Christianate episteme, the transregional imposition of a globalized teleol-
ogy of universal patriarchy runs the risk of occluding complex engage-
ments with gender and sexuality.
If we interpret the poem as a metaphor, Zuleikha’s intimacy with the
divine functions very much like that of the Chinese princess behind the
images in the Fortress of Form. For is the“master artist”whose hand she
takes merely a great architect, capable of building a great palace? Or is he
the Divine, who builds the heavens and, within them, the Tablet of Being,
capable of bringing stone to life? Certainly Zuleikha has no capacity to
trick the all-knowing Divine into building a devious trap for her. What
appears in the worldly realm as deceit emerges in the sacral realm as
worship.
The ambiguity between the physical and divine artist not only exoner-
ates Zuleika as the representative of female guile, but suggests that divine
grace enables the artist, who therefore does not sin. This rendition of
creative genius reflects a distinction between Islamic and Kantian aes-
thetics. For Kant, the artist performing on the stage of creation assumes
divine subjectivity, enabling the artist to create like/as God,“without
concepts, as a pure and free productivity of the imagination.”^46 Islamic
thought conceives of the relationship between God and nature not as a God
bound by rules (a rationalist, Mu’tazilite position), but as a God choosing at
every moment not to violate apparent rules (except in the case of miracles)
by expressing presence through an ordered system pervading all levels of
creation, from the perceptual throughbarzakhand on to the divine. For
Jami, the engagement in creativity is not one that functions freely, outside
of rules but, through the permission of God, chooses to perfect those rules
in its expression.
Zuleikha seeks to replicate the power of her oneiric images through the
power of the physical image. To this end, she has the palace decorated with
images of her and Yusuf in moments of passion.
Everywhere in this Hall, the image-maker
Wrought a semblance of Joseph with a painting of Zulaykha
Together seated as Beloved and Lover
In love of soul’s and heart’s embrace:
Here he kissed her lip,
There she loosened his sash.
Should a glance [from any other artist] but thereupon glide,
Envy’s water from his own mouth shouldflow.^47
(^46) Rodowick, 2009 : 97. (^47) Barry, 2004 : 204–205.
From Theology to Poetry 237