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"The term most widely used in Arabic-speaking
countries to define them is mujahidaat (lit. female fighters). Despite the strongly pejorative connotations ascribed to it by today’s Western political vocabulary, mujahidaat originally applies to those Muslim women who served as auxiliary personnel in non-physical
military operations, dispensing medications to the injured, managing fund-raising for the
war effort, and encouraging their husbands, brothers and sons to wholeheartedly
immerse themselves in the implementation of jihad.
16 Since the time of the Prophet
Muhammad, these women have joined their male counterparts on the battlefield and
fearlessly secured the Dar al-Islam (adobe of Islam) from the danger of tyrannical
rulers and infidel enemies." (304)

"David Cook points out that one of the first published works
to consistently address the issue is ‘Abd al-Ghani ibn ‘Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi’s (d.
1203) Manaqib al-Sahabiyyat (The Merits of the Women Companions [of the Holy
Prophet]). In this treatise two women are particularly acknowledged for having fought
shoulder to shoulder with Muhammad in his early campaigns: one of them was Nusaybah
bint Ka‘ab (dates unknown), who is said to have suffered serious injuries while attempting
to rescue a group of wounded in the Battle of Uhud (626); the other one was Muhammad’s aunt Safiyyah bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib (569–640), who is reported to have been
instrumental in driving the Jew forces out of Yathrib (now Medina) during the epic
Battle of Khandaq." (304)

"Other noteworthy female fighters related to the Prophet were his favored wife Aisha
bint Abu Bakr (614–678) the “Mother of Believers”, who led an army against Ali on
the back of a camel at Basra (656)—hence the name of “Battle of the Camel” originated—and his granddaughter Zaynab bint ‘Ali (d. 682), a die-hard fighter whose
embroilment in the Battle of Karbala (680) at the side of her martyred brother Imam
al-Husayn would later become the symbol of female militancy against injustice among
Shi’a Muslims.19 Historical memories around the leadership and fighting skills of these
two exceptional women, especially in the latter case, have been essential to (re)-crafting
modern gender roles in times of social and political upheaval. The burden of responsibility assumed by sister Zaynab after the death of al-Husayn is, for instance, one of the leitmotif of Shi’a devotional literature produced in nineteenth-century colonial India by
Urdu poets like Mir Babar Ali Anis (1802–1874). “Zaynab Made Islam Safe from the
Flames”, one of Anis’s most famed nawhas (lit. lamentation-dirge), offers a portray of
the woman as an everlasting symbol of assertiveness and endurance in defeat." (304)

"‘Afirah bint ‘Affar al-Himyariyah (dates unknown) who also
fought in the Battle of Ajnadayn, was not less pugnacious. An account of her warlike temperament is offered by the great early Muslim historian and muhaddith al-Waqidi (747–
823) in his controversial Futu¯ h. al-Sha¯m (The Islamic Conquest of Syria).
[Referring to Khalid ibn Sa’id]: Oh commander, by Allah! We will be more
pleased if you put us in front to fight the Romans and break their faces
[instead of encouraging our men to do so]. We will kill them until we are all
martyred and none of us remain.29
Waqidi’s account does not fail to reveal also invaluable details about the close friendship
between the two women and the extraordinary endurance displayed when they threw
themselves valiantly into the Battle of Yarmouk (636) across the disputed territories of
the then Christian Levant." (306)

"Nearly contemporary with Khawlah and ‘Afirah was Umm Salamah Asma bint Yazid
(dates unknown)—not to be confused with Muhammad’s sixth wife Umm Salamah
bint Abi Umayya (ca. 580–680). She was reported to have joined the Muslim army in
the Battle of Khaybar (628), and to have killed nine Byzantine soldiers with just the
pole of her tent not long afterwards at Yarmouk.31 On another occasion, serving as a
sort of attorney before the Prophet, she delivered a colorful speech which brings out sahabiyyat’s concern over the issue of whether women should be allowed to become more
actively involved in jihad operations." (306)
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