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114-517: The Arabic word zaynab literally means 'adornment of father'. She is also known as Zaynab al-Kubra ( lit.   ' the senior Zaynab ' ) to distinguish her from her younger sister Umm Kulthum or Zaynab al-Sughra ( lit.   ' the junior Zaynab ' ). Another title of Zaynab is Aqilatu Bani Hashim ( lit.   ' the sage of the Bani Hashim ' ), where the word al-aqila literally means 'the secluded one' or 'pearl'. She

228-556: A ceremony to the caliph, who recited poetry and gloated about avenging his pagan relatives killed in the Battle of Badr (624). By some accounts, Yazid also dishonored the severed head of Husayn with blows from a cane, although this last episode is instead sometimes attributed to Ibn Ziyad, including in the account given by Veccia Vaglieri in which a respectful Yazid blames his governor for killing Husayn. Recounting this last account, Madelung suggests that early (Sunni) sources tend to exonerate

342-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

456-521: A common Karbala narrative, the family of Muhammad was assisted in this journey by a man named Bashir, who was generously compensated by Zaynab and others from the little that was left after the looting on Ashura. Sunni sources report Yazid's remorse for the massacre and his compensation for the property plundered by his soldiers, while Shia authorities contend that it was Zaynab's activism that swayed some in Yazid's court, especially his women, and thus compelled

570-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

684-617: A daughter named Umm Kulthum. The Islamicist J. Esposito differs here, as he suggests that the couple had three sons and two daughters, without naming them. Awn and Muhammad were killed in the Battle of Karbala, and there is no information about Abbas, but Zaynab's lineage continued through Ali, also known as Ali al-Zaynabi. For her knowledge of prophetic hadiths, Muhammad's prominent cousin Ibn Abbas ( d.   c.  687 ) referred to Zaynab as Aqilatu Bani Hashim ( lit.   '

798-460: A debaucher who openly violated the Islamic norms, and his nomination was met with resistance from the sons of Muhammad's prominent companions, including Husayn ibn Ali. On Mu'awiya's death and Yazid's succession in 680, the latter instructed the governor of Medina to secure Husayn's pledge of allegiance by force. Husayn thus left Medina for Mecca at night to avoid recognizing Yazid as the caliph. He

912-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

1026-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

1140-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

1254-586: A night sortie. Despite this attempt, Husayn's camp suffered from thirst and hunger during the siege. Karbala has a hot desert climate . Ibn Sa'd was instructed by Ibn Ziyad not to let Husayn leave unless he pledged his allegiance to Yazid. Husayn did not submit to Yazid, but negotiated with Ibn Ziyad through Ibn Sa'd to be allowed to retreat and avoid bloodshed. The governor did not relent, however, and finally ordered Ibn Sa'd to fight, kill, and disfigure Husayn and his supporters unless they pledged allegiance to Yazid, in which case their fate would be decided later. At

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1368-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

1482-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

1596-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

1710-556: A symbol of "courage, fortitude, leadership, eloquence, devotion, and faith." This view is common, and female Muslim activists have at times cited what they perceived as the steadfast stance of Zaynab against tyranny and oppression, particularly in the recent histories of Iran and Lebanon . Zaynab's birthday is celebrated as Nurses Day in Iran, possibly because she cared for the wounded in Karbala. Historically, Karbala served to crystallize

1824-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

1938-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

2052-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

2166-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

2280-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

2394-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

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2508-490: Is also recognized as Batalatu al-Karbala ( lit.   ' the heroine of Karbala ' ) for her role in that event. Sometimes she is referred to as al-Sayyida ( lit.   ' the lady ' ), and in Egypt as al-Tahira ( lit.   ' the pure one ' ) and Umm al-Yatama ( lit.   ' mother of the orphans ' ). Zaynab was the third child of Fatima and Ali ibn Abi Talib , and their eldest daughter. The former

2622-486: Is an Islamic reference to those who were pardoned by Muhammad upon his victorious return to Mecca. Yazid is then asked in the sermon if it is just to keep his women guarded and parade the daughters of Muhammad in the streets. As with the Kufa speech, this Damascus sermon is also infused with several Quranic references. For instance, Yazid's victory is called temporary in this sermon, his efforts futile, and his shame eternal. This

2736-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

2850-460: Is coupled with verse 3:179, "Let not disbelievers think that our respite is a good thing. Indeed, we give them respite so that they may increase in trespass, and a shameful punishment awaits them," and verse 11:18, "The curse of God be upon the oppressor," among others. Reports by al-Tabari and the Shia scholar Ibn Babawayh ( d.   c.  923 ) indicate that a Syrian at one point asked

2964-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

3078-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

3192-556: Is described as eloquent, reputedly reminding her listeners of her father Ali. A sermon attributed to Zaynab after the Battle of Karbala is recorded by the Muslim historian Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur ( d.  893 ) in his Balaghat al-nisa' , which is an anthology of eloquent speeches by women . The book also contains another sermon, which the author attributes to Zaynab's sister Umm Kulthum. Nevertheless, this second speech has also been attributed to Zaynab by most later authors, including

3306-490: Is known about Zaynab's life after returning to Medina, though the silence of al-Tabari about it suggests that she was probably not involved with the nearby uprising of Abd-Allah ibn al-Zubayr . Some reports state that she died in Medina, others say that she travelled with her husband to his Syrian estates, where she died, and yet other sources write that she was exiled, possibly to Egypt , for publicizing Karbala. Her burial place

3420-712: Is not among the Fourteen Infallibles in Twelver Shi'ism . As she was raised with and by infallibles, she is nevertheless believed to have had "minor infallibility" in Twelver Shi'ism. As a young child, Zaynab might have foreseen her future trials: She is said to have seen in a dream that she was caught in a large tree amidst a storm. When the tree was uprooted by the strong winds, she grasped for branches and twigs, which also broke one after another, and she woke us as she began to fall. Muhammad told her that

3534-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

Zaynab bint Ali - Misplaced Pages Continue

3648-516: Is not reported by the prominent Shia scholar Shaykh Tusi ( d.  1067 ). Abd Allah was wealthy and known for his generosity, even though he is said to have lived modestly. Accordingly, the marriage ceremony of Zaynab and Abd Allah is described as a simple affair. The Shia author M. Eshtehardi writes that Zaynab married Abd Allah on the condition that she would be allowed to daily visit her brother Husayn and travel with him. The couple had four sons, named Ali, Awn, Abbas, and Muhammad. They also had

3762-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

3876-514: Is said to have died in Damascus, often identified as Sakina , or Ruqayya . The Karbala narrative emphasizes her suffering and death in captivity. In Damascus, the captives continued to mourn Husayn, possibly joined by some women from Yazid's court. The captives were eventually freed. They were allowed to return to Medina, or escorted back there. By some accounts, their caravan returned via Karbala, where they halted to mourn their dead. According to

3990-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

4104-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

4218-466: Is therefore uncertain, with claims made both for Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque in the suburbs of Damascus and another mosque at the heart of Cairo with the same name. While al-Tabari places her grave in Cairo and the Shia scholar Muhsin al-Amin ( d.  1952 ) considers Damascus unlikely, the only key evidence offered in favor of Cairo is the existence of the shrine itself, which officially dates back to

4332-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

4446-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

4560-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

4674-576: The Banu Asad men of the nearby al-Ghadiriyya village. The women and children were taken captive, including Zaynab and Umm Kulthum. Among the captives was also Husayn's only surviving son Ali , who had been too ill to fight. Known in Shia Islam by the honorific titles al-Sajjad and Zayn al-Abidin, Ali ibn al-Husayn was later recognized as the fourth of the Twelve Imams . It was through him that

Zaynab bint Ali - Misplaced Pages Continue

4788-638: The Egyptian Ministry of Education . She earned her PhD with distinction in 1950 and was appointed Professor of Arabic Literature at the University College for Women of the Ain Shams University . She wrote fiction and biographies of early Muslim women as well as literary criticism . She was the second modern woman to undertake Qur'anic exegesis . She did not consider herself to be a feminist , but her works reflect

4902-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

5016-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

5130-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

5244-824: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Aisha Abd al-Rahman Aisha Abd al-Rahman ( Arabic : عائشة عبد الرحمن; 18 November 1913 – 1 December 1998) (ʻĀʾishah ʻAbd al-Raḥman)

5358-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

5472-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

5586-779: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

5700-540: The Kufans wailed and wept when they saw Muhammad's family in captivity. Zaynab (or Umm Kulthum) then addressed the crowd and chastised them for their role in Husayn's death and recounted the events of Karbala. As reported by al-Tabari and al-Mufid, the captives were then presented to Ibn Ziyad, who boasted to Zaynab about killing Husayn and her relatives. She countered by reminding him of the verse of purification (33:33) and

5814-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

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5928-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

6042-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

6156-474: The Shia community into a distinct sect and remains an integral part of their religious identity to date. Karbala is perhaps the single most important episode in the history of Shia, where it is viewed as the ultimate struggle of justice and truth against oppression and falsehood, a righteous struggle ( jihad ) in which Husayn offered all that was dear to him for the cause of God. In this context, Zaynab has been described as Husayn's partner in his jihad , and

6270-619: The Shia scholar Ibn A'tham . Qutbuddin considers this latter attribution a strong possibility. Ali was elected caliph in 656, after which he established himself in Kufa as his de facto capital in 656–657. Zaynab and Abd Allah accompanied Ali to Kufa. There he was assassinated during the morning prayer at the Mosque of Kufa in January 661, which coincided with Ramadan , the month of fasting in Islam. The biographical al-Irshad , authored by

6384-481: The Shia-leaning historian al-Ya'qubi ( d.  897–898 ) similarly reports that a letter of Ibn Abbas later reprimanded Yazid for parading the women of Muhammad's family from Kufa to Damascus to show his victory, adding that he deemed this to be worse than the massacre of Husayn and his relatives. The captives were paraded in the streets of Damascus, and then imprisoned for a while. When they were brought to

6498-577: The belief that female authors are more capable of analyzing the life stories of women than male authors, because men are "ignorant of female instinct". During her lifetime, ʻĀʾishah ʻAbd al-Raḥman was recognised for her achievements, which earned her several awards. In 1987, she received the State Award from the Egyptian government. In 1994, she was the co-winner-along with Widād Al-Qāḍī- of King Faisal International Award for Arabic Literature. She

6612-498: The caliph at the cost of Ibn Ziyad. Madelung then argues that the prime responsibility for killing Husayn rests with Yazid. Balaghat al-nisa' attributes to Zaynab a speech in the court of Yazid, where she is said to have interrupted the caliph's insults and addressed his court harshly, lamenting Husayn, castigating Yazid, and defending the family of Muhammad. In the sermon, the caliph is addressed as "the son of al-tulaqa' ," where this last word ( lit.   ' freedmen ' )

6726-526: The caliph to disassociate himself from the massacre and blame his governor. Similar views are expressed by some contemporary authors. Zaynab died in 682 at the age of about fifty-six, not long after returning to Medina from Damascus. Alternatively, the historian L. Adamec ( d.  2019 ) places her death in the year 681. Shias annually commemorate her death on the most frequently cited date, that is, 15 Rajab . Other reported dates are 11 and 21 of Jumadi al-Thani , 24 Safar , and 16 Dhu al-Hijja . Little

6840-473: The caliph to give her a daughter of Husayn as a slave but Zaynab angrily prevented this. The Shia jurist Mughniyya ( d.  1979 ) writes that Zaynab was asked sarcastically in Damascus how she perceived the events of Karbala, to which she replied, "I have not seen anything except that it was beautiful" ( ma ra'aytu illa jamila ). For Mughniyya, this response in that hostile environment highlights Zaynab's political strength and vision. A young child of Husayn

6954-479: The caliph, the Islamicist L. Veccia Vaglieri ( d.  1989 ) writes that Yazid treated them kindly after an initial harsh interview and regretted the conduct of his governor, even saying that he would have pardoned Husayn if he was alive. Similar accounts are offered by the historians W. Madelung ( d.  2023 ) and H. Halm . By contrast, the Islamicist M. Momen believes that Yazid initially treated

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7068-515: The camp with arrows, thus commencing the battle which lasted from morning till sunset and consisted of incidents of single combat, skirmishes, assaults, and retreats. The army also set Husayn's tents on fire, although al-Tabari believes that the tent of Husayn's wives (and children) was spared, adding that the Umayyad commander Shamir ibn Dhi al-Jawshan was dissuaded by other soldiers from setting that tent aflame. Companions of Husayn all perished by

7182-402: The camp, urged by the dying Husayn, and did not witness the beheading of her brother, but al-Tabari differs here. Modern Karbala narratives emphasize that Zaynab did not break down as she witnessed the murder of her brother, following Husayn's earlier wishes. Standing over Husayn's body, she reputedly uttered, "O God! Accept from us this offering," to the bewilderment of the enemy soldiers. After

7296-485: The captives harshly but later released them as the public opinion began to sway in their favor and he feared unrest in his territory. Views of this kind are expressed by multiple authors, including Esposito, R. Osman, K. Aghaie, D. Pinault, H. Munson, and the Shia scholar M.H. Tabatabai ( d.  1981 ). In particular, the Sunni historian Ibn Kathir ( d.  1373 ) writes that Yazid did not reprimand his governor in

7410-516: The city alongside the heads of Husayn and his companions on spears. The captives likely regarded Zaynab as their leader. Ibn Tayfur records two speeches about Karbala in his Balaghat al-nisa' , one attributed to Umm Kulthum in the market of Kufa, and the other ascribed to Zaynab in the court of Yazid in Damascus . Most Shia authors, however, have later attributed both sermons to Zaynab, which Qutbuddin considers highly likely. Ibn Tayfur writes that

7524-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

7638-474: The day, and cared for the wounded. She is said to have witnessed the battle from a platform ( tall ) made of saddles, but have remained in her tent when it was the turn of her sons to fight. By one account, she once rushed to the battlefield to help but was called back by Husayn who instructed her to care for those left behind. Similarly, al-Tabari reports that Zaynab ran to the battlefield crying and threw herself on her fallen nephew Ali al-Akbar ibn Husayn when

7752-507: The death of Husayn, Umayyad soldiers stole his garments and personal belongings, pillaged his camp, and severed the heads of his fallen companions, which they then raised on spears for display. There are also reports of children's deaths during the Umayyad stampede. Acting upon earlier orders of Ibn Ziyad, the body of Husayn was then trampled, apparently by ten horsemen who volunteered to "inflict this final indignity" upon him. Some seventy-two bodies of Husayn and his companions were later buried by

7866-559: The death of Muhammad and that her child died in infancy of natural causes. Zaynab thus lost her mother at the age of about five. According to the Sunni author A. Abd al-Rahman ( d.  1998 ), Fatima on her deathbed entrusted Zaynab with a white garment for Husayn to wear as his shroud ( kafan ) when leaving for the battlefield in Karbala . Zaynab married her paternal cousin Abd Allah , whose father Ja'far al-Tayyar ibn Abi Talib

7980-460: The early afternoon and were followed by the Banu Hashim, including two sons of Husayn, three sons of Hasan, and the two sons of Zaynab present at Karbala, whom she is said to have encouraged to fight. In Shia view, Zaynab's motive in sacrificing her children was the survival of (Shia) Islam, even more so than her love for Husayn. Zaynab also consoled the families of the fallen warriors throughout

8094-522: The early historians Abu Mikhnaf ( d.  773–774 ), Ibn Sa'd ( d.  845 ), and al-Tabari. After releasing the rest, Ibn Ziyad imprisoned the Hashimite captives for a while and then sent them to Damascus. The caravan's route to Damascus is uncertain, but some say that they took the desert path. The tenth-century Sunni scholar al-Khawrazmi in his al-Maqtal writes that the captives were taken from "village to village" and displayed, while

8208-476: The elevated status of Muhammad's family in the Quran, adding that murder was preordained for Husayn and his supporters, and that God would soon judge between them and Ibn Ziyad. Her response angered the governor who nevertheless restrained himself after his men told him that a woman cannot be blamed for what she says. Ibn Ziyad also ordered the execution of Ali ibn Husayn but was dissuaded when Zaynab protected her nephew and asked to be killed before him, as reported by

8322-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

8436-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

8550-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

8664-432: The first ten days of Muharram, culminating on Ashura with processions in major Shia cities. The main component of ritual ceremonies ( majalis , sg. majlis ) is the emotional narration of the stories of Karbala, intended to raise sympathy and move the audience to tears. It is in these ceremonies that Zaynab and other women of Karbala are also commemorated. Qutbuddin considers Zaynab a role model for Muslim women and

8778-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

8892-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

9006-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

9120-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

9234-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

9348-439: The latter was killed in the fight. Husayn walked her back to the camp. When Husayn's last remaining warrior fell, the Umayyad army converged on the lone imam, who nevertheless fought until the end. Before he left for the battlefield one last time, a common Karbala narrative holds that Zaynab kissed Husayn on behalf of their mother Fatima to fulfill her wish, and that Husayn asked Zaynab not to lament after his imminent death. When

9462-555: The line of Shia imams continued. Shamir attempted to kill Ali too, but Zaynab successfully pleaded to him to spare his life, saying that she had to be killed first. The captives mourned Husayn shortly after the battle. The captives were marched back to Kufa, arriving there on 12 Muharram. There are reports that the women were dishonored and ogled along the way, and that the captives were humiliated, carried on unsaddled camels, and, according to al-Tabari, bound in ropes and shackles. The captives were then paraded in shackles and unveiled around

9576-691: The majority of the Muhajirun ( Meccan Muslims). Ali, Fatima, and some supporters did not recognize the caliphate of Abu Bakr, claiming that Muhammad had appointed Ali as his successor, referring to the Ghadir Khumm shortly before his death. Soon after the Saqifa affair, Umar , another companion of Muhammad, is known to have led an armed mob to Ali's residence and threatened to set the house on fire if Ali and his supporters did not pledge their allegiance to Abu Bakr. The confrontation then grew violent, but

9690-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

9804-450: The mob retreated without securing Ali's pledge. Fatima died in the same year, within six months of Muhammad's death, and at the age of about eighteen or twenty-seven. Shia Islam asserts that she miscarried her child and died from the injuries she suffered in an attack on her house, intended to subdue Ali, instigated by Abu Bakr and led by his aide Umar. These claims are rejected by Sunni Muslims , who believe that Fatima died from grief after

9918-727: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

10032-463: The new governor of Kufa, Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad ( d.  686 ), killed the envoy of Husayn and intimidated Kufan tribal chiefs. On 7 Muharram, acting on orders of Ibn Ziyad, the Umayyad commander Umar ibn Sa'd ( d.  686 ) cut off Husayn's access to the Euphrates river. Husayn's half-brother Abbas ibn Ali and his men were nonetheless able to bring back some water to Husayn's camp in

10146-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

10260-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

10374-488: The prominent Shia scholar al-Mufid ( d.  1022 ), details that Ali spent his last night as Zaynab's guest for Iftar and Suhur , and that the wounded Ali was brought back to her house after the attack. Soon after Ali's death, his eldest son Hasan was elected caliph in Kufa, but later abdicated in favor of Mu'awiya ( r.  661–680 ) in August 661, possibly due to the latter's overwhelming military superiority and

10488-602: The prospect of his imminent death. According to a common Karbala narrative, Zaynab also reminded her half-brother Abbas of their father's wish for the latter to be the reserves of Karbala, and to be to Husayn as Ali was to Muhammad. This Abbas confirmed and swore to do. On the morning of Ashura , Husayn organized his supporters, some seventy-two men, and then spoke to the enemy lines and asked them why they considered it lawful to kill Muhammad's grandson. The Umayyad commander al-Hurr ibn Yazid al-Tamimi defected to Husayn's side, probably after this speech. The Umayyad army then showered

10602-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

10716-434: The request of Husayn, the confrontation was delayed on Tasu'a until the following day. Husayn then besieged his followers in a speech to leave him and not risk their lives, but nearly all those present stayed with him until the end. Husayn and his companions spent that night praying and reading the Quran , as reported by most maqatil works. On this night, Husayn revived and consoled Zaynab who had fainted in despair from

10830-549: The sage of the Bani Hashim ' ). Her reputation among hadith scholars was apparently such that they cited Ali as the 'father of Zaynab' during the Umayyad's ban on publicly speaking about Ali. She also taught Quranic exegesis to women in her hometown of Medina , and later in Kufa , and was likely trained in this subject by her father Ali, whom the Islamicist T. Qutbuddin praises as "the most learned of [Islamic] sages." Zaynab

10944-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

11058-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

11172-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

11286-440: The third century AH , supplemented by the testimonies of travellers and notables who lived at least two centuries after Zaynab. The shrines in Damascus and Cairo are both destinations for Muslim pilgrimage, the former often visited by Shias and the latter by Sunnis. Following the precedents set by Zaynab and the Shia imams, Shia Muslims commemorate the Karbala events throughout the months of Muharram and Safar, particularly during

11400-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

11514-469: The tree, the branches, and the twigs represented her grandfather, parents, and brothers, respectively, who would all die before her. Muhammad died in 632 and Zaynab thus lost her grandfather at an early age. As Muhammad's family prepared for the burial, a group of Muslims gathered at the Saqifa and appointed as his successor Abu Bakr , a senior companion . They did so in the absence of Muhammad's family and

11628-513: The tyranny of Yazid, even though it would cost his life. Husayn similarly wrote in his will for his half-brother Ibn Hanafiyya that he had not set out to seek "corruption or oppression" but rather to " enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong ." At any rate, on their way to Kufa, Husayn's small caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army and forced to camp in the desert land of Karbala on 2 Muharram 61 (2 October 680) away from water and fortifications. The promised Kufan support did not materialize as

11742-422: The wake of the massacre, which does not suggest remorse on his part to the Islamicist H.M. Jafri ( d.  2019 ). Jafri adds that the claims of remorse also contradict the earlier orders of Yazid for his governor to either exact homage from Husayn or kill him. An alternative account is presented by the Shia scholar Tabarsi ( d.  1153 ) and by Abu Mikhnaf. They write that the captives were brought in

11856-425: The way for the succession of his son Yazid ( r.  680–683 ). Zaynab is said to have attended her brother Hasan in his final days. Hasan was thus succeeded as the head of Muhammad's family by his brother Husayn, who nevertheless upheld the treaty with Mu'awiya. Mu'awiya designated his son Yazid as his successor in 676, violating his earlier agreement with Hasan. Yazid is often remembered by Muslim historians as

11970-480: The weak support of the Iraqis for war. The peace treaty between Hasan and Mu'awiya stipulated that the latter should not appoint a successor. Hasan returned to Medina after his abdication, accompanied by his family, where he kept aloof from politics in compliance with the peace treaty with Mu'awiya. Early sources are nearly unanimous that Hasan was later poisoned at the instigation of Mu'awiya in 669, possibly to pave

12084-403: The woman whose activism transformed Karbala from a tragedy to a victory. Without her " jihad of words," Karbala may have been forgotten. Arabic Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

12198-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

12312-506: The wounded Husayn finally fell from his horse and was surrounded, Zaynab is said to have run towards him, beseeching Ibn Sa'd to spare her brother's life. The Umayyad commander ignored her request. Husayn's family thus witnessed as he was repeatedly stabbed and slashed by the Umayyad soldiers. He was then decapitated by Shamir or Sinan ibn Anas, or by Khawali ibn Yazid Asbahi, although common accounts of Karbala hold Shamir responsible for this. Some accounts add that Zaynab had already returned to

12426-501: Was Muhammad's cousin and a prominent early Muslim, who was killed in the Battle of Mu'ta (629) against the Byzantines . Abd Allah was a narrator of prophetic hadiths , thirteen of which appear in the canonical Sunni collection Musnad Ibn Hanbal . Abd Allah also narrated hadiths from the Shia imams and might have lived long enough to be a companion to the Shia imam Muhammad al-Baqir ( d.  732 ), although this last claim

12540-400: Was accompanied by some relatives, including Zaynab and two of her sons, namely, Awn and Muhammad. Zaynab's husband Abd Allah did not accompany Husayn even though he was sympathetic to Husayn's cause, according to the Sunni historian al-Tabari ( d.  923 ). Eshtehardi suggests that Abd Allah's absence must have been due to his poor health or old age and that sending his sons with Husayn

12654-900: Was an Egyptian author, editor and professor of literature who published under the pen name Bint al-Shāṭiʾ [Daughter of the Riverbank] (بِنْت ٱلشّاطِئ). She was born on 18 November 1913 in Damietta in the governorate of Domyat , Egypt, where her father taught at the Domyat Religious Institute. When she was ten, her mother, though illiterate , enrolled her in school while her father was traveling. Though her father objected, her mother later sent Aisha to El Mansurah for further education. Later, Aisha studied Arabic at Cairo University earning her undergraduate degree in 1939, and an M.A. degree in 1941. In 1942, Aisha began work as an Inspector for teaching of Arabic literature for

12768-826: Was an indication of his support. In contrast, Abd al-Rahman writes that Zaynab must have divorced Abd Allah before leaving Medina and that he later married Zaynab's sister Umm Kulthum, although her views have been criticized by some. As the husband's permission is necessary in such cases under Islamic laws, some have instead suggested that a condition of her marriage to Abd Allah was that Zaynab could accompany Husayn in all his travels, or specifically to Karbala. After receiving letters of support from some Kufans, whose intentions were confirmed by his cousin Muslim ibn Aqil , Husayn left Mecca for Kufa on 10 or 12 September 680, accompanied by some relatives and supporters. A tradition attributed to Husayn in al-Irshad describes his goal as fighting

12882-481: Was chosen by her grandfather Muhammad, who attributed the name to divine inspiration. When she was born, the angel Gabriel is said to have forewarned Muhammad about her difficult life. Muhammad was very fond of his granddaughter, reputedly saying that she resembled his late wife Khadija ( d.  619 ). Shia sources also emphasize the intense devotion of the young Zaynab to her brother Husayn . Unlike her parents and her two brothers, namely, Hasan and Husayn, Zaynab

12996-486: Was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , and the latter was his cousin. Ali is also recognized as the fourth Rashidun caliph ( r.  656–661 ) and the first Shia imam . There is not much clarity about Zaynab's early life, and even the year of her birth is given variously by different sources as 4–6 AH (626–8 CE ), or 9 (631). Shia Muslims celebrate her birthday annually on 5 Jumada al-Awwal . Her name

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