Surah 12. Yusuf, Ayah 20

 Other possible translations: 1. “… so little did they value him.” 2. “… they had no interest in him.” In any case, they wanted to sell him immediately before someone claimed him. According to some Quran commentators, it was Joseph’s brothers who sold him to the travellers after he was picked up from the well. The verse states that Joseph was sold for a few worthless coins. Ironically, in 12:88 Joseph’s brothers came to him after he became Egypt’s Chief Minister, begging for supplies and saying that the only money they could afford was a few worthless coins. This is when Joseph revealed his true identity to them.

Dirham: from Greek, drachma, a small silver coin, which varied in weight and value at different times and in different States.

There was mutual deceit on both sides. The Brethren had evidently been watching to see what happened to Joseph. When they saw the merchants take him up and hide him, they came to claim his price as a run away slave, but dared not haggle over the price, lest their object, to get rid of him, should be defeated. The merchants were shrewd enough to doubt the claim in their own minds; but they dared not haggle lest they should lose a very valuable acquisition. And so the most precious of human lives in that age was sold into slavery for a few silver pieces!