Zuleikha is a figure in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

. She was the wife of

Potiphar Potiphar ( ; ; ) is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. His name possibly indicates the same figure as Potiphera (). Potiphar is the captain of the guard for a pharaoh who is said to have purchased Joseph as a slave and, impressed by hi ...

, the captain of Pharaoh's guard in the time of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

and his twelve sons. According to the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

, she falsely accused

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

of attempted rape after he rejected her sexual advances, resulting in his imprisonment. In Genesis she is given no name, but in later medieval Jewish sources and Islamic tradition, she is identified as Zuleikha ( ''zoo-LAY-kah''; ; ). The story of

Yusuf and Zulaikha ''Yusuf and Zulaikha'' (the English transliteration of both names varies greatly) is a title given to many tellings in the Muslim world of the story of the relationship between the prophet Yusuf and Potiphar's wife. Developed primarily from the a ...

is a popular one in Islamic literature.

In Genesis

The

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

Genesis 39:5–20
narrates her treatment of

, slave to her husband

In Quran

Potiphar's wife, as well as Potiphar himself, are not explicitly named in the Quran, though it alludes to a governor (Arabic: العزيز al-azīz) and his wife. The book narrates her treatment of

Yusuf Yusuf ( ') is a male name meaning " God increases" (in piety, power and influence).From the Hebrew יהוה להוסיף ''YHWH Lhosif'' meaning " YHWH will increase/add". It is the Arabic equivalent of the Hebrew name Yosef and the English na ...

as follows:

Interpretation

In Jewish sources

The Sefer haYashar adds more lurid details to Potiphar's wife's character. She tried to seduce Joseph with fine garments, delicious viands and amorous words but when these attempts failed, she resorted to threats. Joseph resisted every temptation and this caused the wife to feel sick. One day, she saw her friends cutting themselves with knives whilst they peeled oranges due to Joseph's appearance. The wife told them that she suffered like them because she was forced to see Joseph every day. Other Jewish traditions say that the wife tried to kill her husband so she could keep Joseph to herself. Joseph reprimanded her for making him complicit in attempted adultery and murder. But the wife told him that she and her people would accept Joseph's religion if he yielded. Again, Joseph told her that Yahweh does not desire "unchaste worshippers" and after the wife invited him in a bedroom filled with idols, he told her that he feared Yahweh, who "saw all things". They also state that the wife attempted to seduce Joseph during a religious festival at the

Nile River The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the longest river i ...

and that everyone knew Joseph's innocence, including the wife's eleven month old child and

Asenath Asenath (, ; Koine Greek: Ἀσενέθ, ''Asenéth'') is a minor figure in the Book of Genesis. Asenath was a high-born, aristocratic Egyptian woman. She was the wife of Joseph and the mother of his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. There are t ...

, who was the first to inform Potiphar. But Potiphar imprisoned Joseph to save his wife from public humiliation. Even after Joseph's freedom, the wife forced Joseph to look at her by putting an iron spear beneath his chin. Once more, Joseph resisted.

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki (; ; ; 13 July 1105) was a French rabbi who authored comprehensive commentaries on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible. He is commonly known by the List of rabbis known by acronyms, Rabbinic acronym Rashi (). Born in Troyes, Rashi stud ...

comments that the wife of Potiphar saw through astrology that she would have children through Joseph. The astrological calculations however were slightly off. Asenath, her daughter (by adoption, in some accounts) became the wife of Joseph and therefore the wife of Potiphar begot grandchildren (not children) through Joseph.

In Islamic sources

Muslim scriptural commentators (Mufassirun) have regarded Zuleikha as a sinner and villainess with the exceptions of the Muslim mystic poets

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

, Hafiz and Jami. For Rumi, Zuleikha's obsession with Joseph is a symptom and manifestation of the soul's great deep longing for

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

. For this, he insists, it is true of any person's deep love for another.

Scholarly criticism

Scholars such as Meir Sternberg (1985) characterise the woman's repetitive behaviour towards Joseph as

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

. McKinlay (1995) noted that Potiphar's wife is treated as an object in his master's possession (Gen 39:8–9), and the reason Joseph refuses is not because he doesn't find her attractive, but because it would violate his master's trust and be a sin against the God

Yahweh Yahweh was an Ancient Semitic religion, ancient Semitic deity of Weather god, weather and List of war deities, war in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, the national god of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Judah, Judah and Kingdom ...

. Secular feminist perspectives that are not trying to understand the biblical perspective but are critical of the patriarchal nature of the myth as part of broader textual criticism of the Old Testament have argued the woman is trying to assert herself as a person who makes her own choices instead of remaining an object owned by her husband, and invites Joseph to join her in this action which the narrative frames as a 'sin'. Simultaneously, however, she abuses her position of power as the slave master's wife to coerce Joseph into sex, and to punish him for refusal. Susan Tower Hollis (1989) demonstrated that the narrative of Potiphar's wife "is in line with certain ancient folk-tales", where a "woman makes vain overtures to a man and then accuses him of attempting to force her", with the man "unjustly punished for his alleged attempt to seduce the woman." Rachel Adelman suggests that both Potiphar and his wife were sexually attracted to Joseph and planned to assault him. But the angels castrated Potiphar, according to Talmudic legend, whilst his wife proceeded her plot so that Joseph could be the "Jewish hero" that resists the "bear". Others believe the story is a typical seduction/adultery plot, which was common in Hellenistic literature, and a criticism of assimilation in Egyptian society.

References

External links

* Ancient Egyptian women Asenath Book of Genesis people Joseph (Genesis) People of the Quran Potiphar's wife archetype in folklore Sexuality in the Bible Unnamed people of the Bible Women in the Hebrew Bible {{Islam-bio-stub