Who is Zulaykha
Zulaykha in the Bible
Our story of Zulaykha and Joseph starts in Genesis 39, when Joseph arrives in Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh (who is referred to in Islamic texts as al-Aziz and that’s what we’ll be calling him here), makes Joseph an overseer in his home. Almost immediately, Zulaykha, the Aziz’s wife, casts “longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, ‘lie with me’” (G 19:7). Zulaykha persists, day after day, and Joseph refuses. Finally, Zulaykha grabs Joseph by his clothes and he tears away. Zulaykha then accuses Joseph of being improper with her and the Aziz imprisons him. This is where Zulaykha’s role in the story ends, and Joseph continues his rise to power.
Zulaykha in the Qur'an
In the Qur’an, we are given more details about Joseph’s encounter with Zulaykha. Joseph, after being found in a well and sold as a slave, is brought to Zulaykha as a child. She helps to raise him and, when he’s matured, is enraptured by his handsomeness (Q. 12:22-23). When she attempts to seduce Joseph, he calls out directly for the Divine. This time Zulaykha grabs Joseph’s shirt and tears it, but before he has a chance to run away, they’re both discovered by the Aziz. Just as Zulaykha accuses Joseph of impropriety, both Joseph and a witness from the Aziz’s family rebut. The witness notes that Joseph’s shirt is torn from the back, meaning he couldn’t have torn it himself and it must’ve been torn by Zulaykha. Zulaykha is then asked to seek forgiveness, either from her husband, the Aziz, or from God, depending on the exegesis.
Zulaykha in other texts
Both the Biblical and Qurʾanic narrative leave something to be desired, namely a happy ending for our Zulaykha. This is where Haft Awrang, a 7-book masnavi by Persian poet Nur al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman Jami, comes in. Haft Awrang, which also elucidates classic love stories such as “Layla and Majnun” and “Salaman and Absal”, extends Zulaykha’s affection for Joseph from her childhood until her demise. In this version, Zulaykha shares Joseph’s gifts of prophetic vision, seeing herself married to the beautiful Aziz of Egypt. But after marrying the Aziz, Zulaykha realises that her true affection belongs to the local shepherd Joseph. Like the Biblical and Qurʾanic narratives, Joseph refuses her initial advances, but she stays persistent. But Haft Awrang rejoins our couple years after the events described in the Qur’an: through Angel Gabriel, God finally approves the union between Zulaykha and Joseph.
I'll be honest, I’m only including this text because it brings some of the themes highlighted below to the whimsical extreme.
Zulaykha in Women, Households, and the Hereafter in the Qur'an
In their new book, Women, Households, and the Hereafter in the Qur’an: a Patronage of Piety, authors Karen Bauer and Feras Hamza examine the narratives of women characters in the Qur’an. Three of these narratives fall into what they categorize as the “error, repentance, and redemption” story arc: Adam and Eve, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and Joseph and Zulaykha.
The authors argue that in the Qurʾanic narrative: “Zulaykha exposes Joseph physically, but it is she who is exposed morally” (p 125), highlighting the instance of Zulaykha tearing Joseph’s shirt. Unlike the Biblical text, the Qur’an offers Zulaykha no time to double down on her accusations of Joseph. But while the truth comes out nearly instantly, Joseph is still imprisoned, until Zulaykha confesses to her husband, thirty verses later. In Bauer and Hamza’s understanding, the decision to be imprisoned is just as much Joseph’s as it is the Aziz’s: Joseph insists that he would rather be imprisoned than “become one of the ignorant” (Q. 12:33). The word used in this ayat, al-jahileen, is also used to describe the pre-Islamic period of ignorance; Bauer and Hamza specify this as “moral ignorance” (p 126) but it takes on another meaning below.
The story itself seems to be a complex scheme: while Zulaykha schemes to seduce Joseph, God schemes to keep Joseph righteous. Bauer and Hamza use the word “scheme” to denote the Arabic root k-y-d, as cited in the common phrase: inna, kaydakunna ‘azim; indeed, women’s guile is great (Q. 12:28). The same root is used to describe God’s “scheme” for Joseph: kidna li-Yusuf (Q. 12:76). Ultimately, God’s scheme prevails in this narrative, and the other narratives Bauer and Hamza expound on: Zulaykha’s desires are only human, but God is merciful in all things.
For Bauer and Hamza, Zulaykha is just one example of a character who persists in disbelief despite obvious signs: Joseph’s obvious divine wisdom (Q. 12:22), the witness exposing the truth of Joseph’s exposure (Q. 12:26-28), and even her friends comparing him to an angel (12:31). In the Haft Awrang narrative, the witness is three months old and their first words are accusing Zulaykha, adding to the obviousness of her immorality. But it’s worth noting how closely physical impropriety and ignorance are linked in this text.
Kitab al-Kashf, attributed to Jaʿfar b Mansur al-Yaman contains a short explanation on the story of Joseph in its first and fifth treatises. One of the biggest changes of this narrative in Kitab al-Kashf is the removal of Zulaykha entirely. Instead, she is replaced by an unnamed “minister” of the Aziz. Translator and commentator Fârès Gillon cites Khariji interpretations of this surah which remove sexual licentiousness from the narrative entirely, adding that ghulat interpretations remove sexuality from their understanding of the imam entirely. For them, the story can’t be about sexual desire because human desires (including sex, hunger, and thirst) don’t apply to people of Joseph’s station.
Instead, the story of Joseph and Zulaykha becomes a metaphor for spiritual knowledge where initiation is represented by both marriage and fertilisation (p 131). Joseph’s beauty is then understood as the “excellence of his elucidation and explanation” (Kahf I 59). Here, Joseph doesn’t represent a slave refusing the advances of his master’s wife, but a da’i refusing to divulge secret knowledge to someone who demands it.
This gives new meaning to Joseph’s plea: “I may yield to them and fall into ignorance” (Q. 12:33). In medieval Shiʿi exegesis, those who have knowledge are in constant strife with the ignorant (using the same word: jahiliyya). For the author, Joseph sharing proprietary knowledge with the uninitiated would be tantamount to debasing himself physically with a married woman.
And this is where Haft Awrang makes an interesting return. After Joseph refuses Zulaykha’s initial advances, in this version of the story, Zulaykha sends a hundred maidens to visit him in the night. Her goal is for him to be seduced by one, allowing Zulaykha to lay with Joseph instead of the maiden. By morning time, Joseph has successfully converted all the maidens to monotheism and Zulaykha returns to see them singing the praises of the Divine.
Here we see the overlap between seduction and initiation explicitly in the text. This isn’t to say Haft Awrang is a Shiʿi text (it isn’t), but Joseph cleverly transforms the former action into the latter. And while Joseph’s evangelising is seen, in the moment, as a subversion of seduction, it’s ultimately Zulaykha’s acceptance of the Divine that results in her sexual satisfaction. In this version of the story, Zulaykha is initiated both into the most spiritual relationship (which is iman) and the most physical relationship (which is consummation) at the same time.
Between Zulaykha and Joseph
This interpretation of Zulaykha’s story (or rather, Joseph’s story, since Zulaykha’s not in it) isn’t unique to Kitab al-Kashf. On 9 May, David Hollenberg will delve into Shiʿi interpretations of this story from two more sources: Kitab al-Fara’id wa-Hudud al-Din (The Book of Allotments and the Limits of Religion) by Jaʿfar b Mansur al-Yaman and al-Risala al-Yusufiyya (The Joseph Epistle) by Abu al-Fath al-Baghdadi.
This lecture is part of the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series, our ongoing digital lecture series. Register to attend today, or watch the lecture series on their YouTube channel.