Persian Early versions The first surviving Persian narrative account of Yusuf and Zulaikha is a probably eleventh-century
mathnawī called
Yūsuf u Zulaykhā. From as early as the fifteenth century into the twentieth, this account was thought to be by the renowned poet
Firdawsī, composer of the secular Persian epic
Shahnameh, but the authorship is now regarded as unknown.
ϒūsuf u Zulayk̲h̲ā mentions earlier versions of the same story, now lost, by Abu l-Muʾayyad Balkhī and Bakhtiyārī. At least two main redactions of
ϒūsuf u Zulayk̲h̲ā are known, with different versions as short as 6,500 lines and as long as 9,000. While
Yūsuf u Zulaykhā does not seem to have been particularly influential on Persian tradition, it was a key source for the account of Yusuf in
Shāhīn-i Shīrāzī's Judaeo-Persian
Bereshit-nāma, a
mathnawī on the Book of Genesis composed around 1358. As well as being available in a scholarly edition of the Persian, the work has been translated into German, French, Russian, and English. Jami opens the poem with a prayer. In Jami's version, Zulaikha is the main character and even more important thematically and narratively than Yusuf. Yusuf, on the other hand, is a two-dimensional character. Another difference in Jami's version is that the overwhelming majority of the story is unrelated to the Qur’an. Finally, Jami claims that his inspiration to write this version of the story comes from love.'s party. Painting in
Takyeh Moaven-ol-Molk,
Kermanshah,
Iran In South Asia Shah Muhammad Saghir As Islam continued to spread, authors across Asia resonated with the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha. Jami's adaptation of the famous tale served as the model for many writers. Bengali author
Shah Muhammad Saghir also published his own reinterpretation. Though little information is available about his life and the sources from which he drew, it is assumed to have been written between 1389 and 1409. Through this work, he set the precedent for romance in
Bengali literature. One of the unique attributes of Sagir's version is the change of setting, as his poem takes place in
Bengal. A prime example of syncretism, it blends elements of
Hindu culture with the classic Islamic tale, which in turn encourages readers to coexist with other faiths. It is also testament to Islamic influence on the
Indian subcontinent. It is known for its detailed descriptions of Yusuf and Zulaikha's physical beauty, and begins with the two protagonists' childhoods, which then unravels into a tale full of passion and pursuit. Sagir's
Yusuf-Zulekha also keeps in touch with the Islamic values found in the original story and echoes the Sufi belief that to love on earth is to love
Allah. Although Sagir intended his poem not to be read as a translation of the Quranic version nor as sourced from the Persians before him, he did borrow
Persian linguistic traditions in order to write it. Following the introduction of Sagir's poem, other Bengali writers throughout the centuries took inspiration and created their own versions of Yusuf and Zulaikha, including
Abdul Hakim and Shah Garibullah. Hakim took his inspiration directly from Jami, while Garibullah chose to write something more unique.
Other versions There also exists a
Punjabi Qisse version of Yusuf and Zulaikha, composed by Hafiz Barkhurdar, that contains around 1200 pairs of rhyming verses. He, too, was inspired by Jami, while incorporating his own stylistic choices. In Barkhurdar's version, Yusuf is reunited with his father, Yaqub at the end. This is an example of a written
qissa, or a Punjabi style of storytelling that emphasizes folkloric tradition. Barkhurdar's rendition was not published until the nineteenth century, and by then it was considered too antiquated for mainstream reading. In fact, many versions of Yusuf and Zulaikha have been lost to time. However, the popularity of the story can be used to measure the impact of
Persianization on South Asia. This is evident in Maulvi Abd al-Hakim's interpretation of Yusuf and Zulaikha, which directly imitates Jami as well as other features of the Persian language. Nevertheless, these stories contributed to the development of the 'qissa' as a genre. Based on
Jami's Persian version, Munshi
Sadeq Ali also wrote this story as a poetic-style
puthi in the
Sylheti Nagari script, which he titled
Mahabbatnama. Other writers who retold the story were
Sayyid Mīrān Hāshimī (d. 1108 AH/1697 CE), who put the story into
mathnāwī form as
Yūsuf u Zulaykhā in 1098 AH/1687 CE, and
Mahmud Gami (d. 1855) in
Kashmiri.
In Turkic languages A version by
Mahmud Qırımlı from the thirteenth century CE is regarded as the
first literary work written in the
Crimean Tatar language; meanwhile, a ''Kyssa'i Yusuf'' in
Old Tatar by
Qul Ğəliy is thought to have been completed around the same time and remained hugely influential among Muslim Tatars into the nineteenth century. The
Qiṣaṣ-i Rabghūzī, a
Khwārazm Turkish collection of stories of the prophets completed around 1310/11 CE, gives a prominent place to an account of Yusuf and Zulaikha, claiming that it is the best of stories. In the summary of
Barbara Flemming, Yūsuf, the dreamer of dreams, favourite of his father, cast into a well by his brothers, rescued and sold to the master of a caravan, led into Egypt, encounters the female protagonist, Zulayk̲h̲ā, the wife of the mighty one of Egypt, ʿAzīz Miṣr [...] named Ḳiṭfīr [...]. Her beauty is second only to that of Yūsuf. She wishes to commit adultery with him; Yūsuf is acquitted but goes to prison, where he interprets dreams. Zulayk̲h̲ā’s love is eventually rewarded when as an aged, blind and poor widow, she is brought before Yūsuf. She recovers her youth, her beauty, and her sight, and
D̲j̲ibrīl performs their marriage [...] Zulayk̲h̲a is a virgin, Ḳiṭfīr having been an eunuch. They live together for eighteen years and have seven children. In 1492 CE, an
Ottoman Turkish mathnawī of
Yusuf and Zulaikha, mixing poetry in the
khafīf metre with
ghazal was completed by
Ḥamd Allāh Ḥamdī. It was primarily based on Jami's Persian version, but also claimed to draw on the earlier Persian version attributed to Firdawsī. According to Flemming, Putting some emphasis on Yūsuf and his envious brothers, Ḥamdī devotes much space to Zulayk̲h̲a, the daughter of King Taymūs, who marries Ḳiṭfīr by mistake, having fallen in love with Yūsuf in a dream; her attempts to obtain her desire by entreaty and by craft, and Yūsuf’s almost faltering resolution, flight, and imprisonment; his appointment as
ʿazīz of Egypt, followed by the death of Zulayk̲h̲ā’s husband, are described. She ages through grief and is reduced to poverty and blindness, but turns in penitence to God and finds favour in His eyes. Yūsuf marries Zulayk̲h̲a. whose beauty and sight are restored to her; her love, however, has passed from love for Yūsuf to the love of the divine beauty, so that she flees from him and they are equal in their love. Reunited with his father and brothers, Yūsuf dies. Zulayk̲h̲a dies on his grave. and
Taşlıcalı Yahya (d. 990 AH/1582 CE). Among the last great Turkic accounts of Yusuf and Zulaikha is
Ḥadīḳat al-suʿadāʾ by
Fuḍūlī (d. 1556), whose manuscripts are often illustrated and which depicts Yusuf and Zulaika alongside other stories of prophets. == In art ==