Yusuf and Zulayka is a lengthy narrative, written in this version by the Persian mystic and poet, Jami, in the 15th century. It is based on the story of the biblical Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (named Zulayka in Muslim tradition) as it is portrayed in Sura 12 of the Quran. In this version, Zulayka’s love for Joseph is pre-ordained from heaven and, crucially, their relationship is never consummated. This serves as a model for the mystical ideal: one can never know what it means to love God unless one first experiences love for another human, but carnal love cannot be part of that ideal. Hence a genuine love, never consummated, is the ideal model. 

This manuscript was produced in Mashhad, Persia (Iran), in 1853. Written in Judeo-Persian and magnificently illustrated, this work took shape at a difficult time for Mashhadi Jews. In 1839, anti-Jewish riots led to forced conversion of Mashhad’s Jews, many of whom continued Jewish practices in secret. The current text, a Sufi version of the Yusuf and Zulayka story, was produced by nominally Muslim former Jews, therefore. But the manuscript is obviously the product of much love on the part of its creators—it is not a work done begrudgingly by resentful recent converts. Given the fact that Jews living in Muslim lands were for centuries attracted to the teachings of Sufism, it is more likely that this manuscript is testimony to that long-standing attraction. 

The present image depicts a key moment in the story. The background is the biblical story of Zulayka’s (Potiphar’s wife’s) attempted seduction of Joseph. In the Quran’s version of this story, as Potiphar enters the room in which the attempted seduction is taking place, he discovers that it is his wife who is in the wrong and Joseph is innocent. Zulayka is humiliated by this discovery and attempts to save her reputation by inviting women of the court to witness Yusuf’s great beauty, which would have left them powerless to resist as well. The image you see here depicts the moment when Yusuf has entered, leading the assembled women to cut themselves with paring knives or to faint away. Significantly, a related version of this story appears in rabbinic midrash.