description of a similar device—not by a medical scholar, but by the great Persian humanist, philosopher, and poet Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–1273). In his poem, ‘‘The Importance of Gourdcrafting,’’ Rumi vividly describes the sexual interactions between a women and a donkey. I cite here from Barks’ (1995) translation: