The sequence presented below highlights the various contributions of Muslim women throughout the Middle Ages and into the early 20th century. The order below is the author's choice viewed from a chronological perspective, starting from the earliest to the latest.
1. Khadijah bint Khuwailid (d. 620)
Before her famous marriage to the Prophet Muhammad, Khadija was an important figure in her own right, being a successful merchant and one of Mecca's elite figures. He played a central role in supporting and spreading the Islamic faith. Another of the most important women of early Islam, Fatimah al-Zahra', was the Prophet's daughter Khadijah and it was only through her (especially through her two sons, al-Hasan and al-Husain) that the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad was preserved. These facts make Fatimah and Khadijah among the most revered female figures in Islamic history.
2. Fatimah al-Zahra' bint Muhammad (d. 632)
As the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and his first wife Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (d. 620), Fatimah played an important role in the early Muslim communities in Mecca and Medina. He, along with his family, endured harsh persecution from the Quraysh in Mecca before moving to Medina in 622. During the Prophet's life, he lived through (and actively participated in) all the major developments in the founding of the Islamic religion. Not long after arriving in Medina, Fatimah married 'Ali bin Abi Talib (d. 661).
3. Nusaiba bint Ka'ab al-Anshariyyah (d. 634)
Nusayba was known as Umm 'Ammara, she was a member of the Bani Najjar tribe and one of the earliest converts to Islam in Medina. As a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad, there are many virtues attributed to him. What is best remembered about this formidable woman is her taking part in the Battle of Uhud (625), where she wielded a sword and shield, fighting against the skilled kuffar of Mecca. During the battle he received several spear and arrow wounds. After suffering his twelfth wound, he fell unconscious and the first question he asked when he woke up (a day later in Medina) was: “Is the Prophet safe?”.
4. 'Aisyah bint Abu Bakr (d. 678)
'Aisha was the wife of the Prophet Muhammad who probably had the greatest influence on the Muslim community after his death. He played a central role in the transmission of Islamic teachings. He is one of the main narrators of hadith in the Sunni tradition. In many ways, 'Aisyah is one of the most important figures in early Islam, especially because the implications of her actions for women's participation in the public sphere clashed with conservative Islamic conceptions.
5. Asma' bint Abu Bakr (d. 692)
Abu Bakr's daughter and older sister 'Aisyah (d. 58/678), Asma' was one of the earliest converts to Islam in Mecca. She married al-Zubair bin al-‘Awwam (d. 656). The descendants of these two couples would later become prominent political and intellectual figures during the first century of Islam. As an early Muslim, she experienced much of the persecution experienced by early Muslims in Mecca and was forced to migrate to Medina in 622. Like many other Muslim women, she participated in the Battle of Yarmouk (636) against the Byzantines. After the Prophet's death, he was one of the leading authorities on Islamic teachings, narrating a large number of hadiths. One of his sons, namely 'Urwah bin al-Zubair (d. 713) became one of the most prominent scholars, especially in the field of hadith.
6. Umm al-Darda' Hujaima bint Uyayy al-Sughra (d. 700)
One of the foremost Muslim scholars of the second generation after the Prophet, Umm al-Darda' was an important hadith narrator, teacher and jurist. An expert on the Koran (which she memorized at a young age), Umm al-Darda' met and transmitted hadith from 'Aisyah bint Abu Bakr, Salman al-Faris, Abu Hurairah and other companions of the Prophet. After living most of his life in Medina, he moved to Damascus where taught hundreds of students (both men and women) at the Great Mosque, many of whom would become respected scholars and some even became caliphs such as 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
7. Rabi'ah al-'Adawiyyah (d. 801)
Rabi'ah is one of the most important Sufis in the Muslim tradition, he spent much of his youth as a slave in southern Iraq before achieving his freedom. He is considered one of the founders of the Sufi school of “Divine Love” which emphasizes God's unconditional love, not fear of punishment in hell or desire for reward in heaven. He expressed this in one of his poems: “Oh my God! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You with hope for heaven, throw me out of heaven.”
8. Fatimah al Fihri (d. 880)
Fatimah is the daughter of Mohammed Bnou Abdullah al-Fihri, a successful merchant who lived in Fez, Morocco. When Fatimah inherited her father's wealth, she invested it in establishing mosques and educational institutions. Gradually, the establishment developed into al-Qarawiyyin University or Al-Karaouine (University of al-Qarawiyyin). Al-Qarawiyyin is now considered the oldest university still operating and has graduated several important figures in history. From 861 until now, regular symposiums and debates have been held there.
9. Lubna of Cordoba (d. 984)
Originally a slave girl from Spain, Lubna rose to become one of the most important figures at the Umayyad court in Cordoba. He was court secretary to the caliph ‘Abd al-Rahman III (d. 961) and his son al-Hakam bin ‘Abd al-Rahman (d. 976). Lubna was also a skilled mathematician and presided over the royal library, which consisted of over 500,000 books. His knowledge of mathematics is also very large and he is also proficient in other sciences. There was no one in the Umayyad court who was as great as he.”
10. Fatimah bint Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Samarqand (d. 1185)
Fatimah is the daughter of the famous Hanafi jurist Abu Manshur Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Samarqand who wrote the book Tuhfat al-Fuqaha' from Central Asia. Fatimah was an expert on the Qur'an, hadith, jurisprudence, theology and grammar by the time she reached adulthood. He is qualified to issue a fatwa. She was recognized as one of the most learned women of the 12th century by her contemporaries and her legal opinions were respected by many rulers. She married 'Ala' al-Din Abu Bakr bin Mas'ud al-Kasan (d. 1191), another prominent Hanafi jurist and author of a legal compendium entitled Bada'i al-Shana'i' fi Tartib al-Syara'i '. Shortly after their marriage, the couple traveled across the Islamic world until they settled in Aleppo, where they both established themselves as prominent scholars.
11. Zainab bint Ahmad (d. 1339)
Zainab belongs to the Hanbali school of thought and lives in Damascus. He has obtained a number of diplomas (a kind of certification) in various fields, especially hadith. In the early fourteenth century, he taught various books such as Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Al-Muwaththa' by Malik bin Anas, Syama'il from al-Tirmidhi, and Syarh Ma'ani al-Athar from al-Tahawi. Among his students were the North African traveler Ibn Batuta (d. 1369), Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 1355), al-Dhahabi (d. 1348), and his name appears in several of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's writings (d. 1448). It is important to point out that Zainab was just one of hundreds of female hadith scholars during the medieval period in the Muslim world.
12. Sayyida al-Hurra (d. 1542)
Sayyida al-Hurra came from the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, but was forced to flee after being conquered by the Christian Spanish in 1492. Like many Andalusian Muslims, he settled in Morocco. Together with her husband, she ruled the city of Tetouan on the north coast. After her husband's death in 1515, she became sole ruler of the city, and turned Tetouan into a major base of naval operations for revenge against Spain and Portugal. He allied himself with admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in Algeria and together they dealt a serious blow to Spanish imperial power in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean. Sayyida al-Hurra spent the rest of her days at sea and became known as the “Pirate Queen”.
13. Malahayati from Aceh (d. 1600)
One of the most significant Muslim women in the early modern history of Southeast Asia, Malahayati was a prominent military and political figure in the Sultanate of Aceh during the 16th century. He was a famous admiral and led a fleet consisting mostly of Acehnese war widows. Malahayati is remembered in post-colonial Indonesian historiography as a heroic admiral who was an early leader of resistance to Dutch colonialism in Southeast Asia. One of Malahayati's most important victories was the defeat of Dutch naval commander Cornelis de Houtman in 1599.
14. Nana Asma'u (d. 1864)
Nana was the daughter of Usman dan Fodio (d. 1232/1817), a jurist, reformer, Sufi, and founder of the Sokoto caliphate. Although many assume that his fame is related solely to his father's career, it must be underlined that Nana Asma'u was an important poet, historian, educator, and religious scholar who continued to play a major role in political, cultural, and intellectual developments in West Africa throughout almost 50 years after his father's death. He was a Maliki jurist and a Sufi of the Qadir order, devoted to the education of Muslim women and continuing his father's reformist traditions. He believed that knowledge held the key to the improvement of society.
15. Siti Walidah Dahlan (d. 1946)
Nyai Walidah is the wife of the founder of Muhammadiyah KH. Ahmad Dahlan. Together with her husband, Siti Walidah played a very big role in organizing women and establishing the largest women's association in the world, Aisyiyah. From Aisyiyah, girls' and boarding schools, literacy and Islamic education programs for women developed. To date, Aisyiyah has thousands of educational institutions, dozens of hospitals and other social services.
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