# Yusuf and Zulaykha meeting

- Date: c. 1764
- Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 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.)
- Culture: India, Provincial Mughal, Lucknow, 18th century
- Credit line: Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., for the Coralie Walker Hanna Memorial Collection
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.164)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/cma/1939.164/1939.164_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

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.