Hissa Hilal rose to international fame in the spring of 2010 during the fourth annual “Million’s Poet” competition, which airs weekly from the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi. The program gives poets a chance to boast their original work as it did with Hilal’s 15-verse poem, “The Chaos of Fatwas” written in the Nabati form, native to nomadic tribes of the Arabian Peninsula.
The poem was “a response to all clerics that issue inhumane edicts” and criticized those who corrupt Islam’s egalitarian and just vision to “terrorize people” and “prey on everyone seeking peace.” The poem became an immediate audience favorite, was covered favorably by the international press, and eventually secured Hilal third place on the show. Hilal became the first female finalist in the Million’s Poet Contest, drawing accolades as well as criticism.
Although some Western media outlets depicted her as a simple, veiled “housewife,” Hilal is a published poet who has previously worked as poetry editor for the London-headquartered Arab daily Al-Hayat, as well as a proud mother of four. Born to a family of Bedouins from Al Malihan tribe, Hilal has been writing in both the classical Arabic and colloquial styles of poetry since the age of 11 and has two published poetry collections: “Lahjat Al Hail” and “Al Nadawi”. She chooses to use provocative language in her poems because “extremism is so strong and you cannot talk about it in any other way.”
Hissa Hilal has most recently edited a controversial collection of pre-1950s poems written by Bedouin women, titled “Divorce and Kholu’ Poetry – A Reading of the Status of Women in Tribal Society – Nabati Poetry as a Witness.” The 297-page anthology was published by The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage’s Poetry Academy and is divided into two main sections. The first section is titled “The Right of Choice”; the second speaks of “Rejection and Resistance.”
Aisha al-Hurra (some historiographers have found evidence indicating her name may have been Fatima although Aisha remains the more accepted view) was the mother of the last king of Granada, Boabdil, and it was through her machinations that her son was put on the throne, which he subsequently lost.
The marriage of Aisha to her husband, ‘Ali abu al-Hasan (r. 1461-1482) was an unhappy one which heard its death knells after ‘Ali, now in his dotage, became infatuated with his Catholic concubine Isabella (converted to Islam under the name Zoraya). With the Catholic armies fast approaching Granada, his love of the Catholic made both his nobles and his first wife anxious. Aisha feared that her sons would be supplanted in the ascension by Zoraya’s issue. While ‘Ali was abroad, Aisha turned the population against her husband and gained the support of nobles and military leader from Abencerragesin in a plot to put her son on the throne.
With Aisha’s aid, ‘Ali was deposed and in his place her son, Abu ‘Abdullah, known to the West as Boabdil, became King of Granada in 1482. While playing a prominent role in the rule of her son, she also bore witness to his stunning loss of Granada in 1492 at the hands of Isabella and Ferdinand. Driven from his city, he took one last look at Granada and seeing its wonders said, “Allahu akbar,” and began to sob. Bitterly, Aisha responded, “Weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man!”
Sultana Khadija was one of the three sultanas who reigned in the Maldives during the Medieval period. One of the great sources for her life is the near-legendary Muslim traveler and chronicler Ibn Battuta who was very much impressed with Khadija and her court. He relates that she was the daughter of Sultan Salah al-Din Salih Albendjaly. After the death of her father, a power struggle ensued and Khadija married the vizier Jamal ud-Din who became ruler after the execution and deposition of Khadija’s brother, Ahmed.
While Jamal may have shared power with this wife (Ibn Battuta claims he was the sole weilder of power), it is clear the Khadija exercised much influence of her own. Orders were issued singularly in her name. Moreover, Friday khutbahs were said in her honor.
Perhaps chafing under his wife’s power, Jamal deposed Khadija who retaliated by assassinating her husband within the year. Khadija married again, this time a vizier named Abdullah who forced Khadija to abdicate and then himself succeeded to the throne. He ruled for three years but Khadija ultimately dealt with him as she had her previous usurper husband and had him assassinated. Thus, Khadija claimed the throne for a third time.
Sultana Khadija reigned for nearly thirty years and after her demise it was another woman, her sister Mariam, who took the reins of power.
Al-Khayzuran was kidnapped as girl from her home by Bedouins and was subsequently raised a slave in the Abbasid court and was put in the household of the future Caliph and her husband by Al-Mansur, the Caliph of the time. Known for her beauty and her wits, she bore her husband, Al-Mahdi, two sons and a daughter. The two sons would both become famous Caliphs: Al-Hadi and Harun Al-Rashid.
As her husband aged, her power at court grew and she even awarded some of her relatives with positions. It was she who convinced the Caliph to appoint her sons—and not those of other wives—as his successors. However, her power began to cause friction during the reign of her elder son, Al-Hadi which resulted in both parties attempting to poison each other. After Harun al-Rashid became Caliph, following a war against his brother, al-Khayzuran was highly influential during his reign and perhaps it is due to her molding that Harun is remembered so fondly in the line of Caliphs.
Al-Khayzuran died in the autumn and as her funeral procession wound through the streets of Baghdad, it is said that Harun al-Rashid, walked barefoot in the mud to honor his mother’s death.
Some sources consider the exploits and personality of Al-Khayzuran as the inspiration for the character of Scheherazade of The Arabian Nights.
Malika Tindu was a member of the Mongol Jallarid dynasty and initially enters the historical scene as the beautiful daughter of King Awis. With the Mongol position in Iraq weakening against the attacks of the invader Tamerlane, Tindu was married to the last Mamluk king of Egypt, al-Zahir Barquq. In return for this match, her father received the aid of the Egyptian army to fend off invasions. However, Tindu was unable to adjust to life in Cairo and longed to return to Iraq and her husband permitted her to return to Iraq despite the love he felt for her.
Following the dissolution of her first marriage, she married her cousin Shah Walad, the Governor for the Caliph. After his death, she ascended to the throne in 814 AH.
As queen, the khutbah was said in her honor, coins were minted in her name, and she was a great patroness of mosques. She continued to rule for the next eight years and after her death, her son inherited the throne.
Zaynab bint Sulayman was the daughter of Sulayman ibn Ibrahim ibn Rahmat, a cousin of al-Saffah who was the former governor of Basra, Bahrain, and Oman during the caliphate of al-Mansur and established the Abbasid caliphate. Thus, Zaynab was born into a privileged household and led an exceptional early life for she was, by birth, a princess.
Born into such a lifestyle, Zaynab received an outstanding education, but she particularly excelled in learning and mastering the hadith. She found her niche in society not as a princess of the ruling class but as a teacher. Through this course of study, she acquired an honored position and a reputation as one of the most distinguished traditionists of the time. Moreover, she gave lessons to some of the most esteemed men of her time in Syria. After that, she moved to Egypt where she lived out the rest of her days. She continued teaching to spread her acquired knowledge until she died.
Over the years her prodigious skill as a teacher gave her the moniker “Mustanadud-Dameshyak” or “A Lady Authorized from Damascus.”
Sitt al-Mulk became one of the most prominent women rulers of the Fatimid Empire, widely written about it in contemporary chronicles, after the disappearance of her brother.
After the death of her father, her younger brother, Al-Hakim, ascended to the throne, but his relatively long reign was marked with unrest. Initially, she attempted to force her brother from the throne with the aid of a cousin but was arrested by her brother’s eunuch vizier Barjuwan. Sitt al-Mulk was particularly motivated against her brother after he savagely abused women of his harem including concubines and mothers of his children, some of whom were drowned in the Nile, according to gossip of the time.
After his death (in which she is implicated by some sources for she was apparently worried that al-Hakim’s rule might risk the dynasty and her own safety), she became regent for his son Ali az-Zahir, who had lived with her. After he came of age, she still wielded influence as a key advisor. Largely, she was responsible for the smooth transition between the two reigns.
She is praised by contemporary chroniclers for her personal attributes and her public policies, evoking an aura of royal authority. She spent much of her time erasing the vestiges of al-Hakim’s reign. Women were permitted greater freedom, music was allowed as was the consumption of alcohol. However, the regime also imprisoned and executed those who believed that God had been reincarnated as al-Hakim. Non-Muslims were permitted to restore their houses of worship and those who had been forced to convert under al-Hakim were permitted to return to their faiths. Sitt al-Mulk also reorganized the financial affairs of the state.
The warlords of Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan seem to be a group entirely comprised of men, yet the Afghan female warlord Bibi Ayesha bucks this tradition. Bibi Ayesha is also known as Kaftar, or pigeon, but the diminutive nickname veils a will of steel and a violent, checkered past. Over the past 25 years, she has fought the Taliban, Russians, and rivals in northern Afghanistan’s Narin district in the Baghlan province.
Unlike many Afghan women heard about in the media, Bibi Ayesha does not bend to the patriarchal norms of Afghan culture and has fought on the frontlines of battle. However, she does insist upon the escort of a male relative or muhram into battle. Of male relatives, she has four sons of her own who also act as her lieutenants—two of her sons have been killed in battle. In addition to her sons, she claims to have 150 men under her command although UN estimates place the figure closer to 50.
According to fellow Afghans, Kaftar is known as a cruel commander who has made a great many enemies in her years as a warlord. Such is the fear that she inspires, that the brigands and bandits who are a constant threat in Afghanistan step warily around her and her family.
