I wanted to check truth behind some claims of a French gay imam back when I had a chat with him, and perhaps learn some more.

He told me that in the MENA region (male?) homosexuality was actually rather accepted for its time. It was formally forbidden of course, but people often closed eyes on it and there are several letters and poems to be found from that period with hidden but clear references to homosexual intercourse. The "Arabs" he said were also seen as very feminine in those times by Europeans (which had a negative connotation). He claimed that it changed because of wanting to copy the European ways after their recent Industrial Revolution successes, particularly the Ottoman Empire. One of the imitated aspects were the European take on medicine and science of the human body, where negative views of homosexuality was led to it having been "medicalized" as a disease, something lasting for more than a century (Alan Turing came up).

Is it true that homosexuality knew some tolerance back then? And that the European views on homosexuality may have been taken over in these regions together with their take on medicinal sciences? It's a big region so I assume there were regional differences? And what about female homosexuality?