Former Prophets

Yusuf Drawn from the Well

The Midianite caravan retrieves the prophet (peace be upon him) on the Canaan-Egypt road (Q 12:19)

The time of Yusuf (peace be upon him)

Imagined 360° reconstruction of Yusuf Drawn from the Well

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

A desert well on the caravan road between Kan'an (Canaan) and Misr (Egypt)

31.2000, 34.5000 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

The Qur'an records the retrieval of Yusuf (peace be upon him) from the well by the passing Midianite caravan in Surat Yusuf (Q 12:19-22). Yusuf (peace be upon him), the favoured son of Ya'qub (peace be upon him), had been the subject of his brothers' jealous plot: they had taken him out into the wilderness on the pretext of grazing the flocks, cast him into the bottom of a well, taken his shirt and stained it with the blood of a goat, and returned to their father saying that a wolf had eaten him (Q 12:11-18). The well was on the route of the Bronze Age caravan road between Kan'an (Canaan) and Misr (Egypt); a passing Midianite caravan, halting at the well to water their camels, sent their water-drawer (warid) to draw water; he let down the bucket and Yusuf (peace be upon him) emerged. The Qur'an records the water-drawer's exclamation at Q 12:19: qala ya bushra hadha ghulamun ('He said: Good news! Here is a boy!'). The caravan concealed Yusuf (peace be upon him) as merchandise and took him on to Egypt; he was sold there for a paltry price into the household of al-'Aziz, the master, beginning the long sequence of his trial in slavery, the trial of his chastity, his imprisonment, his interpretation of the king's dream, and his elevation to the administration of the granaries of Egypt (Q 12:54-55), the foundational sequence of ahsan al-qasas, the most beautiful of stories (Q 12:3). The dating is by anchor (the time of Yusuf peace be upon him), conventionally placed by Sunni qisas tradition in the second millennium BCE; the modern Sunni academic suggestion is the Hyksos period (15th-17th Egyptian dynasties, c. 1650-1550 BCE), see the related scene yusuf_aziz_court for the framing. This scene depicts the moment at the well: the Midianite caravan halted, the men crowded round the rim in surprise, the bucket coming up. The prophet Yusuf (peace be upon him) is not depicted; the visual ethics observed.

What you see

A bare desert plain at midday on the caravan road between the southern Levantine hill country and the Egyptian Delta. A stone-rimmed well stands by the roadside; date palms cluster around a small spring nearby. The sky is white-hot.

At the well-head, a small group of travellers in striped Midianite wool robes and head-cords, halting their camels to water them at the well. One of them is drawing the rope at the well-head; the bucket is coming up, and with it a figure they did not expect.

The Qur'an records the moment in Q 12:19: wa-ja'at sayyaratun fa-arsalu waridahum fa-adla dalwahu qala ya bushra hadha ghulamun, 'And a caravan came; they sent their water-drawer who let down his bucket. He said: Good news! Here is a boy!' The Qur'anic narrative is the moment of Yusuf's (peace be upon him) emergence from the well into which his brothers had cast him.

The men at the well-head crowd round in surprise at the rim. The figure of Yusuf (peace be upon him) coming up is suggested by the rope and the rim, not depicted.

The narrative of Yusuf (peace be upon him) drawn from the well is one of the foundational moments of the surah named the ahsan al-qasas (the most beautiful of stories, Q 12:3). The Sunni qisas tradition treats this moment as the start of Yusuf's (peace be upon him) trial in slavery, which would lead through Egyptian household service, the prison, the king's dream, and the elevation to the granary administration.

The light is the high white light of midday on the caravan road. The dating is by anchor: the time of Yusuf (peace be upon him), conventionally placed by the Sunni qisas tradition in the second millennium BCE. The route is the documented Bronze Age caravan road between the southern Levant and the Egyptian Delta.

The narrative: Q 12:10-22. The Sunni qisas: Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya'; al-Tha'labi.

Primary sources

The Qur'an, Surat Yusuf (Q 12:10-22): The principal Qur'anic narrative of Yusuf's (peace be upon him) casting into the well and retrieval by the caravan.

Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya' (14th c.): Standard Sunni stories of the prophets; the chapter on Yusuf (peace be upon him).

Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim (14th c.): Standard Sunni tafsir; the exposition of Q 12.

al-Tabari, Jami' al-Bayan and Tarikh: Standard Sunni tafsir and history.

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