Zaynab: Difference between revisions

| caption            = The Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque in (Damascus, Syria)

| known_for          = Leading of the caravan of Al-Hussain after his death at the Battle of Karbala in Iraq, Umayyad Empire)

| father            = Ali ibn Abi Talib  

| mother            = Fatima bint Muhammad

| relatives          = Muhammad (maternal grandfather), Hasan ibn Ali (brother), Hussain ibn Ali (brother), Muhsin ibn Ali (brother), Umm Kulthum bint Ali (sister), Abbas (brother)

| death_place        = Damascus, Umayyad Empire

| resting_place      = Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, Damascus, the Levant or Al-Sayeda Zainab Mosque, Cairo, Egypt

'''Zaynab''' is the granddaughter of the Prophet [[Muhammed]] and role model for Shi῾i female activists. Zaynab is among the prominent granddaughters of the Prophet Mohammed, and her fame in Islamic history derives from her passionate and eloquent defense of her family and in particular her brother, [[al-Hussain]], the martyred hero of the Battle of [[Karbala]] (680). She was a daughter of [[ʿAli ibn Abi Talib|῾Ali ibn Abi Talib]], Mohammed's cousin, and [[Fatima]] al-Zahra, the favored and youngest daughter of Mohammad.

In contrast to the relative obscurity of her early life, her actions as they are remembered on the battlefield of Karbala and in the subsequent years figure more prominently in early Muslim sources. The History of al-Tabari (d. 923), for example, depicts her as valiant, defiant, and outspoken in the face of the tremendous tragedy that befell her family at Karbala. Most importantly she is credited with the survival of the line of Shi῾i [[Imam]]s itself through her defense of [[῾Ali ibn al-Hussain]], the only surviving son of al-Hussain and his successor to the leadership of the Shi῾is. Her eloquent, passionate defenses of her family before their [[Umayyad]] oppressors is recorded and widely commemorated in manuals of poetry and rhetoric (see, for example, Ibn Abi Tayfur, Balaghat al-Nisa᾽).

===Sermon at Yazid’s Court===

At this time, Zaynab, the daughter of Ali, rose and began speaking. She added a new chapter to the history of the Caliphate of Yazid which covered a period of three years and a few months, and said: "O Yazid! Allah and His Prophet have said that committing sins and considering the signs of Allah to be false is ridiculing them", i.e. deny the sign of Allah today and hold them in derision and have become happy, and recite poetic verses on account of the martyrdom of the children of the Holy Prophet just as the polytheists of Makkah became happy and sang songs because of the [[martyrdom]] of some Muslims in the Battle of Uhud, and talk about taking revenge upon the Holy Prophet.

*Al-Baqi' cemetery: Some historians have reported that she was buried in al-Baqi', Medina. Al-Sayyid Muhsin al-Amin, the author of A'yan al-Shi'a, accepted this report and mentioned some evidence refuting the other two reports.

While Sunni and Shi῾i sources concur about the centrality of Zaynab's role during and immediately after the Battle of Karbala, she figures far more prominently in Shi῾i historiography than in the Sunni sources. As such her life story is central to the hagiography on the family of ῾Ali as well as in the definition of contemporary gender roles in Shi῾i societies. A number of modern biographers, for example, provide extensive details about her life from birth to death and cast her as an exemplar for modern Shi῾i women in the domestic and political spheres. In many respects she is the Shi῾i counterpart to the Sunni ῾A᾽isha bint Abi Bakr, providing a model of political activism, remaining steadfast and brave in the face of tyranny and oppression, and living virtuously as a daughter, wife, and mother.