Yusuf and Zulaikha retells the story of Joseph (Yusuf) and Potiphar’s wife, who is named Zulaikha by tradition. Their story is included in the sacred books of all three major Western religions, in the Holy Quran at Surah Yusuf 12:21-34, and in the Torah and the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 39. The excerpts here (in Chapter 5, Chapter 12, Chapter 15, and Chapter 18) are taken from the poet Jami’s version, one of the seven books in his Haft Awrang, or “Seven Thrones.” Jami, the pen name of Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami, was born in Afghanistan in 1414 and wrote more than eighty books of poetry, history, and Sufi religious studies before his death in 1492. While no modern translation of Yusuf and Zulaikha is widely available, an 1882 translation by Ralph Griffith can be found on the Internet and in the public domain.

The Shahnameh (quoted in Chapter 10) describes the founding of the Persian Empire in the area we now know as Iran. The title literally translates as “The Great Book,” but as “Shah” means “king” in Persian, it is commonly known as the “Book of Kings.” An epic poem with more than fifty thousand couplets, it was written by the Persian poet Firdawsi over the course of thirty years, from 977-1010 A.D. Hakm Abu’l-Qsim Firdaws Ts was born in the city of Tus around 935. Many stories surround the poem’s early reception, as the sultan for whom it was written at first refused to pay the sum promised to Firdawsi; but after the poet’s death in 1020, it was recognized as both a masterpiece and the national saga of Persia. The translator Dick Davis recently published a full translation of the epic in combination prose and poetry, with several abridged versions available.

The excerpts here were newly translated especially for Words in the Dust by Roger Sedarat, a professor of poetry and translation at Queens College in New York City. Please visit his website at www.sedarat.com.