Epic
Yusuf-Zulekha
ইউসুফ-জুলেখা
Shah Muhammad Sagir · 1400
Synopsis
Zulekha, daughter of King Taimus, falls in love in a dream with a young man of unequalled beauty; on the strength of a dream, she marries Aziz, the master of Egypt. One day a slave sold by his brothers appears in Misr: it is Yusuf, the man of the dream. Bound to another, Zulekha uses every means to seduce him, and Yusuf refuses to yield; around this story, which comes from the Quran, many secondary episodes follow one another.
Context
Sagir composed the poem, it seems at the request of the sultan, whom he praises at the beginning of the book. He starts from an account that the Quran relates and that Persian poets had taken up, but he does not translate it: he recomposes it in payar and tripadi verse, in short episodes, in a setting and a language of Bengal, and adds episodes of his own invention, including the love of Ibn Amin, Yusuf's brother, and the princess Bidhuprabha. The date remains disputed: around 1400 for most sources, the second half of the fifteenth century for others.
Who it is for
A long poem in Old Bengali, divided into brief episodes; a scholarly edition and knowledge of the Quranic narrative help in reading it.
Prizes and reception
It is regarded as the oldest Bengali poem by a Muslim author and as the first of the verse love stories; Abdul Hakim and Shah Garibullah took up the subject.