Step 5 of 8
Catchword
A catchword is a word placed at the foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page.
Borrowed from the Arabic manuscript tradition, the system of catchwords (namely, al-istikhraj) was a feature for bookbinders so they could precisely connect one part of the text (verso) with the subsequent text on the next page (recto).
Let us now turn to pages 31-32. Here we are in the fifth episode, the poem’s core, when Potiphar's wife seduces Yusuf.