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Set of five tiles depicting Yusuf appearing before the women of Memphisfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

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Set of five tiles depicting Yusuf appearing before the women of Memphis

  • Description

    These tiles [EA1965.169 & EAX.3135] come from two different sets depicting the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha. Based on the twelfth sura (chapter) of the Qur’an, it originally derives from the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in the Old Testament.

    In the Qur’anic version, Yusuf is a handsome slave in the service of an Egyptian man. His master’s wife, named Zulaikha in later literature, attempts to seduce him unsuccessfully.

    Both the single tile and this set depict the episode of Yusuf’s appearance before the women of Memphis. Overcome by his beauty, they faint or cut themselves with the knives they hold in their hands.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Iran (place of creation)
    Date
    2nd half of the 19th century
    Qajar Period (1779 - 1925)
    Material and technique
    fritware, moulded, with polychrome underglaze painting
    Dimensions
    42 x 136.1 x 4.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    fritware
    Technique index
    moulded,
    moulded,
    painted,
    painted,
    painted,
    more
    Object type index
    tile
    No. of items
    5
    Credit line
    Presented by Miss H. Croker, 1953.
    Accession no.
    EAX.3135

  • Further reading

    Scarce, Jennifer M., ‘Yusuf and Zulaikha - Tilework Images of Passion’, James Allan, ed., Islamic Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Part Two, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), x.2, passim, illus. p. 68 fig. 6

Glossary (2)

fritware, underglaze painting

Location

    • First floor | Room 31 | Islamic Middle East

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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