Muhammad: The Hijraone of whom is to be crucified (v. 41). When the king has his dream, the
other servant goes to Joseph to get its interpretation (vv. 45f), which
implies a fifteenth year of rain (v. 49). The Egyptian's wife a^115 dmits her
guilt when the king investigates Joseph's case (vv. 50f). Aft^116 er Joseph's
brothers come to Egypt, for which no reason is given (v. 58), the money is
put back in their sacks in hopes that they will return (v. 62). The brothers
complain to Jacob that they would have been able to bring one more load if
their brother [Benjamin] had gone with them (vv. 63f). The return of all the
brothers to Egypt seems to have been immediate (vv. 65f), and their father
advises them to enter the city through doors separate from one another (v.
67). Joseph secretly tells his brother [Benjamin] his iden^117 tity (v. 69). It^118
is said that it would have been illegal for Joseph to arrest his brother, and
when the brother [Benjamin] is brought before Joseph for the theft of his
chalice, the other brothers accuse both him and his brother [Joseph] of theft
(v. 77). The confused text of vv. 81f clearly shows that the bro^119 thers then
returned to Jacob without their brother [Benjamin] and also without
knowing Joseph's identity. Jacob, however, knows that Joseph is alive (vv.
86, 97). The brothers return to Egypt again, and when they ask f^120 or alms
(v. 88), they are confronted by Joseph (v. 89) and realize who he is (v. 90).
The brothers then take Joseph's shirt, to place it on Jacob's face and heal his
blindness (v. 93). Jacob smells Joseph's scent when the carav^121 an set off
from Egypt (v. 94), and he receives his sight when Joseph's shirt is placed
on his face (v. 96). Joseph then welcomes his parents to Egypt (v. 100),^122
and later prays to die a Muslim (v. 102). The story of Joseph is said to have
been revealed to Muhammad (v. 103), who requests no wage for it
(v. 104). The vv. 105f speak of the disbelief in God's signs and^123
punishment, and the vv. 109f allude to the previous messengers to other
peoples. Oddly enough, the Qur'anic narrative of Joseph mentions neither
the names of his brothers, nor does it refer to the king of Egypt as
"Pharaoh." The Qur'anic version of this story is at times so am^124 biguous
that the reader has to have read the Biblical accounts to understand the
plot. The Arabic name for Joseph [Yusuf] is thought to have co^125 me from
the Jews, the foreign word for "cattle" (v. 65) probably came^126 from
Aramaic (or Syriac), and the word for "cup" (v. 72) is from the E^127 th-
iopic.^128