Since its initial publication in 1942, Mohammad-Taqi Bahar’s “Sabkshenâsi” (“Stylistics”), perhaps the first ‘modern’ work of Persian literary historiography and stylistics which defines the discipline and canon of Persian literature, has remained deeply influential. Some scholars have addressed the role of gender specifically within the context of Iranian nationalism, including Bahar’s work as a nationalist literary critic. However, outside of analyses of the gendered aspects of the concept of Iran as nation, the categories of gender and sexuality remain largely unexamined in academic discussions of Bahar and his writings. This paper is an attempt to begin analyzing gender and sexuality more seriously in Bahar’s literary criticism. In particular, I will focus on drawing out his views on the traditionally homoerotic sexual aesthetics of classical Persian poetry, examining them in relation to the European ‘modernist’ disdain for homoeroticism and addressing the contradictory position Bahar (as both a defender of classical aesthetics and a champion of ‘modernization’) finds himself in. I will also consider his contempt for the Persian literature of India with regard to the question of sexual aesthetics, thinking through how Bahar dealt with the convention of heterosexual love in the Indian poetic tradition, which presented a challenge to his historiographical project, not fitting neatly into either Iranian classical conventions or European ‘modern’ ones. Theoretically, my paper will be guided primarily by Afsaneh Najmabadi’s work on modernity and shifting sexual aesthetics in Iran, particularly in her “Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards.” It will also be informed by discussions of Iranian homoerotic aesthetics in Sirus Shamisa’s “Shâhed-bâzi dar Adabiyât-e Fârsi” (“Witness-Play in Persian Literature”) and Willem Floor’s “A Social History of Sexual Relations in Iran,” as well as C.M. Naim’s description of Indian sexual aesthetics in his essay “The Theme of Homosexual (Pederastic) Love in Pre-Modern Urdu Poetry.” By bringing Bahar’s conflicted views on sexual aesthetics to the forefront of analyzing his literary criticism, I hope to further our understanding of his monumental work in the field of Persian literature, and contribute to the discussion on the role of sexuality in the making of Iranian modernity.