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Rubab bint Imra al-Qais

{{Short description|Spouse of Al-Husayn ibn Ali}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Rubab bint Imra' al-Qays{{break}}{{langx|ar|رُبَاب بِنْت ٱمْرِئ ٱلْقَيْس}}

| image =

| caption =

| father = Imru' al-Qays

| mother =

| birth_date =

| birth_place =

| death_date = 62 AH (681-2 CE)

| death_place = Medina

| spouse = Husayn ibn Ali

| children = {{plainlist|

}}

}}

{{Shia Islam}}

Rubāb bint Imraʾ al-Qays ({{langx|ar|رُبَاب بِنْت ٱمْرِئ ٱلْقَيْس}}) was the first wife of Husayn ibn Ali, the third Shia Imam. After some years of remaining childless, she bore Husayn two children, named Sakina and Abd-Allah, also known as Ali al-Asghar. Rubab was present at Karbala in 680 CE and witnessed there the massacre of her husband and his supporters by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid (r. 680–683). Also killed there was Ali al-Asghar, who was at the time a young child, likely an infant. The women and children, among them Rubab, were marched to Kufa and then the capital Damascus, where they were paraded in the streets and then imprisoned. They were later released and returned to their hometown of Medina. Rubab refused to remarry after Husayn and died about a year later in Medina. Some elegies are ascribed to her in memory of Husayn.

Marriage

Rubab was the daughter of Imra' al-Qais ibn Adi, a chief of the Banu Kalb tribe. Imra' came to Medina early during the caliphate of Umar ({{Reign|634|644}}) and was given authority over the new converts to Islam from the Quda'a, a confederation of tribes that included the Banu Kalb.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} During that visit he was approached by Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad ({{Died in|632}}). Ali proposed to establish marriage ties with Imra', who gave one of his daughters to Ali in marriage and promised another two to Ali's sons, Hasan ({{Died in|670}}) and Husayn ({{Died in|680}}), who were too young at the time.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} Of the two brothers, only Husayn fulfilled this promise and Rubab was thus his first wife, whom he married in the final years of the caliphate of Ali ({{Reign|656|661}}).{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} After remaining childless for some years, Rubab gave birth to Sakina, who might have also been Husayn's eldest daughter.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} Her birthdate is not known with certainty and various reports give the years 47,{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=363}} 49,{{Sfn|Mernissi|1991|p=192}} or 51 AH,{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=363}} that is, circa 671 CE.{{Sfn|Mernissi|1991|p=192}} A short poem is ascribed to Husayn in celebration of his love for Rubab and Sakina.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}}{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|pp=283, 285}}{{Sfn|Ayoub|1978|p=164}} Rubab later bore Husayn his son Abd-Allah,{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} commonly known as Ali al-Asghar in Shia sources.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}}{{Sfn|Haider|2014|p=68}} Husayn's {{Transliteration|ar|kunya}}, Abu Abd-Allah, probably refers to this son.{{sfn|Madelung|2004}}

Battle of Karbala, captivity, and death

File:Ali al-Asghar Conference.jpg, who was killed in the Battle of Karbala.|261x261px]]

Husayn denounced the accession of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiya in 680. When pressed by Yazid's agents to pledge his allegiance, Husayn first fled from his hometown of Medina to Mecca and later set off for Kufa in Iraq, accompanied by his family and a small group of supporters.{{Sfn|Burney Abbas|2009|p=143}} Among them was Rubab, according to the Sunni historian Ibn al-Athir ({{Died in|1232-3}}) in his The Complete History.{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=291}} With her were her two children, Sakina and Abd-Allah.{{Sfn|Burney Abbas|2009|p=143}}{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}}

The small caravan of Husayn was intercepted and massacred in Karbala, near Kufa, by the Umayyad forces who first surrounded them for some days and cut off their access to the nearby river Euphrates.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} Abd-Allah was also killed during the battle by an arrow.{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}}{{Sfn|Haider|2014|p=68}} He was at the time a young child,{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}} likely an infant, as reported by the early historian Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani ({{Died in|967}}) in his biographical {{Transliteration|ar|Maqatil al-Talibiyyin}}.{{Sfn|Tabatabai|1975|pp=178, 188n37}} This is also the Shia view.{{Sfn|Haider|2014|p=68}} In the accounts of the battle presented by al-Isfahani and by the Twelver jurist Ibn Tawus ({{Died in|1266}}), Rubab was addressed by Husayn in his parting words for his family before he left for the battlefield one last time.{{Sfn|Mir|2014}} The battle ended when Husayn was beheaded, whereupon the Umayyad soldiers pillaged his camp,{{Sfn|Veccia Vaglieri|2012}}{{Sfn|Momen|1985|p=30}} and severed the heads of Husayn and his fallen companions, which they then raised on spears for display.{{Sfn|Momen|1985|p=30}} The women and children were then taken captive and marched to Kufa and later the capital Damascus.{{Sfn|Veccia Vaglieri|2012}} The captives were paraded in the streets of Damascus,{{Sfn|Esposito|2022}} and then imprisoned for an unknown period of time.{{Sfn|Qutbuddin|2005|p=9938}} They were eventually freed by Yazid and returned to Medina.{{Sfn|Qutbuddin|2005|p=9938}}{{Sfn|Qutbuddin|2019|p=107}} After the death of her husband, Rubab refused to remarry.{{sfn|Madelung|2004}} She died about a year later from grief, according to the Sunni biographer Ibn Sa'd ({{Died in|845}}) in his {{Transliteration|ar|al-Tabaqat al-kubra}},{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=291}} and the Sunni historian Ibn Asakir ({{Died in|1176}}) in his {{Transliteration|ar|Tarikh Dimashq}},{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=285}} among others. Rubab is said to have spent a year in grief at Husayn's grave,{{Sfn|Madelung|2004}}{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=285}}{{Sfn|Ayoub|1978|p=164}} and died in Medina in 681 or 682.{{Sfn|Naji|Mohammad-Zadeh|2017}} Some elegies are ascribed to her in memory of Husayn,{{Sfn|Reyshahri|2009|p=|pp=283, 293}} one of which reads as follows.

{{Blockquote|text=Behold him who was a light shining in the darkness, is now in Karbala slain and unburied.

You were for me a fast mountain to least upon, and you were a true friend in kinship ({{Transliteration|ar|rahim}}) and faith ({{Transliteration|ar|din}}).

Who is left for the orphans and the needy after him who used to provide for the destitute, and to whom every poor person would run for refuge.{{sfn|Ayoub|1978|pp=164-5}}}}

See also

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Footnotes

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Sources

{{refbegin|2}}

  • {{cite book|title=The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi'i Islam|chapter=Sakineh, The Narrator of Karbala: An Ethnographic Description of a Women's Majlis Ritual in Pakistan|editor-first=Kamran Scot |editor-last=Aghaie|pages=141–160|author-first=Shemeem|author-last=Burney Abbas|publisher=University of Texas Press|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womenofkarbalari0000unse/page/140/mode/2up|isbn= 9780292784444|year=2009}}
  • {{cite book|title=Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of Ashura in Twelver Shi'ism|author-first=Mahmoud M.|author-last= Ayoub|year=1978|isbn= 9789027979438|publisher=De Gruyter}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |title=Zaynab |encyclopedia=The Islamic World: Past and Present |author-link=John Esposito|editor-last=Esposito |editor-first=John L. |series=Oxford Reference |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-19-516520-3 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195165203.001.0001/acref-9780195165203-e-379}}
  • {{cite book|title=Shi'i Islam: An Introduction|author-first=Najam|author-last= Haider|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn= 9781316061015}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia|first=Wilferd |last=Madelung |author-link= Wilferd Madelung |title = Ḥosayn b. ʿAli i. Life and Significance in Shiʿism|encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Iranica|editor-last1=Yarshater|editor-first1=Ehsan|year=2004|url = https://iranicaonline.org/articles/hosayn-b-ali-i|volume=XII|publisher=Bibliotheca Persica Press|location=New York|pages=493–498}}
  • {{cite book|title=The Veil And The Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation Of Women's Rights In Islam|author-first=Fatima|author-last= Mernissi|year= 1991 |isbn= 9780201632217|publisher=Basic Books|author-link=Fatima Mernissi|url=https://archive.org/details/veilmaleelite00mern/mode/2up}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam |publisher=Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation |url=https://rch.ac.ir/article/Details/12314 |trans-title=Husayn ibn Ali, Imam (II) |year=2014 |title=حسین ابن علی, امام (۲)|volume=13 |language=Persian|author-first=Mohammad-Ali|author-last=Mir}}
  • {{cite book |last=Momen |first=Moojan |title=An Introduction to Shi'i Islam |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-300-03531-5 |author-link=Moojan Momen}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam |publisher=Encyclopaedia Islamica Foundation |url=https://rch.ac.ir/article/Details/14212 |trans-title=Sakina bint Husayn |year=2017 |title=سكينة بنت حسین|volume=24 |language=Persian |author1-first=Mohammad-Reza |author1-last=Naji|author2-first= Marziya |author2-last=Mohammad-Zadeh}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=ZAYNAB BINT 'ALĪ |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofre0014unse/mode/2up |author-link=Tahera Qutbuddin |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Lindsay |edition=Second |volume=14 |pages=9937–9 |isbn=0-02-865983-X |author-first=Tahera |author-last=Qutbuddin}}
  • {{cite book |author-last=Qutbuddin |author-first=Tahera |title=The 'Other' Martyrs: Women and the Poetics of Sexuality, Sacrifice, and Death in World Literatures |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=2019 |isbn=9783447112147 |editor1-last=Korangy |editor1-first=Alireza |chapter=Orations of Zaynab and Umm Kulthūm in the Aftermath of Ḥusayn's Martyrdom at Karbala: Speaking Truth to Power |editor2-last=Rouhi |editor2-first=Leyla}}
  • {{cite book |title=دانشنامه امام حسين |title-link= |first=Mohammad |author-link=Mohammad Reyshahri |last=Reyshahri |language=fa |trans-title=The Encyclopedia of Imam Husayn |year=2009 |isbn=((9789644931)) |volume=1}}
  • {{cite book |last=Tabatabai |first=Sayyid Mohammad Hosayn |author-link=Allameh Tabatabaei |title=Shi'ite Islam |url=https://archive.org/details/ShiaInIslamCopy/mode/2up |year=1975 |isbn=0873953908 |others=Translated by Sayyid Hossein Nasr |publisher=State University of New York Press|edition=First}}
  • {{cite encyclopedia |last=Veccia Vaglieri |first=Laura |author-link=Laura Veccia Vaglieri |title=(al-)Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=Second |editor1-first=P. |editor1-last=Bearman |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor4-first=E. |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor5-first=W. P. |editor5-last=Heinrichs |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0304 |year=2012 |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0304 |isbn=9789004161214|url-access=subscription }}

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Category:Family of Muhammad

Category:Battle of Karbala

Category:7th-century Arab people

Category:Wives of Shiite Imams

Category:Wives of Husayn ibn Ali

Category:681 deaths