Zulaykha in her palace and as an old woman with Joseph, from a Panj Ganj (Five Treasures) of Abd al-Rahman Jami (Persian, 1414–1492); verso from a Panj Ganj of Abd al-Rahman Jami (Persian, 1414–1492), with two masnavis: Yusuf va Zulaykha (Joseph and Zulaykha) and Khirad-nama-i Iskandari (Alexander’s Book of Wisdom)
Text copied by Sultan-Ali Mashhadi (Persian, 1453–1520) for Badi al-Zaman Mirza of Herat Painting, borders, and illumination by Mushfiq (Indian, active 1580s–early 1600s); Text copied in Herat; Painting, borders, and illuminations made in the Deccan for Mughal minister Abd al-Rahim the Khan Khanan
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
page: 31.6 × 20.4 cm · text area: 17.8 × 9.5 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
Accession Number
2013.315.1
Tags
About this artwork
The recto of this album leaf illustrates two episodes from the story of Joseph and Zulaykha. In the first, Zulaykha awaits Joseph in the house she has built for them. She has painted the walls with romantic scenes and dressed herself alluringly with the intention of seducing him. The artist has discreetly inserted his name and the painting’s date in a brick of the house at the upper left. The virtuous Joseph, with flaming halo and eternally youthful features, rejects the married woman’s advances...