Between Zulaykha and Joseph
Surprising little has been written about exegesis of Surat Yusuf, the Qurʾan’s “greatest of narration” (ahsan al-qasas), and certainly the longest and most substantial narrative in the Qurʾan. The little that has been written about Shiʿi interpretations of the Surat Yusuf has generally taken as its starting point Sunni exegesis, Jewish exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, or both. This paper describes two interpretations in hitherto unpublished sources of esoteric literature: the Ismaili missionary Jaʾfar b. Mansur al-Yaman’s (d. c. 960) Kitab al-fara’id wa-hudud al-din (The Book of [inheritance] Allotments and the Limits of Religion”), and the second, al-Risala al-Yusufiyya (The Joseph Epistle) by Abu al-Fath al-Baghdadi (thrived late fourth/tenth century).
Hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) and convened by Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series is designed to invite scholars of various international academic institutions, specialising in intellectual, social and political aspects of medieval and early modern Islamic societies, to present and discuss their research. Watch previous lectures on our YouTube channel.
Speaker
David Hollenberg
Associate Professor
David Hollenberg‘s research investigates how communities of believers apply narrative, doctrine, and ritual to form and maintain communal identity and differentiate themselves from those outside their group. He applies such questions to research on medieval Islam in general, and Ismaili and Nusayri Shiism in particular.
Dr Fârès Gillon
Fârès Gillon is maître de conférences in Islamic Studies and Arabic language at Aix-Marseille University. He obtained his doctorate in Arab and Islamic studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL). His recent publications include The Book of Unveiling, Early Fatimid Ismaili Doctrine in the Kitāb al-Kashf, attributed to Jaʿfar b. Manṣūr al-Yaman (2024). His research focuses primarily on Fatimid Ismailism, especially in its relations with its Shiʿi roots and with the parallel tradition of Nusayrism on which he has published several scholarly articles. He is also interested in the history of ideas in Islam, as well as in Islamic philosophy. He co-edited, with Mathieu Terrier, a bilingual anthology of philosophy in Islam (forthcoming).
