Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Search Results: objects

Show search help

Search Help

  • Searching for multiple terms
    • AND search: If you enter more than one search term in the search box, your search will retrieve results that contain all those terms. For example, enter ‘Iraq Iran', to find all object records containing both ‘Iraq' and ‘Iran'.
    • OR search: If you want to search for either one term or another, enter your search terms separated by ‘or'. For example, enter ‘Japan or China' to find all object records containing either Japan or China.
  • Partial wordsearch
    • Enter your term followed by an asterisk (*). For example, entering ‘Islam*' would return results for all records containing words beginning with ‘Islam', such as ‘Islam', ‘Islamic', and ‘Islamabad'.
  • Searching is always case insensitive
    • For example, searching for ‘India' is the same as searching for ‘india'.
  • Searching for a specific word or phrase
    • Enter your term within double quotation marks (""). For example, to search for the term Abbasid period, enter "Abbasid period".
  • Excluding a termfrom your search
    • Enter the term you want to search for, then a minus or subtraction sign, followed by the term you wish to exclude from your search. For example, if you want to search for records with the term ‘stoneware' but exclude records with the term ‘green', enter ‘stoneware -green'.
  • Searching in non-Latin alphabets
    • It is possible to search using non-Latin alphabets.
    • We do not currently translate all information into other languages.
    • We dotry to record information in non-Latin alphabets where it is:
      • An object's original title
      • A person's name
      • An inscription on an object
Set of five tiles depicting Yusuf appearing before the women of Memphisfront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Reference URL
?

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Contains...

Set of five tiles depicting Yusuf appearing before the women of Memphis

  • Description

    These tiles [EA1965.169 & EAX.3135] come from two different sets depicting the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha. Based on the twelfth sura (chapter) of the Qur’an, it originally derives from the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in the Old Testament.

    In the Qur’anic version, Yusuf is a handsome slave in the service of an Egyptian man. His master’s wife, named Zulaikha in later literature, attempts to seduce him unsuccessfully.

    Both the single tile and this set depict the episode of Yusuf’s appearance before the women of Memphis. Overcome by his beauty, they faint or cut themselves with the knives they hold in their hands.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › Iran (place of creation)
    Date
    2nd half of the 19th century
    Qajar Period (1779 - 1925)
    Material and technique
    fritware, moulded, with polychrome underglaze painting
    Dimensions
    42 x 136.1 x 4.5 cm (height x width x depth)
    Material index
    processed material › ceramic › glazed composition › stonepaste › fritware
    Technique index
    formed › moulded,
    moulded,
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    covered › coated › painted,
    more
    Object type index
    architecture › tile
    No. of items
    5
    Credit line
    Presented by Miss H. Croker, 1953.
    Accession no.
    EAX.3135

  • Further reading

    Scarce, Jennifer M., ‘Yusuf and Zulaikha - Tilework Images of Passion’, James Allan, ed., Islamic Art in the Ashmolean Museum, Part Two, Oxford Studies in Islamic Art, 10 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), x.2, passim, illus. p. 68 fig. 6

Glossary (2)

fritware, underglaze painting

  • fritware

    Ceramic material composed of ground quartz and small quantities of clay and finely ground frit (frit is obtained by pouring molten glass into water).

  • underglaze painting

    Painting applied to ceramic material before a transparent, or monochrome or coloured glaze for Islamic objects, is applied. The technique was initially developed in China.

Location

    • First floor | Room 31 | Islamic Middle East

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Galleries

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum