Firdawsī and the story of Joseph between Shiraz and Herat in the early 15th century

Firdawsī and the story of Joseph between Shiraz and Herat in the early 15^th century: text and context of an early manuscript of Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā 

This lecture will focus on the emergence, nature and context of a narrative poem on the prophet Joseph (Yūsuf) and Zulaykhā, composed in the metre mutaqārib and ascribed to Firdawsī. Many Persian prose and poetry renditions exist on the widely known love story about Yūsuf and Zulaykhā, which is based on Biblical and Quranic narratives. The first traces of Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā in mutaqārib, connected to Firdawsī, appear in the early 15^th century. Studies on this Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā are quite rare; if it discussed at all, it is mostly in the framework of the disputed attribution to Firdawsī and the questions surrounding the authorship of the many versions of this text. In this lecture, I will focus in particular on some aspects of an enigmatic illustrated manuscript kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and believed to be the oldest manuscript of Yūsuf-u Zulaykhā in mutaqārib.