Russell Harris
Russell Harris works as an editor at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He is an established translator of literary and political works from French and Arabic. He is a contributor
to the Dictionary of National Biography, The Routledge Encyclopedia of 19th Century Photography, The Oxford Companion to Food and The Encyclopaedia Islamica. He has authored books on historic photographic portraits in the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery and has curated exhibitions of these portraits in museums and stately residences.
The Dream Narratives of the Prophet Yusuf: A cross-cultural approach
This lecture will look at points of convergence between the longest and one of the most accessible narratives in the Holy Qur’an, the story of the Prophet Joseph, as recorded by divine revelation in Sūra 12, and the Biblical version of the story of Joseph as narrated in the Book of Genesis. The lecture will outline the salient points in the two narratives and the remarkable similarities in the way two great monotheistic cultures have approached this morality tale. The lecture will emphasize a common cultural background for the “dream sequences” of Genesis and the Qur’an and will include source quotations from both the Holy Qur’an and the Hebrew book of Genesis.
