A sequence of deceptions fuels the narrative. When he is young, Joseph’s
paternal aunt Leah, besotted by his beauty, falsely claims that he stole her
father Isaac’s belt. The accusation enables her to demand his perpetual
companionship.^2 Upon her death, he joins his family in the house of his
father, Jacob. His brothers envy his favored status, take him on an outing,
throw him down a well, and tell Jacob that a wild animal has killed him.
Rescued, sold as a slave, and purchased by an unnamed high official of the
Egyptian Pharaoh, Joseph becomes the object of his master’s wife’s
desires.^3 He damages his garment while escaping her attempt at seduction.^4
She tries to protect herself by claiming that he tried to rape her. In the Bible,
he goes to prison. In the Quran, he is exonerated through the intervention
of a witness from her family, who suggests that a frontal rip reflects his
guilt, a posterior rip, hers. Her husband declares this event an example of
the guile of women.^5 The women of the town gossip that the wife tried to
seduce her slave. The wife hosts a banquet in which all her friends realize
the power of his unearthly beauty. They demand his favors. Seeking escape,
he prays to go to prison despite his innocence. In Genesis, the gathering
takes place before the seduction, and includes a detail absent from the
Quran, yet central to later poetry: that the guests were given citrons.^6 The
(^2) at-Ta’labi, 2002 : 149.
(^3) Various traditions name the official differently. In Genesis, he is Potiphar, captain of the guard,
but Ginsberg indicates that in earlier commentaries he is the chief cook (Ginzberg, 1946 : V, 327,
n. 111). The Bereshit Rabbah provides an etymology for the name‘Potiphar’linking him with
idolatry:“he fattened bullocks (the word‘fatten’contains the letters PT, and the word bullocks,
PR, hence the name of Potiphar contains the letters that stand for‘fatten bullocks’for idolatry).
He was called Potiphar, because he exposed himself before idols.”He was“physically castrated,
which teaches that Potiphar bought Joseph only for sexual purposes, so the Holy One, blessed be
he, physically castrated him.”This implication of his homosexual desire for Joseph emerges
again through later descriptions of his pleasure in Joseph’s company and growing dependence
on his servant. Many later Christian exegetes, following in the tradition of Jerome, interpreted
this to mean that Potiphar was one of Pharaoh’s eunuchs.
In the Quran he has no name or rank but is simply an Egyptian.
The wife has no name in Genesis or the Quran. Ginzberg cites the earliest commentaries as
mentioning her as Pentophoe. Al-Thalabi cites her as Ra’il, al-Kisa’i, as Zuleikha, and Baidawi as
Ra’il or Zuleikha. In Sa’di, Jami, and all later references, her name is Zuleikha. A thirteenth/
fourteenth-century anonymous Arabic poem on the theme, probably from Egypt, also uses the
name Zuleikha. Ginzberg indicates that the name Zuleikha entered Jewish traditions in
sixteenth-century commentaries (Ginzberg, 1946 : V, 327, n. 111, 113; Neusner, 1985 : 222;
Mattox, 2003 : 235; Ebied and Young, 1975 ).
(^4) In most renditions, his garment rips. In Genesis, he leaves his garment in her hand.
(^5) The witness is not referenced in Genesis. In the Quran, the identity of the witness as coming
from her family underscores deception against familial loyalties. Ginzberg identifies the witness
as her child, but his Midrashic citation is not clear (Ginzberg, 1946 : 57). Both al-Thalabi and al-
Kisa’i say it was either her cousin or a baby.
(^6) Kugel, 1990 : 29.
Between Midrashic and Quranic Commentaries 225