Shajarat al-Durr ( ‘Pearl Tree’ or ‘Spray of Pearls’), also known as Ismat al-Din and Umm Khalil, resided in the harem of Abbasid caliph Mustasim, who sent her as a gift to the Sultan of Egypt, Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Salih Ayub. Instantly in love, the Sultan married her and, after she gave birth to his son, pronounced her his favorite wife. She impressed his court with her devotion to him in his illness.After her husband was captured and imprisoned by his cousin, she accompanied him to prison.
Sultan al-Salih Ayub died at a time that Egypt was being threatened by Louis IX’s crusader forces. Upon his death, Shajarat sent for his son, Turanshah, but – understanding that it would take months for him to arrive – began issuing political and administrative decisions in his name, hiding his death from the public and forging his signature, while being supported by many of his closest companions. As a result of her actions, the Franks surrendered and Louis IX was captured for ransom.
Although Turanshah became sultan briefly, his policies were disastrous and he was murdered. Shajarat was elevated to the sultanate in her own name. Despite the threats from the French, she was able to keep Egypt unthreatened and politically stable.
The Caliph, however, deemed this situation unsatisfactory and demanded that Egypt find a male ruler. To ensure stability, Shajarat agreed to marry again and abdicate her position.
Although she married Aybek, the nominal sultan, Shajarat ruled behind the scenes for the next seven years. Eventually, Aybed tired of his wife’s control and proposed to marry someone else. When Shajarat learned about his proposal, she had him murdered. As a result, she was imprisoned and Aybek’s son Ali (from his former marriage) was pronounced the new sultan. In retaliation, Aybek’s former wife and Ali’s mother had Shajarat beaten to death.
Umm Hani, also known as Maryam, was a prominent hadith transmitter. She was raised by her grandfather, the respected Egyptian judge, Muhammad Ibn Muhammad al-Qayati. She began studying hadith at the early age of seven, when the judge took her to Mecca, to learn with some of the masters at that time. Upon her return, her grandfather began to teach her himself and she received several certificates. She was well traveled, having performed the pilgrimage to Mecca thirteen times.
Umm Hani married twice. When her second husband died, she decided to use the inheritance to independently purchase and run a spinning-wheel workshop. During this time, she also taught hadith to both men and women, who praised her learning and piety. She never wrote a book and received training on short and basic texts of Shafi’i jurisprudence.
Halide Edib Adivar led many lives. She was a professor, an author, a nationalist and a famous feminist. She was born in Istanbul and attended the American College for Girls, one of the first Ottoman Muslim women to receive a western education. Her father, a bureaucrat for the last Ottoman Sultan, defied the standards of the times and actively supported his daughter’s education.
After her graduation, she married her teacher, Salih Zeki Bey and had two children. During this time she founded the Society for the Elevation of Women in 1908 and she published her first two novels in 1909. After her divorce Halide began teaching at an all-girls’ high school. She improved the curriculum and added additional courses to include language and science. This began her work as an advocate for women’s education and empowerment. During a trip to Syria, Halide met and married her second husband, Dr. Adnan Adivar. After her return, Halide began lecturing at Istanbul’s Faculty of Letters.
She soon became involved in Turkey’s nationalist movement, giving speeches and working as a nurse and solider in the Turkish War of Independence. Attaturk awarded her the rank of corporal, making her the only female officer at that time. After Turkey’s independence, Halide lived abroad with her husband, returning in 1939 to create the English Language and Literature Department at Istanbul University. She died in 1964.
Umm Kulthum is arguably the Arab world’s most famous singer. Thirty years after her death in 1975, her music still remains widely popular.
Umm Kulthum was born to a poor family from the Upper Delta in Egypt. When she was a young girl her father, an Imam, dressed her up as a boy and allowed her to perform in public.
In 1923, she moved to Cairo where her fame grew. Her songs, often hours long, centered around love and longing. She was also known for her renditions of classical poetry. After the 1952 Egyptian coup, Umm Kulthum recorded many songs in support of the new republic. After the Seven Days War, she toured extensively to raise money for Egypt.
Umm Kulthum, even at the height of her fame, identified herself as a simple girl from a rural community, reflecting the conservative and familial values of the majority of Egyptians. Her popularity, especially among Egyptians, is unrivaled. During her monthly concerts, the streets would empty as people rushed to hear her on the radio. Four million people attended her funeral in 1975, the second largest public gathering in Egypt.
Umm Waraqa bint Abdallah, or Umm Waraqa, was the Prophet Muhammad’s companion. She was well versed in the Qur’an and the Prophet trained her and allowed her to lead mixed-gender prayers. Whether her hadith refers to leading prayers in a residence or a community is open to interpretation. Even so, she was the imam of her clan, which was significant and large enough to have its own muezzin.
Umm Waraqa wished to be known as a martyr, so she asked Prophet Muhammad to allow her to participate in the Battle of Badr (624 A.D./ 2 A.H.) so that she could take care of the wounded; from that time on, Prophet Muhammad referred to her as “the female martyr.”
After the Prophet’s death, she was appointed by Caliph Umar to lead the market committees of Medina and Mecca. She was one of the few people who handed down the Qur’an before it was compiled into its final written form during Uthman’s caliphate.
Believer Against All Odds… Ramla bint Abu Sufyan, also known as Umm Habibah, was the daughter of Abu Safyan, a powerful man in Mecca and a bitter enemy of Islam. Umm Habibah and her initial husband, ‘Ubaydullah bin Jahsh, were among the first converts to Islam at a time when Muslims faced severe persecution. Umm Habibah and her husband immigrated to Ethiopia with other Muslim converts in order to flee this prosecution by the Meccans. In Ethiopia, Umm Habibah’s husband converted to Christianity and later died there. When the Prophet saw her strength in the midst of the very difficult situation, her father being the enemy of Islam and her husband a deserter, he sent an envoy to Negus, king of Ethiopia, requesting to arrange a marriage with her. Although the Prophet was in Arabia and Umm Habibah was in Ethiopia, they married and she later joined the Prophet back home. “Like many of his marriages, his marriage to Umm Habiba resulted in bringing a major tribe of the Quraysh, the Banu Abd al-Shams, toward Islam” (WISE 121).
Even though her father, Abu Sufyan, converted to Islam after her marriage to the Prophet Muhammad, Umm Habibah’s life is a story of loyalty, endurance, and faith. One day her father came to visit her and the Prophet to renegotiate a settlement with the Muslims. Her father was about to sit down on a blanket that the Prophet and Umm Habibah slept on when she quickly folded it up. When Abu Sufyan asked why, she replied that an enemy of Islam should not sit on the bed of the Prophet. Despite, her father and first husband, Umm Habibah remained pious and dedicated to Islam and the Prophet.
Umm Habiba’s Room
“Was there a curse? a snarl? A back-
stop phrase of poetry? Or did she
just stand there for herself,
then walk to the door
to watch him stomp away,
and say to herself, The knife
of the family no longer cuts.”
Orphaned at a young age, Sabiha Gokcen was raised in poverty by her older brother and sister. Living in the city of Bursa, Sabiha attended elementary school during the Turkish War of Independence. She was ten years old when a chance encounter with Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, changed her life forever. Ataturk adopted her and brought her to Ankara to live with his other adopted children.
Once in Ankara, Sabiha spent much of her time studying. When she was 23, Ataturk enrolled her as a student in a school for aviation, where she excelled. During this time, she was sent with seven other male pilots to Russia for specialized glider instructor training. She returned with an official instructor diploma and soon entered into the Military Aviation Academy in Eskisehir. As a student, she received intense training to become a bomber pilot. She graduated at the top of her class, earning her pilot’s license in 1937.
Although Sabiha excelled as a pilot, gender discrimination prevented her from fighting in real combat missions. After seeking the approval of Ataturk, she was allowed to fly in the Dersim Operation, which provided air support for Turkish soldiers on the ground during the Dersim rebellion of 1937. She earned the Turkish Aeronautical Association’s first “Jeweled Medal” for her performance during that mission. Thereafter a national hero, she was asked to fly in a friendship tour that took her to Athens and Bucharest among other places.
When she returned to Turkey, she was appointed Chief Instructor at the Kusu Flight School, of which she was an alumna. While retiring from active military duty in 1964, she continued to fly in air shows. She died in 2001, and soon thereafter the international airport in Istanbul was named in her honor.
Bravery of an Original Follower… Umm Salamah, whose full name was Hind bint Abi Umayya ibn al-Mughira, was amongst the first converts to Islam, along with her husband, Abu Salamah. When persecution and violence against Muslims became rampant in Mecca, they were among the first brave Muslims to make the long migration to Ethiopia in 615, a place where Muslims were offered sanctuary. Upon return to Mecca years later, the couple realized that the situation in the city had not improved as they hoped it would. When the Prophet received an invitation from Medina, he and some of his followers decided to move to the city from Mecca. Umm Salamah and her husband’s plans were disrupted on their way to Medina when members of Umm Salamah’s tribe stopped them on their departure. Umm Salamah was split up with her husband and son and forced to remain with her family.
After one year, she was released, reunited her son to her, and given a camel for her journey to Medina. Umm Salamah braved the trip to Medina alone until she was joined by ‘Uthman ibn Talha, who didn’t want her to continue unescorted. He accompanied her to her husband in Medina before returning himself to Mecca. Umm Salamah eventually became a widow after Abu Salamah was martyred in the Battle of Uhud. At the time of his death, Umm Salamah was pregnant with their fifth child. After the child’s birth, ‘Umar proposed that she marries the Prophet. The Prophet accepted the proposal.
Though she originally refused his proposal, she eventually accepted and the two were married. “Umm Salama was from the Bani Makhzum tribe, which was the tribe of Islam’s archenemies at that time, Abu Jahl and Khalid bin Waleed. Bringing influential and powerful tribes closer to Islam was one of the noble objectives of the Prophet’s marriage” (WISE).
She took care of the Prophet’s tent during the Battle of the Trench and is considered a companion narrator of hadith. Umm Salamah had a wide knowledge of the Qur’an and how it had been interpreted by the Prophet. Until her death, she remained an advisor on legal issues and a devout Muslim.
Land
“It is by God’s Grace
I, Hind, am here; a sailed-in
fact. It is nothing like
I thought, run aground,
split wide by kindness
laughing and crying,
feet on the soil.”
