Folios A and B from the "Five Treasures" (Panj Ganj) of Jami (1520–1607): Art, History and Details

Folios A and B from the "Five Treasures" (Panj Ganj) of Jami (1520–1607) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Mushfiq (Indian, active early 1600s); others (Indian).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The recto of this album leaf illustrates two episodes from the story of Joseph and Zulaykha. In the first, Zulaykha awaits Joseph in the house she has built for them. She has painted the walls with romantic scenes and dressed herself alluringly with the intention of seducing him. The artist has discreetly inserted his name and the painting’s date in a brick of the house at the upper left. The virtuous Joseph, with flaming halo and eternally youthful features, rejects the married woman’s advances, but many years later, when Zulaykha is an elderly widow, they are reunited. In the second episode we see the aged Zulaykha meeting Joseph. His prayers will restore her to youthful beauty, and the two will finally be joined as lovers. The section of text on the verso from Jami’s poem of Joseph and Zulaykha, written diagonally in the margins, describes the beauties of Zulaykha’s house, in which she intends to seduce Joseph. It includes the following verses: Jeweled lamps on the walls were hung; And odorous herbs were beneath them flung. She gathered together all things most fair, And unrolled the carpet of pleasure there. But amid the charms of the sumptuous hall She longed only for Joseph, far dearer than all. A heavenly palace is dark and dim To a lover whose darling is far from him. The longing of Zulaykha for Joseph metaphorically describes an imperfect devotee’s mystical love for God. With patience, forbearance, and virtuous actions, unification with the divine will eventually occur, even for the most flawed among us. On this page also begins the Khirad-nama-i Iskandari (Alexander’s Book of Wisdom), another of the five narrative poems that make up the Panj Ganj.

Object facts

• Title: Folios A and B from the "Five Treasures" (Panj Ganj) of Jami
• Date: 1520–1607
• Creator attribution: Mushfiq (Indian, active early 1600s); others (Indian)
• Culture: India, Mughal patronage in Deccan style, early 17th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 30.2 x 18.1 cm (11 7/8 x 7 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.315

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.