Ruqayya bint Al-Hussain

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Ruqayya bint Al-Imam Al-Hussain
Ruqayya.jpg
Native name
رُقَیَّة بنت الحُسَین
Born
Medina
Died
Damascus, Syria
Resting placeDamascus, Syria
Parent(s)

Ruqayya bint Al-Hussain, according to some reports, was one of the daughters of Hussain ibn Ali, who passed away in childhood and during the captivity of Imam’s family in Levant (Sham). She was present at the battle of Karbala and was among the captives who were taken to Yazid’s palace in Damascus. Today, there is a mausoleum for her in the city of Damascus, Syria.

In Historical Sources[edit | edit source]

In historical sources, hadiths, and ancient maqtals, there is no mention of Ruqayya among the daughters of Imam Hussain. Earlier sources mention two daughters of Imam Hussain as Fatima and Sukayna, and in recent sources, another daughter is also mentioned as Zaynab. [1] Kamil Baha'i (completed in 1276 AD) by Emadeddin Tabari* (living in 1300 AD) is the oldest source that mentions the story of Imam Hussain's four-year-old daughter. Tabari's source is Al-Hawiah Fi Masaleb Muawiyah written by Qassim ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad Mamouni, a Sunni scholar, which is not available today. [2] In this book [3], it is written: “Now that the men were martyred in Karbala, the women of Ahl al-Bayt concealed their martyrdom from their sons and daughters and made promises to the children saying that their fathers were on journeys and they would come back. Then the women and children were taken to Yazid ibn Mu‘awiya's palace. There was a four-year-old girl. She woke up one night and said, “Where is Hussain, my father? I had a dream about him, he was agitated.” All women and children started weeping and crying. Yazid who was asleep, woke up and asked what was happening. He was told about what had happened. Then, Yazid ordered his men to grab Imam Hussain's head and place it next to Ruqayya. They brought her father's head and placed it next to her. “What is this?” she asked. “Your father's head,” they replied. The little girl was scared, screaming and suffering, and passed away after a few days.”. [4] In his Rawdat al-shuhada [5] Kashefi Sabzevari (d. 1504 AD) mentions the same story with slight differences and some additions which are similar to the contemporary language, and without mentioning Ruqayya, and cites from Qanz al-Ghareib Fi Qasas al-Aajeib, a book on the accounts of the Four Caliphs and Imam Hasan and Imam Hussain, written by Najmuddin Qasim bin Mohammed Mazamkini (living in 1477). [6] Except for these two sources, none of the ancient sources available today mention Imam Hussain's little daughter who passes away after seeing her father's head. Subsequent authors have repeated the same story in their books with slight changes. [7] In more recent sources, it is believed that the name of Imam Hussain's little daughter was Ruqayya and there is a tomb in the Levant with the same name. [8] Haeri Mazandarani [9] asserts that Ruqayya’s mother was Lady of the Land, daughter of Yazdegerd, and Ruqayya passed away aged 5 or 7 in the Levant; however, as said accounts lack precise documentation. [10] In some copies of Ibn Tawus’s Al-Malhuf ʿala Qatla al-Tufuf (d. 671) Ruqayya’s name is mentioned by Imam Hussain. [11] Toraihi also mentions an elegy on Imam Hussain written by Saif ibn Umayrah Nakhaei*, a companion of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq in which Ruqayya’s name is mentioned twice, yet the attribution is uncertain because in ancient sources, there is no mention of this long elegy and its attribution to Saif.

Shrine[edit | edit source]

Today, the tomb attributed to Ruqayya, located in Amara neighborhood in Damascus, is a Shiite shrine and has been rebuilt several times so far. [12] The tomb was rebuilt for the first time by Mirzababa Mostofi Gilani in 1713 AD. It was rebuilt again in 1863 and then in 1905 at the behest of Mirza Ali Asghar Khan, the Chancellor of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar. It was further rebuilt by two brothers in Damascus, Seyyed Kamil and Seyyed Mohammad Ali al-Nezam in 1924. For the last time, after about half a century, Sheikh Nasrallah Khalkhali, a Shiite scholar residing in Syria, and Imam Musa Sadr, the leader of the Shiites in Lebanon, provided for the purchase of adjacent buildings for the development of the shrine, and in September 1985, the construction of the new and current shrine was initiated and was completed in 1991. [13] Today, Ruqayya's shrine is composed of a large building that is a combination of Syrian and Iranian Islamic art and architecture. The small silver Zarih on the tomb was donated from Tehran in 1956, and the larger silver Zarih and its upper golden-ornamented part were made in Isfahan and installed in 1994. [14] Citing from a Sunni Egyptian scholar, Abdul Wahab Sha'rani’s* Lataef Al-Menan va Al-Akhlagh [15], Haeri Mazandarani [16] mistakenly attributes the tomb of Imam Ali's daughter (PBUH) in Egypt.[17]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ → Hussain ibn Ali *, Imam, wives and children; CF. ibn Talha Shafi'i, Vol. 2, p. 69; and as cited by him; → Bahaeddin Irbeli, Vol. 2, p. 248, according to whom, Imam Hussain had four daughters, yet only three of them are mentioned, with no mention of Ruqayya. For a strange citation about the number of Imam's children → Sharif Kashani, Vol. 1, p. 459-460
  2. ↑ → Qomi, 2006 AD, Vol. 1, pp. 201-203
  3. ↑ Vol. 2, pp. 179-180
  4. ↑ Cf. Ibn Tawus, 1996 AD, pp 109-110, mentions Imam Hussain's daughter, Sukaynah, dreaming about Fatimah bint Muhammad (PBUH), and also there is a mention of Imam Hussain's cloak, not his head
  5. ↑ pp 686-687
  6. ↑ About this book → Storey [1], Vol. 1, Chapter 2, p 1266; Danesh Pajouh, p 273
  7. ↑ For instance → Toraihi, p. 136-137; Qomi, (1959, a) Vol. 2, pp. 1002-1004; Ibid (1959, b) pp. 415-416
  8. ↑ →Khorasani, p. 251; Haeri Mazandarani, p. 586; Mahallati, Vol. 3, p. 312; Ibid, Vol. 3, pp. 309-310, that mentions Kamil Baha'i’s account under the title “Ruqayya bint Al-Hussain”; Cf. Sharif Kashani, Vol. 1, p. 459, mentions Zubaydah as another name for Ruqayya
  9. ↑ p. 626-627
  10. ↑ Cf. Ibid, p. 584-585, in which Ruqayya’s age is 4 and 3, citing from Kamil Baha'i’ and Fakhreddin Toraihi's Montakhab respectively; for other accounts regarding Ruqayya’s mother, without historical documentation → Rabbani Khalkhali, p. 199; for more details about Imam's wives→ Hussain ibn Ali *, Imam, wives and children section; Shahrbanu
  11. ↑ →Ibn Tawus (1992 AD), p. 141; Cf. Ibid, (1996 AD) p. 50; for another instance in a more recent source → Ghondozi, Vol. 3, p. 79
  12. ↑ →Amin, Vol. 7, p. 34; Hashem Usman, p. 29-30; for an account in the regard → Khorasani, p. 340-341
  13. ↑ Khmehyar, pp. 246-252; Tabasi, pp. 105-106; “Mashhad al-Seyyedah Ruqayya in Damascus”, p. 1076
  14. ↑ Khmehyar, pp. 250-251
  15. ↑ Vol. 2, p. 35
  16. ↑ p. 586
  17. ↑ →Yaqut al-Hamawi, Vol. 4, p. 554) to Ruqayya bint Al-Ḥusayn

Bibliography[edit | edit source]

  • Ibn Tawus, Maqtal Al-Hussain (PBUH), Al-Mosama Belhūf Fi Qatlā Al-Tufūf, Qom, 1996.
  • ------------. Al-Malhūf ʿalā qatlā al-ṭufūf, Fars Tabrizian Hassoun Publishing, Qom, (? 1993).
  • Ibn Talha Shafi'i, Matalib Al-So'oul Fi Manaqib Al al-Rasul, published by Majid bin Ahmed Attieh, Beirut, 1999.
  • Amin, Ali ibn Isa Bahaeddin Irbeli, Kashf Al-ghumma Fi Ma'rifat Al-a'imma, Beirut, 1985.
  • Mehdi Haeri Mazandarani, Ma'alia Sebtin Fi Ahwal Al-Hassan and Al-Hussein (PBUH), Qom, 2004.
  • Ahmad Khameyar, Works of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Shrines of Ahl al-Bayt (PBUH) in Syria, Tehran, 2013.
  • Mohammad Hashem Khorasani, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, Tehran, 1938.
  • Mohammad Taqi Danesh Pajouh, “Paris Travel Report”, Librry Science, Vol. 9, 1983.
  • Ali Rabbani Khalkhali, Shining Star in the Levant: Ruqayya aghter of Imam Hussain (PBUH), Qom, 1998.
  • Habibollah Ibn Ali Madad Sharif Kashani, Tadhkirat al-Shohada, Tehran, 2005.
  • Abdul Wahab bin Ahmad Sha'rani, Lataef Al-Menan va Al-Akhlagh Fi Bayan Vojub Al-tahadoth Bene’mat Allah Al al-Atlagh, Qom, 1978.
  • Emad al-Din Hassan bin Ali Tabari, Kamil Baha'i, Tehran: Mortazavi School, Bita Publications.
  • Najmuddin Tabasi, Ruqayya bint Al-Hussain (PBUH): Responses to Reflections and Questions, Prepared by Abbas Jahanshahi, Tehran, 2014.
  • Fakhreddin bin Muhammad Toraihi, Al Montakhab Fi Jam'a al-Marathi va al-Khotab, Al-Moshtahar b al-Fakhri, Beirut, 1992.
  • Abbas Qomi, Al-Fawaed al-Razwiah: The Accounts of the Shia Scholars, published by Nasser Bagheri Bidhendi, Vol. 1, Qom, 2008.
  • ------------. Montahal Amal, published by Nasser Bagheri Bidhendi, Qom, 2000 (a).
  • ------------. Nafasul Mahmum Fi Mosibat Seyyodana al-Hussein al-Mazlum Williyah Naftha al-Masdur Fima Yatajadod be Hozn al-Ashur, Qom, 2000 (b).
  • Suleiman bin Ibrahim Ghondozi, Yonabi al-Mavadat Lezu Belghorba, published by Ali Jamal Ashraf Hosseini, Qom, 1995.
  • Hossein ibn Ali Kashefi Sabzevari, Rowzat al-Shohada, published by Hassan Zolfaghari and Ali Tasnifi, Tehran, 2011.
  • Zabiholah Mahallati, Riyahin al-Sharia in Translations by Shiite Female Scientists, Vol. 3, Tehran, 1994.
  • “Mashhad al-Seyyedah Ruqayya in Damascus”, Al-Musem, Year 1, Issue 4, 1989.
  • Hashem Osman, Mushahida va Moazarat va Maghamat Ahl al-Bayt Fi Suriah, Beirut, 1994.
  • Yaqut al-Hamawi,
  • Charles Ambrose Storey, Persian literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey, Vol.1, pt.2, London, 1972.

Source[edit | edit source]

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