YUSUF AND ZULAIKHA

Hakim Nuruddin Abdurrahman Jami
translated and edited by David Pendlebury

Octagon Press, London

A romantic tale which, as sheer gripping entertainment, bears comparison with the finest in any age or country. Described in the Qur'an as 'the most beautiful of stories,' the romance of Yusuf and Zulaikha is a theme to which Eastern poets have constantly returned. Undoubtedly in Jami's deeply moving and thought-provoking version it finds its finest expression. Written by the great Sufi poet in 1483, A.D., this masterpiece explores the intimate and many-leveled relationship between love and beauty and portrays erotic and divine love, not as irreconcilably opposite to each other, but as an allegorical continuum.