Zulaikha Meaning

ZULAIK͟HĀʾ, more correctly ZALĪK͟HĀʾ (زليخاء‎). The wife of Potiphar (Qit̤fīr). Al-Baiẓāwī says she was also called Rāʿīl. An account of her tempting Joseph is found in the XIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, 23–25:—

“And she in whose house he was, conceived a passion for him, and she shut the doors and said, ‘Come hither.’ He said, ‘God keep me! Verily my lord hath given me a good home: verily the injurious shall not prosper.’

“But she longed for him; and he had longed for her had he not seen a token from his Lord (the apparition of his father, who said, ‘Hereafter shall the names of thy brethren, engraven on precious stones, shine on the breast of the High Priest. Shall thine be blotted out?’). Thus we averted evil and defilement from him; verily he was one of our sincere servants.

“And they both made for the door, and she rent his shirt from behind; and at the door they met her lord. ‘What,’ said she, ‘shall be the recompense of him who intended evil to my family, but a prison or a sore punishment?’

“He said, ‘She solicited me to evil.’ And a witness in her own family (an infant in the cradle) witnessed: ‘If his shirt be rent in front, then hath she spoken truth, and he is a liar:

“ ‘But if his shirt be rent from behind, then she hath lied and he is a man of truth.’

“And when his lord saw his shirt torn from behind, he said, ‘This verily is one of your devices! verily your devices are great!

“ ‘Joseph! turn away from this; and thou O wife, ask pardon for thy crime: verily thou hast sinned.’

“And in the city the women said, ‘The wife of the Prince hath solicited her servant: he hath fired her with love: verily we perceive her to be in a manifest error.’

“And when she heard of their cabal, she sent to them and got ready a banquet for them, and gave each one of them a knife, and said, ‘Joseph, come forth to them.’ And when they saw him they extolled him, and cut their hands (instead of their food, through surprise at his beauty), and said, ‘God keep us! This is no man! This is none other than a noble angel!’

“She said, ‘This, then, is he about whom ye blamed me. And I wished him indeed to yield to my desires, but he stood firm. But if he obey not my command, he shall surely be cast into prison, and become one of the contemptible.’

“He said, ‘O my Lord! I prefer the prison to compliance with her bidding: but unless Thou turn away their snares from me, I shall play the youth with them, and become one of the unwise’:

“So his Lord heard him and turned aside their snares from him: verily He is the Hearer, the Knower. [717]

“Then resolved they, even after they had seen the signs of his innocence, to imprison him for a time.”

The explanations put into parentheses are notes of Mr. Rodwell’s, in whose translation the passage is given, and who quotes the corresponding Talmudic legends.

This story of Yūsuf wa Zulaik͟hāʾ has been celebrated in a well-known Persian poem by ʿAbdu ʾr-Raḥmān Jāmī, and hence Joseph has become the Adonis of the East.