The King Who Was Not Called Pharaoh Yusuf

Through the entire story of Joseph in Surah Yusuf, the ruler of Egypt is called 'Malik' (مَلِك), King. Through the entire story of Moses, the ruler is called 'Fir'awn' (فِرْعَوْن), Pharaoh. The Bible uses 'Pharaoh' for both without distinction. This seemed like a trivial variation until Egyptology. The title 'Pharaoh' (from Egyptian 'per-aa,' meaning great house) was not applied to Egyptian rulers until the 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BCE. During the earlier Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650–1550 BCE), when Joseph's story is set, Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos: foreign Semitic kings who used the title 'King,' not Pharaoh. A 7th-century author in Arabia, drawing on oral tradition, would have had no reason to make this distinction, and no means to verify it. The Quran made it anyway. Egyptologists confirmed it over a thousand years later.