Painting

Yusuf and Zulaykha meeting

c. 1764

From the archive

Joseph, called Yusuf in Arabic and Persian sources, had been thrown into a well by his jealous older brothers. Although his eldest brother intended to return and rescue him, Joseph was taken by a caravan and brought to Egypt to be sold as a slave. When Zulaykha saw Joseph in the market, she recognized him as the lover she had seen in her dreams since childhood and so purchased him for herself. When read as a religious allegory, Zulaykha’s passionate desire for Joseph is interpreted as the yearning of the soul to be joined with the perfect beauty of God.

Associated place: Lucknow, India
Material & technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

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The record behind the work

Place & date

The museum gives the cultural attribution “India, Provincial Mughal, Lucknow, 18th century”. The named locality “Lucknow” is mapped to Lucknow using a representative city coordinate. This cultural association does not establish a creation site or depicted location.

Geographic evidence ↗

The archive gives an approximate date or a range of years. The timeline uses that same range.