DAWN TO DUSK NEWS: 15 Important Muslim Women in History

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 15 Important Muslim Women in History </h1>

In honor of International Women’s Day, I thought it would be 
interesting to introduce people to several names of important Muslim 
women in history that they may not have encountered before. Although the
 names of such extraordinary figures as the Empress Theodora, Eleanor of
 Aquitaine, Joan of Arc, Anne Boleyn, Caterina Sforza, and Elizabeth I 
are generally well-known, their counterparts in the medieval and early 
modern Muslim world are not. Women played an important role in the 
pre-modern Muslim world as scholars, poets, mystics, rulers, and 
warriors. This is a very short list of some of them.  

1)     Khadīja b. Khuwaylid (d. 620). Even before 
her famous marriage to the Prophet Muhammad, she was an important figure
 in her own right, being a successful merchant and one of the elite 
figures of Mecca. She played a central role in supporting and 
propagating the new faith of Islam and has the distinction of being the 
first Muslim. As the Prophet Muhammad himself is believed to have said 
in a hadith preserved in Sahih Muslim: “God Almighty never 
granted me anyone better in this life than her. She accepted me when 
people rejected me; she believed in me when people doubted me; she 
shared her wealth with me when people deprived me; and God granted me 
children only through her.” Indeed, another of the most important women 
of early Islam, Fāṭima al-Zahrā’, was the daughter of the Prophet 
by Khadīja and it is only through Fāṭima (especially through her two 
sons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn) that the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad 
is preserved. These facts make Fāṭima and her mother Khadīja among the 
most revered female personages in Islamic history. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/khadija_tomb.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6877" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/khadija_tomb.jpg?w=487" /> 
(</a>Tomb of Khadija before its destruction) 

2)     Nusayba b. Ka‘b al-Anṣārīyya (d. 634). Also 
known as Umm ‘Ammara, she was a member of the Banū Najjār tribe and one 
of the earliest converts to Islam in Medina. As a Companion of the 
Prophet Muhammad, there were many virtues attributed to her. She is most
 remembered, however, for taking part in the Battle of Uhud (625), in 
which she carried sword and shield and fought against the Meccans. She 
shielded the Prophet Muhammad from enemies during the battle and even 
sustained several lance wounds and arrows as she cast herself in front 
of him to protect him. It is said that after she sustained her twelfth 
wound, she fell unconscious and the first question she asked when she 
awoke (a day later in Medina) was “did the Prophet survive?” 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/admin1708679755.png"><img alt="admin1708679755" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6926" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/admin1708679755.png?w=474" /></a> 
(Nusayba b. Ka’b as depicted in the MBC TV Series ‘Umar) 

3)     Khawla b. al-Azwar (d. 639). Another 
contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad. She is best known for her 
participation in the Battle of Yarmuk (636) against the Byzantines. 
According to later narratives of the Islamic conquests, authors 
described her as having the skill and fighting ability of the famed 
Muslim general Khālid ibn al-Walīd. There are a lot of embellishments 
and unclear details that emerge from later sources about her which make 
the details questionable, leading some scholars to doubt whether she had
 even existed at all! Despite these reservations, it is nonetheless 
notable that scholars such as al-Waqidi and al-Azdi, writing in the 
eighth and ninth centuries, found it necessary to ascribe such 
importance to a female warrior in the conquests. Indeed, if she never 
existed at all this makes her legend all the more interesting. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/399_001.jpg"><img alt="399_001" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6929" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/399_001.jpg?w=474" /></a> 

(Jordanian stamp depicting Khawla b. al-Azwar) 

4)     ‘Ā’isha b. Abī Bakr (d. 678). A figure that 
requires almost no introduction, ‘Ā’isha was the wife of the Prophet 
Muhammad who had perhaps the most influence on the Muslim community 
after his death. She played a central role in the political opposition 
to the third and fourth caliphs Uthmān ibn ‘Affān and ‘Alī ibn Abī 
Ṭālib, even leading an army against the latter at Basra in 656. Although
 she retired from political life after her defeat, she continued to play
 a major role as a transmitter of Islamic teachings. She is one of the 
major narrators of hadith in the Sunni tradition. In many ways, 
she is among the most controversial figures in early Islam, especially 
since the implications of her actions for women’s participation in 
scholarship, political life, and the public sphere clashed with later 
conservative conceptions of the role of women. For more about ‘Ā’isha 
and her legacy, read Denise Spellberg’s excellent book entitled Politics, Gender and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of ‘Ā’isha bint Abī Bakr (1996). 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/mohammed_and_his_wife_aisha_freeing_the_daughter_of_a_tribal_chief-_from_the_siyer-i_nebi.jpg"> 
</a><a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ali_and_aisha_at_the_battle_of_the_camel.jpg"><img alt="Ali_and_Aisha_at_the_Battle_of_the_Camel" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6923" height="625" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ali_and_aisha_at_the_battle_of_the_camel.jpg?w=474&h=625" width="474" /></a> 
(Battle of the Camel) 

5)     Zaynab b. ‘Alī (d. 681). She was the 
grand-daughter of the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fāṭima (d. 
633) and her husband ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661). She was among the most
 illustrious and admirable figures of the Ahl al-Bayt (Family of the 
Prophet) and played a central role both during and after the Massacre at
 Karbala (680), where her brother al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Alī, and 72 of her 
nephews and other brothers were killed by the Umayyads. For a time, she 
was the effective leader of the Ahl al-Bayt and served as the primary 
defender of the cause of her brother, al-Ḥusayn. At Kufa, she defended 
her nephew—‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn—from certain death by the governor of the 
city  and, when presented to the Yazīd ibn Mu‘āwiya at Damascus, gave 
such an impassioned and forceful speech in the royal court that forced 
the caliph to release her and the prisoners taken at Karbala. Her 
strength, patience, and wisdom makes her one of the most important women
 in early Islam. Her shrine at Damascus remains a major place of 
visitation by both Sunnis and Shi’as, a fact that emphasizes the 
universality of her legacy among Muslims. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tifypqnzwnxdjin-556x313-nopad.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6884" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tifypqnzwnxdjin-556x313-nopad.jpg?w=487" /></a> 

(Shrine of Sayyida Zaynab in Damascus) 

6)     Rābi‘a al-‘Adawīyya (d. 801). One of the most
 important mystics (or Sufis) in the Muslim tradition, Rābi‘a 
al-‘Adawīyya spent much of her early life as a slave in southern Iraq 
before attaining her freedom. She is considered to be one the founders 
of the Sufi school of “Divine Love,” which emphasizes the loving of God 
for His own sake, rather than out of fear of punishment or desire for 
reward. She lays this out in one of her poems: 

“O God! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, 
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. 
But if I worship You for Your Own sake, 
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty.” 

When asked why he included such a major entry on Rābi‘a in his biographical dictionary of mystics (the Tadhkirat al-Awliyā’), the 13th-century
 scholar Fariduddīn Attār (d. 1220) explained: “the Prophet (peace and 
blessings be upon him) himself said, ‘God does not regard your outward 
forms. The root of the matter is not form, but the inner intention. 
Mankind will be raised up according to their intentions.’ Moreover if it
 is proper for us to derive two-thirds of our religion from a woman, the
 noble and blessed ‘A’isha bint Abi Bakr (may God be pleased with them 
both), then surely it is permissible to take religious instruction from 
[one who can be likened, in status, to] a handmaiden of ‘A’isha (may God
 be pleased with her).” 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/rabia_al-adawiyya.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6886" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/rabia_al-adawiyya.jpg?w=390" /></a> 

7)     Lubna of Cordoba (d. 984). Originally a 
slave-girl of Spanish origin, Lubna rose to become one of the most 
important figures in the Umayyad palace in Cordoba. She was the palace 
secretary of the caliphs ‘Abd al-Rahmān III (d. 961) and his son 
al-Hakam b. ‘Abd al-Rahmān (d. 976). She was also a skilled 
mathematician and presided over the royal library, which consisted of 
over 500,000 books. According to the famous Andalusi scholar Ibn 
Bashkuwāl: “She excelled in writing, grammar, and poetry. Her knowledge 
of mathematics was also immense and she was proficient in other sciences
 as well. There were none in the Umayyad palace as noble as her.” [Ibn 
Bashkuwal, Kitab al-Silla (Cairo, 2008), Vol. 2: 324]. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/lubna_jlmunoz1.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6888" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/lubna_jlmunoz1.jpg?w=487" /></a> 
(Painting of Lubna by José Luis Muñoz) 

8)     Al-Malika al-Ḥurra Arwa al-Sulayhi (d. 1138).
 Her full name was Arwa b. Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Sulayḥī. From 1067 to 
1138, she ruled as the queen of Yemen in her own right. She was an 
Ismā‘īlī Shi’i and was well-versed in various religious sciences, 
Qur’an, hadith, as well as poetry and history. Chroniclers describe her 
as being incredibly intelligent. The fact that she ruled in her own 
right as queen is underscored by the fact that her name was mentioned in
 the khutba (Friday sermon) directly after the name of the 
Fatimid caliph, al-Mustanṣir-billah. Arwa was given the highest rank in 
the Yemeni Fatimid religious hierarchy (that of ḥujja) by the 
Fatimid caliph al-Mustanṣir. She was the first woman in the history of 
Islam to be given such an illustrious title and to have such authority 
in the religious hierarchy. It was also during her reign that Ismā’īlī 
missionaries were sent to western India, where a major Ismā’īlī center 
was established at Gujrat (which continues to be a stronghold of the 
Ismā’īlī Bohra faith). She played a major role in the Fatimid schism of 
1094, throwing her support behind al-Musta‘lī (and later al-Tayyib), and
 it is a mark of her immense influence that the lands under her 
rule—Yemen and parts of India—would follow her in this. Indeed, Yemen 
became the stronghold of the Tayyibī Ismā’īlī movement. Her reign was 
marked by various construction projects and improvement of Yemen’s 
infrastructure, as well as its increased integration with the rest of 
the Muslim world. She was perhaps the single, most important example of 
an independent queen in Muslim history. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/jibla_01.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6890" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/jibla_01.jpg?w=487" /></a> 
(Jibla, Queen Arwa’s capital) 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/i_isl_sul_1078.jpg"><img alt="i_isl_sul_1078" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6931" height="237" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/i_isl_sul_1078.jpg?w=474&h=237" width="474" /></a> 
(Coins minted by Queen Arwa) 

9)     Fāṭima b. Abī al-Qāsim ‘Abd al-Rahmān b. Muhammad b. Ghālib al-Ansārī al-Sharrāṭ (d. 1216).
 She was one of the most learned women in al-Andalus during the late 
twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Her engagement with works of 
legal theory, jurisprudence as well as mysticism makes it apparent that 
she was familiar with a wide variety of Islamic sciences. She was the 
mother of the eminent professor Abū al-Qāsim b. al-Ṭaylasān. According 
to the Andalusi scholar Abū Ja’far al-Gharnāṭī (d. 1309): “She memorized
 enumerable books under the guidance of her father, including 
al-Makki’s Tanbīh, al-Qudā‘ī’s al-Shihāb, Ibn ‘Ubayd al-Ṭulayṭalī’s Mukhtasar,
 all three of which she knew by heart. She also memorized the Qur’an 
under the guidance of Abū ‘Abd Allāh al-Madwarī, the great ascetic who 
is considered from among the abdāl [an important rank within Sufism]. With her father, she also learned Sahīh Muslim, Ibn Hishām’s Sīra [of the Prophet], al-Mubarrad’s al-Kāmil, al-Baghdādī’s Nawādir, and other works.”[Abū Ja’far Ahmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Gharnāṭī, Kitāb Silla al-Silla (Beirut, 2008), p. 460]. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/50.jpg"><img alt="50" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6857" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/50.jpg?w=474" /></a> 

10)  Razia Sultan (d. 1240). She was the ruler of 
the Sultanate of Delhi between 1236 and 1240. Her father, Shams al-Dīn 
Iltutmish (r. 1210-1236) had Razia designated as his heir before his 
death, therefore making her the official ruler of the sultanate. She was
 a fairly effective ruler and was a major patron of learning, 
establishing schools and libraries across northern India. In all 
matters, she behaved like a sultan, leading armies, sitting upon the 
throne and even adopting the same royal dress as her father; to the 
outrage of many, she also insisted on appearing unveiled in public. In 
1240, she was overthrown in a rebellion by the nobles of the kingdom, 
who—among other things—were strongly opposed to being led by a woman and
 killed. There is too much to be said about her life than I can do 
justice to here, but if you want to know more, I suggest you read Rafiq 
Zakaria’s Razia: Queen of India (1966). 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/india-under-iltumish.gif"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6896" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/india-under-iltumish.gif?w=419" /></a> 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/razia_jital.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6898" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/razia_jital.jpg?w=487" /></a> 

(Coins minted in the name of Razia Sultan) 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tahirih_large.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6899" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tahirih_large.jpg?w=322" /></a> 

(Artistic depiction of Razia Sultan) 

11)  Shajar al-Durr (d. 1257). She was the widow of 
the Ayyubid sultan al-Sālih Ayyūb (r. 1240-1249) and played an important
 role in Egyptian politics following her husband’s death. She was most 
likely of Turkic origin, beginning her life as a slave-girl in the 
Ayyubid court. By 1250, she had become the ruler (or sultana) of 
Egypt; her reign is generally considered to mark the beginning of the 
Mamluk sultanate of Egypt. She played an important role in the 
preparations in defending northern Egypt against the Seventh Crusade, 
defeating the crusaders (although she herself was not present) at the 
Battle of Fariskur (1250) and taking King Louis IX of France captive. 
She was the effective head-of-state and her name was mentioned in the khutba
 and coins minted in her name with the title “Malikat al-Muslimīn” 
(Queen of the Muslims). However, it was difficult for people to accept 
being ruled solely by a woman and in August 1250, as a result of various
 pressures, she married her commander-in-chief ‘Izz al-Dīn Aybak, who 
became the first Mamluk sultan. Despite the marriage, Shajar al-Durr 
maintained her power and was even able to ensure that documents of state
 bore the names of both sovereigns, rather than only that of Aybak. 
However, in 1257 she decided to eliminate her husband (for political 
reasons in addition to discovering that he was engaged in an affair with
 another woman or sought to marry an additional wife [the sources are 
obscure on this issue]) and assassinated him in bath. When this was 
discovered, she was deposed and brutally killed, bringing her reign to a
 tragic close. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shajarat2.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6900" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shajarat2.jpg?w=338" /></a> 

(Coins minted by Shajar al-Durr) 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shajarat3.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6902" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/shajarat3.jpg?w=340" /></a> 

(Tomb of Shajar al-Durr) 

12)  Zaynab b. Ahmad (d. 1339). She was perhaps one 
of the most eminent Islamic scholars of the fourteenth century. Zaynab 
belonged to the Ḥanbalī school of jurisprudence and resided in Damascus.
 She had acquired a number of ijazas (diplomas or certifications) in various fields, most notably hadith. In the early fourteenth century, she taught such books as Sahīh Bukhāri, Sahīh Muslim, the Muwatta’ of Mālik b. Anas, the Shamā’il of al-Tirmidhī, and al-Tahāwī’s Sharḥ Ma‘ānī al-Athār.
 Among her students was the North African traveler Ibn Battūta (d. 
1369), Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 1355), al-Dhahabī (d. 1348), and her name
 appears in several dozen of the isnads of Ibn Ḥajar al-Asqalānī (d. 
1448). It is important to point out that Zaynab was only one of hundreds
 of female scholars of hadith during the medieval period in the Muslim 
world. For more on the role of Muslim women in hadith scholarship, read Asma Sayeed’s Women and the Transmission of Religious Knowledge in Islam (2013) and Mohammad Akram Nadwi’s Al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars of Islam (2007). 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/sahih-bukhari.jpg"><img alt="sahih-bukhari" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6934" height="355" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/sahih-bukhari.jpg?w=474&h=355" width="474" /> 
(</a>Manuscript of Sahih Bukhari) 

13)  Sayyida al-Hurra (d. 1542). With a name 
literally meaning “the Free Woman,” Sayyida al-Hurra was one of the most
 interesting Muslim figures of the sixteenth century. She was originally
 from the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, but was forced to flee following 
its conquest by Christian Spain in 1492. Like many Andalusi Muslims, she
 settled in Morocco and, along with her husband, fortified and ruled the
 town of Tetouan on the northern coast. Following the death of her 
husband in 1515, she became the sole ruler of the city, which grew in 
strength and population as more Andalusi Muslims were exiled or driven 
out of Iberia in the early sixteenth century. For various reasons, 
including the desire to avenge the destruction of al-Andalus and the 
forcible conversion to Christianity of Muslims there, she turned to 
piracy and transformed Tetouan into a major base of naval operations 
against Spain and Portugal. She allied with the famous Ottoman 
corsair-turned-admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in Algiers and together they
 dealt a serious blow to Spanish imperial power in North Africa and the 
Western Mediterranean. It is interesting to note that Muslim sources are
 quite silent about Sayyida al-Hurra, and most of our information about 
her is derived from Spanish and Portuguese documents, who emphasize her 
effectiveness as a pirate queen and the destructiveness of the raids 
that she wrought against the southern shores of the Iberian peninsula. 
She later married the Moroccan Wattasid Sultan, Abūl Abbās Muhammad (r. 
1526-1545). While the pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read are well-known 
female pirates to many audiences, it is a shame that Sayyida al-Hurra is
 much less known. For a good look at her life, see Fatima Mernissi’s The Forgotten Queens of Islam
 (1997), where the author discusses al-Sayyida al-Hurra as well as other
 important female figures in the medieval Muslim world. For those who 
know Spanish, see Rodolfo Grim Grimau’s “Sayyida al-Hurra, Mujer 
Marroqui de Origen Andalusi,” Anaquel de Estudios Arabes (2000): 311-320. 

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14)  Parī Khān Khānum (d. 1578). A Safavid princess 
and daughter of Shah Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576) by a Circassian mother, 
she was one of the most influential Iranian women in the sixteenth 
century. She was renowned as an educated woman and was well-versed in 
traditional Islamic sciences, such as jurisprudence. She was also known 
to be an excellent poet. Parī Khān Khānum  played an important role in 
securing the succession of her brother Ismā‘īl II to the Safavid throne.
 However, during Ismā‘īl’s short reign, her influence waned. During the 
reign of Ismā‘īl’s successor, Mohammad Khodabanda, she was killed 
because she was seen to wield too much influence and power. For more, 
see Shohreh Gholsorkhi’s “Pari Khan Khanum: A Masterful Safavid 
Princess,” Iranian Studies 28 (1995): 143-156. 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/a_seated_princess_ascribed_to_riza_abbasi_safavid_iran_dated_ah_1035_1_d5556204h.jpg"><img alt="a_seated_princess_ascribed_to_riza_abbasi_safavid_iran_dated_ah_1035_1_d5556204h" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6943" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/a_seated_princess_ascribed_to_riza_abbasi_safavid_iran_dated_ah_1035_1_d5556204h.jpg?w=474" /></a> 
(Painting of a Safavid princess by Riza Abbasi) 

15)  Kösem Sultan (d. 1651). Many English-speaking 
audiences are quite familiar with Roxelana or Hurrem Sultan, the 
queen-consort of Suleyman I (r. 1520-1566). However, Kösem Sultan seems 
to be much less known. As the consort (then wife) of Ottoman sultan 
Ahmed I (r. 1603-1617), the mother of the sultans Murad IV (r. 
1623-1640) and Ibrahim (r. 1640-1648), and the grandmother of the sultan
 Mehmed IV (r. 1648-1687), she wielded immense influence and can be 
considered to be perhaps the most powerful woman in Ottoman history. 
Originally a Greek with the name Anastasia, she was enslaved at a young 
age and brought to the Ottoman palace, where she became the concubine of
 the sultan Ahmed I. According to a contemporary source, Cristoforo 
Valier, in 1616, Kösem was the most powerful of the sultan’s associates:
 “she can do what she wishes with the Sultan and possesses his heart 
absolutely, nor is anything ever denied to her.” Between 1623 and 1632, 
she served as regent for her son Murad IV, who took the throne as a 
minor. Until her assassination in 1651, as a result of court intrigue, 
she exercised a major influence on Ottoman politics. For more on Kösem 
Sultan and the institution of the Ottoman imperial harem, see Leslie 
Peirce’s The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (1993). 

<a href="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/vera_effigies_turcorvm_imperatoris_ibrahim_filii_et_sultanc3a6_eiusdem_matris_1707.jpg"><img alt="Image" class="size-full wp-image" id="i-6910" src="http://ballandalus.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/vera_effigies_turcorvm_imperatoris_ibrahim_filii_et_sultanc3a6_eiusdem_matris_1707.jpg?w=480" /></a> 
(Early 18th-century Western representation of Kösem Sultan)

15 Important Muslim Women in History

15 Important Muslim Women in History In honor of International Women’s Day, I thought it would be interesting to ...