Terms

[To see complete bibliographical citations, please refer to the original Arabic PDF linked to on page 1.]

The most well-known Arabic word for this phenomenon is mukhannath, and was used by scholars since the early days of Islam, and even known and used by the Prophet ﷺ and his companions.

الأصل اللغوي للمخنَّث كما ذكره ابن فارس (ت 395 ه)، “الْخَاءُ وَالنُّونُ وَالثَّاءُ أَصْلٌ وَاحِدٌ يَدُلُّ عَلَى تَكَسُّرٍ وَتَثَنٍّ.” وأضاف ابن منظور (ت 711 ه) “والمُخَنَّثُ مِنْ ذَلِكَ للِينهِ وتَكَسُّره.”

Linguistically, the khā – nūn – thā root indicates brokenness and leniency (ibn Fāris). And the mukhannath is so named due to their gentleness and brokenness (ibn Manẓūr). I – CC – think that brokenness here may carry a meaning similar to being “defeated” in mannerism, as in the person or object described as such does not put up any resistance when pushed this way or that, so they are highly submissive.

Al-Zubaidi added in Taaj al-Aroos, paraphrasing “both mukhannith and mukhannath, it is said that a man can khannatha his speech by making it gentle and pitched like a woman’s, so then the man is mukhannith. Our shaykh said he saw in some of the commentaries of al-Bukhari that a man who resembles women in his speech and mannerisms and gentleness and submissiveness, then it is with a and i, but if the intended meaning is the perpetrator of sodomy, then strictly with the a. However… this seems to be more like trying to create a meaningful distinction whereas the Arab traditionally did not observe such a distinction. Because the takhneeth that means sodomy is not a linguistic usage observed by the Arabs nor intended by the hadeeth.”

The fiqh encyclopedia defines mukhannath [effeminate] as, “the man who resembles women in his strut, speech, sympathies and gentleness.”

And it should be noted that all of this differs from the word khunthaa (intersex) whose gender is ambiguous due to the full or partial presence of both sets of genitalia, or absence of them. And that phenomenon is a purely physical anatomical one—whereas the subject of this paper is a psycho-social-neural phenomenon.

As for the difference between mukhannath and muta’annith, then originally there is only subtle difference. The mukhannath, as some jurists explain, may or may not intentionally be feminine. Their effeminate manners and speech may just come naturally to them without any thought or effort. As for the muta’annith, then they have acted in an effeminate way that is not normal for them as individuals.

I have further chosen to make a modern distinction, as a suggestion to jurists when discussing the subject matter. I have preferred to use mukhannath as strictly effeminate, or believing they are a member of one gender in the body of another but make no effort to conform their physical gender with their internal gender. As for muta’annith, then I intend the transwoman, or the effeminate who has made serious efforts to physically resemble women.

And my basis for making this distinction is in al-Zubaidi’s saying that the mu’annath of men is the one who went a step further by using female perfume. So they not only are effeminate, but they use feminine beautification products and methods.

For the English contexts, I am sticking with a common distinction between transgenderism (TG) and transsexuality (TS). The prefix “trans” means to traverse or move across or transition. Transgenderism being the strong or overwhelming feeling^[1]Professor Lynn Conway was one of the original inventors of the computer chip, in addition to being a lecturer on trans issues. She wrote, “Mis-gendered people themselves have long reported their … Continue reading that one’s “anatomical sex” or “biological sex” the sex assigned at birth based on the visible physical genitalia: penis or vulva, is different from their internal gender, on a psychological and social level. If this is coupled with anxiety due to it, it may be referred to as gender dysphoria or gender identity disorder (GID).^[2]From the American Psychiatric Association Preview of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) of Mental Disorders, it reads, “It is important to note that gender … Continue reading Transsexuality refers to actually living one’s life as the gender they internally relate to, altering their appearance, cosmetically or even surgically to match. Every transsexual is a transgender, but not every transgender is a transsexual.^[3]There are of course many definitions used for these words, although this distinction is perhaps the most common. While I exclude cross-dressing for mere entertainment or fetishism, I have seen some … Continue reading So the entire group shares internal feelings of the opposite gender while a smaller group embraces that and takes it further, acting in line with their feelings, while the larger simply recognizes their feelings and knows them to be part of their make-up without taking any steps to alter themselves.

When discussing transgender issues, it is common to compare them to “the rest” of humanity who generally feel no discrepancy between their minds and bodies, and simply cannot relate. Rather than say the rest are “normal”, and thus imply that transgendered are “abnormal”, the common term for “everyone else” in such contexts is cisgender. So this author is a cisgender male or cisman, discussing transwomen – those who have transitioned to become women.

Similarly note that in Southeast Asia and other parts of the world, “tomboy” is used to refer to transmen, unlike in the West where it is most often used to refer to pre-pubescent girls who enjoy some activities more stereotypical of men. Likewise, “ladyboy” and “shemale” are socially acceptable descriptions used for and by transwomen in Southeast Asia, while they are considered derogatory by transsexuals in the West.

Next page: what it means to transition