Such a robust denial to take part in the Hajj, the mandatory pilgrimage that’s one of the five pillars of Islam, combined with the debauchery that some will think is total blasphemy, will inevitably prompt many readers to wonder why Rowell has called the collection ‘Islamic’ wine poems, rather than simply Arabic ones. Philip Kennedy is considered to be the world’s leading expert on Abu Nuwas and has challenged Rowell’s choice of title.

“It puts too much emphasis on the Islamic,” he says. “This corpus developed within Islamic society, addressing Islamic themes of course but also Christian, Zoroastrian and Jewish themes. Jewish and Christian taverns and their outlying haunts were the common venues where wine poems are fictitiously and actually set.

“On the whole, the poems are a glory of the Arabic language. Later poets used wine as a metaphor to express the mystical path and experience; these I wouldn’t have a problem with calling Islamic.”

One such poet is Omar Khayyam, whose Persian quatrains called the Rubáiyát have been long adored by Europe’s orientalists. So why aren’t Abu Nuwas’ poems viewed in the same vein; as metaphors for a pious, spiritual path rather than godless glorifications of alcohol?

The answer lies in the hubbub of Islamic schools of thought that existed in Abu Nuwas’s lifetime. “It was only a couple of centuries on after his death, really – about the 10th Century – that you have this settlement of Sunni orthodoxy,” says Rowell, referring to the branch of Islam we are more familiar with today. As well as the conservative Islamic schools that criticized Abu Nuwas’s behaviour, there were the Murji'ites who believed you could sin and still be a Muslim; the Hanafi school even believed that the consumption of weaker wine – nabidh – was permitted. However, “Abu Nuwas made a point of saying that he drinks khamr,” adds Rowell, referring to the Arabic word for stronger wine.

“We know the hijaz region in which Islam was born was already steeped in wine – we know this from the poetry that precedes Islam,” he explains. “The Qur’an gives very mixed messages – there’s one verse that says wine has benefits for people. And even when it does take a harder stance the strongest it ever goes to say is ‘avoid it’. So, you have this debate for centuries after the advent of Islam amongst theologians – does this count as tahrim? Is it full forbiddance or not?”