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Yusuf and Zulaykha meeting
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
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.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineYusuf and Zulaykha meeting, c. 1764. India, Provincial Mughal, Lucknow, 18th century. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; overall: 40.5 x 28 cm (15 15/16 x 11 in.); average: 21.5 x 15 cm (8 7/16 x 5 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., for the Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection, 1939.164
