Zulaykha and Yusuf: Whose "best story"?

International Journal of Middle East Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 485-508

  Merguerian, Gayane Karen ^a   Najmabadi, Afsaneh ^b  

^a NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Program on US Russia Relations at Columbia s Harriman Institute   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0011887598     PISSN: 00207438     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S002074380006517X     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. ⊃an, sura 12.
2. ⊂Atīq ibn Muhammad Sūrābādī, Yūsuf va Zulaykhā az tafsīr-i Fārsī-i Turbat-i Jām [Joseph and Zulaykha from the Persian Commentary of Turbat-i Jām], ed. Parvīz Natl Khānlarī (Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, n.d.), 7.
3. ⊂a, 1989).
4. ⊂a, 1989).
5. ⊂a, 1989).
6. ⊂a, 1989).
7. ⊃ isha Bint Abi Bakr (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), chap. 4.
8. Fedwa Malti-Douglas, Woman's Body, Woman's Word: Gender and Discourse in Arabo-Islamic Writing (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991), chap. 3.
9. ⊃an, Tradition, and Interpretation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 50-56.
10. Ibid., 4.
11. Ibid., 56.
12. Arabic and Persian are the languages that between us we feel competent to use. For a discussion of this story in Turkish literature, see Stephanie Bowie Thomas, "The Story of Joseph in Islamic Literature With an Annotated Translation of the Pre-Ottoman Destan-i Yusuf by Seyyad Hamza" (M.A. thesis, Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Columbia University, 1992).
13. See Encyclopaedia Judaica Jerusalem (New York: Macmillan, 1971), 202-18, s.v. "Joseph."
14. The most important among these tales is perhaps Sandbādnāmah, which is considered to be the "mother tale" of many related ones of this genre, such as Tūtī-nāmah and Bakhtīārnāmah. The most intact Persian version of Sandbād'nāmah, by Muhammad al-Zahīrī al-Samarqandī (A.D. 12th century), is now available in several editions. The version edited by Ahmed Ateş (Istanbul: Milli Eǧitim Basimevi, 1948) contains an Arabic and a Turkish version of Sandbādnāmah. An early English translation of Sandbād'nāmah was published in 1884 in Glasgow ("privately printed"), The Book of Sindibād, trans. W. A. Clouston. The French translation is from al-Zahīrī's version, Le Livre des sept vizirs, trans. Dejan Bogdanovic (Paris: Sindbad, 1975). For a discussion of origins of Sandbādnāmah, see B. E. Perry, "The Origin of the Book of Sindbad," Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies 3 (1959): 1-94. For a useful anthology, see John D. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Literature: An Anthology of the Story of the Chaste Youth and the Lustful Stepmother (New York: New Directions, 1968).
15. The most important among these tales is perhaps Sandbādnāmah, which is considered to be the "mother tale" of many related ones of this genre, such as Tūtī-nāmah and Bakhtīārnāmah. The most intact Persian version of Sandbād'nāmah, by Muhammad al-Zahīrī al-Samarqandī (A.D. 12th century), is now available in several editions. The version edited by Ahmed Ateş (Istanbul: Milli Eǧitim Basimevi, 1948) contains an Arabic and a Turkish version of Sandbādnāmah. An early English translation of Sandbād'nāmah was published in 1884 in Glasgow ("privately printed"), The Book of Sindibād, trans. W. A. Clouston. The French translation is from al-Zahīrī's version, Le Livre des sept vizirs, trans. Dejan Bogdanovic (Paris: Sindbad, 1975). For a discussion of origins of Sandbādnāmah, see B. E. Perry, "The Origin of the Book of Sindbad," Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies 3 (1959): 1-94. For a useful anthology, see John D. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Literature: An Anthology of the Story of the Chaste Youth and the Lustful Stepmother (New York: New Directions, 1968).
16. The most important among these tales is perhaps Sandbādnāmah, which is considered to be the "mother tale" of many related ones of this genre, such as Tūtī-nāmah and Bakhtīārnāmah. The most intact Persian version of Sandbād'nāmah, by Muhammad al-Zahīrī al-Samarqandī (A.D. 12th century), is now available in several editions. The version edited by Ahmed Ateş (Istanbul: Milli Eǧitim Basimevi, 1948) contains an Arabic and a Turkish version of Sandbādnāmah. An early English translation of Sandbād'nāmah was published in 1884 in Glasgow ("privately printed"), The Book of Sindibād, trans. W. A. Clouston. The French translation is from al-Zahīrī's version, Le Livre des sept vizirs, trans. Dejan Bogdanovic (Paris: Sindbad, 1975). For a discussion of origins of Sandbādnāmah, see B. E. Perry, "The Origin of the Book of Sindbad," Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies 3 (1959): 1-94. For a useful anthology, see John D. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Literature: An Anthology of the Story of the Chaste Youth and the Lustful Stepmother (New York: New Directions, 1968).
17. The most important among these tales is perhaps Sandbādnāmah, which is considered to be the "mother tale" of many related ones of this genre, such as Tūtī-nāmah and Bakhtīārnāmah. The most intact Persian version of Sandbād'nāmah, by Muhammad al-Zahīrī al-Samarqandī (A.D. 12th century), is now available in several editions. The version edited by Ahmed Ateş (Istanbul: Milli Eǧitim Basimevi, 1948) contains an Arabic and a Turkish version of Sandbādnāmah. An early English translation of Sandbād'nāmah was published in 1884 in Glasgow ("privately printed"), The Book of Sindibād, trans. W. A. Clouston. The French translation is from al-Zahīrī's version, Le Livre des sept vizirs, trans. Dejan Bogdanovic (Paris: Sindbad, 1975). For a discussion of origins of Sandbādnāmah, see B. E. Perry, "The Origin of the Book of Sindbad," Fabula: Journal of Folktale Studies 3 (1959): 1-94. For a useful anthology, see John D. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in World Literature: An Anthology of the Story of the Chaste Youth and the Lustful Stepmother (New York: New Directions, 1968).
18. ⊃an, 1992); The Quran: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, trans. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991).
19. ⊃an, 1992); The Quran: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, trans. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991).
20. ⊃an, 1992); The Quran: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, trans. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991).
21. ⊃an, 1992); The Quran: The Eternal Revelation Vouchsafed to Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, trans. Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1991).
22. For a recent and thorough example, see Shalom Goldman, The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men: Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic Folklore (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995).
23. ⊂ār (Tehran: Khāvar, 1954), 105.
24. ⊂ār (Tehran: Khāvar, 1954), 105.
25. Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife, 4-6.
26. ⊃an, 54-55.
27. ⊃an, 54-55.
28. Abdelwahab Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), 29.
29. ⊂dī, 1958).
30. There are two English translations available, one translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith (London: Trubner & Co., 1882) and the other by David Pendlebury. Yusuf and Zulaikha (London: The Octagon Press, 1980).
31. For a French translation, see Youssouf et Zouleikha, trans. Auguste Bricteux (Paris: Paul Gauthner, 1927).
32. ⊂ama Brosh, Biblical Stories in Islamic Literature and Painting (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1991),
33. ⊂Abbāsī Museum, 1990).
34. ⊃ān as the Governor (Arberry) or the Prince (Dawood).
35. Khan's unusual translation is, "they pressed their fingers between their teeth" and "they gnawed their fingers." See Khan, The Quran: The Eternal Revelation, 221, 223.
36. In Genesis, the wife accuses Joseph, "He came to me to sleep with me, but I screamed, and when he heard me scream and shout he left his tunic beside me and ran out of the house." His master is furious and commits him to the king's prison. In other words, the test of truth - the shirt torn from behind - and the subsequent episodes until he is jailed are not there. Genesis 39:10-15. This is the last we hear of the wife in Genesis.
37. James L. Kugel, In Potiphar's House: The Interpretive Life of Biblical Texts (San Francisco: Harper, 1990), 55.
38. This scene is one of the most popular ones in pictorial representations of the story. See, for instance, Brosh, Biblical Stories, 52.
39. ⊃an, text ac companied by an interpretive rendering and notes by A. F. L. Beeston (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), 88. We will discuss this issue later in the article. In a similar move, Gilbert and Gubar associate the pricking of fingers in the fairy tales "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" with the heroines' being assumed into a domain of sexuality. See Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979), 37.
40. ⊃an, text ac companied by an interpretive rendering and notes by A. F. L. Beeston (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), 88. We will discuss this issue later in the article. In a similar move, Gilbert and Gubar associate the pricking of fingers in the fairy tales "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty" with the heroines' being assumed into a domain of sexuality. See Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979), 37.
41. ⊃ān and Woman (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1992), 32.
42. ⊃ān and Woman (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1992), 32.
43. ⊃ān and Woman (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1992), 32.
44. ⊂ārif bi-Misr, 1960), Tafsīr Sūrat Yūsuf, 16. All quotations from this work will be noted in the text by page number followed by paragraph number, if available.
45. Kugel, In Potiphar's House, 3 ff.
46. Kugel also notes a similar tendency in Jewish commentaries in In Potiphar's House, 22 ff. One could almost posit a rising significance to the figure of Zulaykhā through time. By the 15th century, when Jāmī tells it as a love story, she becomes the central figure of the narrative. As Pendlebury has noted, "It could be said that Zulaikha steals the show" (Pendlebury, Yusuf and Zulaikha, 173).
47. Kugel also notes a similar tendency in Jewish commentaries in In Potiphar's House, 22 ff. One could almost posit a rising significance to the figure of Zulaykhā through time. By the 15th century, when Jāmī tells it as a love story, she becomes the central figure of the narrative. As Pendlebury has noted, "It could be said that Zulaikha steals the show" (Pendlebury, Yusuf and Zulaikha, 173).
48. ⊂Azīz" throughout.
49. This conversation echoes a similar dialogue in some of the Jewish commentaries of the Genesis story. See Goldman, Wiles of Women, 38-39.
50. ⊂Azīz. This is another example of details that have most likely come from Midrashic sources, where it is explicitly said that Potiphar bought Yūsuf for his own pleasure, but Gabriel thwarted him by making him impotent. See Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1909-36), 2:43. See also Goldman, Wiles of Women, 44.
51. ⊂Azīz. This is another example of details that have most likely come from Midrashic sources, where it is explicitly said that Potiphar bought Yūsuf for his own pleasure, but Gabriel thwarted him by making him impotent. See Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1909-36), 2:43. See also Goldman, Wiles of Women, 44.
52. For a brilliant discussion of the female disruptions of male bonds in Arabic literature, see MaltiDouglas, Woman's Body, especially chaps. 1, 4, and 5.
53. ⊂ah al-Sharafiyya, 1889), 1:467.
54. There is no "would" in Arabic; this mood can be implied only by using conjunctions such as "except."
55. The verse is translated similarly in Arberry (p. 256) and Dawood (p. 237).
56. Baydāwī, Commentary, 90.
57. For Zamakhsharī, see Kashshāf, 1:478.
58. ⊃i, trans. W. M. Thackston, Jr. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978).
59. ⊃ dates to the turn of the 13th century. Ibid.
60. ⊃ī," in Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 5 (Leiden: Brill, 1980), 176.
61. ⊂ārif bi-Misr, 1960), 1:332. For an English translation of this part of Tārīkh, see The History of al-Tabarī, vol. II, Prophets and Patriarchs, trans. William M. Brinner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 148-85.
62. ⊂ārif bi-Misr, 1960), 1:332. For an English translation of this part of Tārīkh, see The History of al-Tabarī, vol. II, Prophets and Patriarchs, trans. William M. Brinner (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 148-85.
63. Kisaāī/Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, 169-70.
64. Ibid., 172.
65. ⊂Azīz. For a discussion of this theme, see Yohannan, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.
66. ⊂Iffat Mustashārnīā, Dāyah dar adabīyāt-i Fārsī (Nanny in Persian Literature) (Ph.D. thesis, Tehran University, 1978); Farzaneh Milani, "On Nannies, Gypsies, and Ideal Men: Figures of Mediation," paper presented at the First Biennial Conference of the Society for Iranian Studies, Arlington, Va., 14-16 May 1993; and Leyla Rouhi, A Comparative Typology of the Medieval Go-Between in Light of Western-European, Near-Eastern, and Spanish Cases (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1995).
67. ⊂Iffat Mustashārnīā, Dāyah dar adabīyāt-i Fārsī (Nanny in Persian Literature) (Ph.D. thesis, Tehran University, 1978); Farzaneh Milani, "On Nannies, Gypsies, and Ideal Men: Figures of Mediation," paper presented at the First Biennial Conference of the Society for Iranian Studies, Arlington, Va., 14-16 May 1993; and Leyla Rouhi, A Comparative Typology of the Medieval Go-Between in Light of Western-European, Near-Eastern, and Spanish Cases (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1995).
68. ⊂Iffat Mustashārnīā, Dāyah dar adabīyāt-i Fārsī (Nanny in Persian Literature) (Ph.D. thesis, Tehran University, 1978); Farzaneh Milani, "On Nannies, Gypsies, and Ideal Men: Figures of Mediation," paper presented at the First Biennial Conference of the Society for Iranian Studies, Arlington, Va., 14-16 May 1993; and Leyla Rouhi, A Comparative Typology of the Medieval Go-Between in Light of Western-European, Near-Eastern, and Spanish Cases (Ph.D. thesis, Harvard University, 1995).
69. ⊂labī, d. 427/1036.
70. ⊂Alī Asghar Hikmat (Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1960), 5:38
71. Kisāī/Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, 175.
72. Ibid.
73. ⊃ 96.
74. Tabarī, Tārīkh, 342.
75. Kisāī/Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, 176-78.
76. ⊃ī, ed., Tarjumah-i tafsīr-i Tabarī (Translation of Tabarī's Commentary) (Tehran: Tūs, 1988), 779-80.
77. ⊂, 368.
78. ⊃ iq, 449-50.
79. ⊃ iq, 449-50.
80. Maybudī, Kashf al-asrār, 5:61;
81. ⊃iq, 471-72;
82. and Tūsī, al-Sittīn, 354.
83. ⊃ī/Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, 179-80. See also Sūrābādī, Yūsuf va Zulaykhā, 52-55.
84. ⊃ī/Thackston, Tales of the Prophets, 179-80. See also Sūrābādī, Yūsuf va Zulaykhā, 52-55.
85. ⊃, 145-46.
86. ⊃ iq, 575-78.
87. ⊃, 146-48.
88. Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 28-29.
89. On the Sufi concept of love, see Annemarie Schimmel. Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975), 130-48; see also p. 429 for her discussion of Zulaykhā in Sufi poetry.
90. The centrality of ambiguity in Jāmī's poetry is brilliantly pointed out by Pendlebury: "Jami is the master of what could be called 'constructive ambiguity', which is never designed merely to confuse, nor is it ever the result of confused thinking; rather its function is to enable the mind simultaneously to entertain multiple possibilities - and grow in the process. An obvious example of this is the ambivalence of Jāmī's attitude towards his heroine: on the one hand there is no mistaking the love and passion he both feels for her himself and effectively arouses in his audience; but on the other hand his salute to Zulaikha has something of Junaid's salute to the condemned man, whose 'single-mindedness' had brought him to the gallows. . . . [T]he poet encourages conflicting attitudes towards Zulaikha so that his audience cannot walk away with any easy answers as to her nature, but are left instead with the impression of having encountered someone as real - and as unreal - as themselves" (Pendlebury, Yusuf and Zulaikha, 179).
91. Jāmī, Haft awrang, 595-96. Subsequent references will be noted in the text.
92. For a discussion of the challenges and problems of reading as a woman, see Jonathan Culler, "Reading as a Woman," in On Deconstruction: Theory and Criticism after Structuralism (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982), 43-64.
93. See Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Penguin Books, 1976). In his historical/cultural analysis of "Little Red Riding Hood," Jack Zipes dismisses psychoanalytic readings of fairy tales, and in particular that of Bettelheim, as ahistorical. See Jack Zipes, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1993), in particular the prologue and epilogue. Persuasive as his arguments are, they deal with how different writers imagined and rewrote the story in different historical and cultural settings and how different readers as parents and educators may have found a version useful for their educational purposes. The psychoanalytical line of argument proposed by Bettelheim, among others (and regardless of whether one finds any particular school persuasive), concerns how a very young listener relates to a particular version of a given fairy tale. It should be evident that the fascination of a two-year-old girl with the story "Little Red Riding Hood," demonstrated for instance by her insistence on hearing it night after night, could not be attributed to her desire to hear a story of metaphoric rape and dangers of female disobedience. In fact, because she already so strongly relates to the story, for reasons that we may not be able to access and analyze, a parent or educator can then inscribe her or his moral message on the young listener. In a similar way, when we speak of a listener to or reader of the Yūsuf story, we need to take into account a different set of issues from what may have been the narrative, ethical, moral, or political concerns of the commentators and writers of the story.
94. See Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Penguin Books, 1976). In his historical/cultural analysis of "Little Red Riding Hood," Jack Zipes dismisses psychoanalytic readings of fairy tales, and in particular that of Bettelheim, as ahistorical. See Jack Zipes, The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 1993), in particular the prologue and epilogue. Persuasive as his arguments are, they deal with how different writers imagined and rewrote the story in different historical and cultural settings and how different readers as parents and educators may have found a version useful for their educational purposes. The psychoanalytical line of argument proposed by Bettelheim, among others (and regardless of whether one finds any particular school persuasive), concerns how a very young listener relates to a particular version of a given fairy tale. It should be evident that the fascination of a two-year-old girl with the story "Little Red Riding Hood," demonstrated for instance by her insistence on hearing it night after night, could not be attributed to her desire to hear a story of metaphoric rape and dangers of female disobedience. In fact, because she already so strongly relates to the story, for reasons that we may not be able to access and analyze, a parent or educator can then inscribe her or his moral message on the young listener. In a similar way, when we speak of a listener to or reader of the Yūsuf story, we need to take into account a different set of issues from what may have been the narrative, ethical, moral, or political concerns of the commentators and writers of the story.
95. Pendlebury, Yusuf and Zulaikha, 179.
96. Jāmī, Haft awrang, 688.
97. ⊂Ali Thanawi, Perfecting Women: A Partial Translation with Commentary, trans. Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 375, 379.
98. ⊂Ali Thanawi, Perfecting Women: A Partial Translation with Commentary, trans. Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 375, 379.
99. ⊂Ali Thanawi, Perfecting Women: A Partial Translation with Commentary, trans. Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 375, 379.
100. ⊂Ali Thanawi, Perfecting Women: A Partial Translation with Commentary, trans. Barbara Daly Metcalf (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 375, 379.
101. For some such versions of "Little Red Riding Hood," see Zipes, Trials and Tribulations.
102. ⊃an), Zan-i rūz (Women's Day), 1318 (29 June 1991): 10-11.
103. ⊃an), Zan-i rūz (Women's Day), 1318 (29 June 1991): 10-11.
104. ⊃an), Zan-i rūz (Women's Day), 1318 (29 June 1991): 10-11.
105. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
106. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
107. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
108. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
109. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
110. ⊂Abd al-Latīf Tasūji, trans. Hizār va yik shab (Stockholm: Ārash, repr. n.d.), 4:168-217). In Sandbādnāmah, the king's slave concubine is in fact severely and gruesomely punished before being expelled from town. For an expanded discussion of the female figure in Sandbādnāmah, see Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Reading - and Enjoying - Wiles of Women Stories as a Feminist," unpublished manuscript.
111. ⊂ār-i Fārsī va mūsh va gurbah (Collected Persian Poems and Mouse and Cat), ed. Mahdi Tawhīdī-pūr (Tehran: Mahmūdī, 1958).
112. For a recent attempt to rewrite a guile-of-women story from a woman-friendly perspective, see Katāyūn Mazdāpūr, Rivāyatī dīgar az Dalīlah-i muhtālah va makr-i zanān (An/other Narrative of the Beguiling Dalīlah and Guile of Women) (Tehran: Rawshangarān, 1995).
113. Fatima Mernissi, "Who's Cleverer: Man or Woman?" in Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writings, ed. Margot Badran and Miriam Cooke
114. ⊂, 1986), 97-109.
115. ⊃iq, 426-39.
116. ⊂ilmī va farhangī, 1990), 137.
117. ⊂ wa-al-Nashr, 1965), 305. Emphasis ours.
118. The literature on sexual harassment in recent years may provide us with some vision of alternative narratives that become available when women begin to tell their stories. There are a number of ways in which coverage and interpretation of sexual harassment cases contrast with interpretations of sura Yūsuf that we have surveyed in this essay. When women have spoken up against unwanted sexual solicitation, the skeptical disbelief has been translated into a variety of sentiments, such as, "Well, it is natural sexual attraction. Only a prude would complain of it," or "She must have asked for it, encouraged it," and of course "She could say no." Compare these interpretative strategies to centuries of literary production around the story of Yūsuf and Zulaykhā, where the core tale was the reverse - that is, the story of a woman attempting to seduce the man. Yūsuf did not "ask for it," nor did he encourage it, although in some Jewish commentaries on the Genesis story there are hints of his improper and vain behavior that one can assume may have contributed to Zulaykhā's infatuation (see Goldman, Wiles of Women, 37-38). That the contemporary significance of Yūsuf and Zulaykhā occasionally extends beyond the Islamic world was displayed in a parallel drawn by a Harold Segall of Harrison, New York, who wrote the following remarkable letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal soon after congressional hearings were held to confirm Clarence Thomas's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment: "Why does everyone assume that sexual harassment is a one-gender activity? The spate of recent articles on sexual harassment in the workplace, stemming from the accusations against Clarence Thomas, do not mention several lawsuits in recent years in which the allegation was made by a male worker that the offense of sexual harassment was committed by a female superior. The first victim of sexual harassment mentioned in history was a man, Joseph, and the aggressor was Potiphar's wife" (Wall Street Journal 29 October, 1991, A23). Those hearings were significant from another perspective, as well: they dramatically illustrated the importance of having the contesting versions of male and female storytellers available to us. Told by contending voices, the story became a very different one from the simple line of the vengeful woman who has been rejected by the pious man.
119. The literature on sexual harassment in recent years may provide us with some vision of alternative narratives that become available when women begin to tell their stories. There are a number of ways in which coverage and interpretation of sexual harassment cases contrast with interpretations of sura Yūsuf that we have surveyed in this essay. When women have spoken up against unwanted sexual solicitation, the skeptical disbelief has been translated into a variety of sentiments, such as, "Well, it is natural sexual attraction. Only a prude would complain of it," or "She must have asked for it, encouraged it," and of course "She could say no." Compare these interpretative strategies to centuries of literary production around the story of Yūsuf and Zulaykhā, where the core tale was the reverse - that is, the story of a woman attempting to seduce the man. Yūsuf did not "ask for it," nor did he encourage it, although in some Jewish commentaries on the Genesis story there are hints of his improper and vain behavior that one can assume may have contributed to Zulaykhā's infatuation (see Goldman, Wiles of Women, 37-38). That the contemporary significance of Yūsuf and Zulaykhā occasionally extends beyond the Islamic world was displayed in a parallel drawn by a Harold Segall of Harrison, New York, who wrote the following remarkable letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal soon after congressional hearings were held to confirm Clarence Thomas's appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, during which Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment: "Why does everyone assume that sexual harassment is a one-gender activity? The spate of recent articles on sexual harassment in the workplace, stemming from the accusations against Clarence Thomas, do not mention several lawsuits in recent years in which the allegation was made by a male worker that the offense of sexual harassment was committed by a female superior. The first victim of sexual harassment mentioned in history was a man, Joseph, and the aggressor was Potiphar's wife" (Wall Street Journal 29 October, 1991, A23). Those hearings were significant from another perspective, as well: they dramatically illustrated the importance of having the contesting versions of male and female storytellers available to us. Told by contending voices, the story became a very different one from the simple line of the vengeful woman who has been rejected by the pious man.