A00001 - 'Abbasa, Daughter of Caliph al-Mahdi and the Sister of Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and al-Hadi

‘Abbasa (765-803) was a daughter of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi and the sister of the caliphs Harun al-Rashid and al-Hadi.  Her name is connected with the fall of the Barmakids in 803 C.C., because of her alleged love affair.

The Barmakids were a Persian family that had become very powerful during the caliphate of al-Mahdi.  Yahya, the vizier of Harun al-Rashid, had aided Harun al-Rashid in obtaining the caliphate.  Yahya and his sons were in high favor until 803 when the caliph threw them in prison and confiscated their land.  Many reasons are given for this punitive action. Yahya's entering Harun's presence without Harun's permission; Yahya's opposition to Muhammad ibn al-Layth who later gained Harun's favor; and the Barmakid's ostentatious display of their wealth are said to be the cause of Harun's action.  However, the reason which has intrigued writers and storytellers for ages is the alleged romantic relationship between Ja'far, the son of Yahya, and Harun's sister, 'Abbasa.

As the story goes, Ja'far was the constant companion of Harun.  Harun was also very fond of his sister, 'Abbasa, and loved to have both her and Jafar around at times of recreation.  However, Muslim etiquette forbade their common presence.  To circumvent the rules of etiquette, Harun had a marriage ceremony performed between 'Abbasa and Ja'far, but only with the understanding that the ceremony was purely nominal and that 'Abbasa and Ja'far were not to become intimately involved.  Unfortunately, the heart of 'Abbasa ignored the ban.  She fell in love with Ja'far and became infatuated with him.  One night she entered Ja'far's bedroom in the darkness, masquerading as one of his slave girls.  She seduced Ja'far and had sex with him.

From this union, a child was conceived.  'Abbasa secretly gave birth to the child and the child was sent by 'Abbasa to Mecca.  However, a maid, after quarreling with her mistress, disclosed the scandal.  Harun, while on a pilgrimage in Mecca, heard the story and became enraged.  Upon his return to Baghdad, Harun had Ja'far executed, his body cut in two, and impaled on either side of the bridge.  Harun also had Ja'far's father (Yahya) and brother (al-Fadl) cast into prison.  Ja'far's body stayed impaled for three years until when Harun happened to pass through Baghdad from the East, saw the body, and gave the command for the remains to be taken down and burned.  

This story is discounted by modern scholars, but it has become part of the legend of the court of Harun al-Rashid.

Arabic Names/Names Compendium

‘Abd al-Rahman, ‘A’ishah (1913 - December 1, 1998) was an Egyptian writer and professor of Arabic language and literature and Qur’anic studies. Under the pseudonym Bint al-Shati’ ("Daughter of the Riverbank" or "Daughter of the Shore"), ‘Abd al-Rahman was the author of more than sixty books on Arabic literature, Qur’anic interpretation, the lives of women of the early Muslim community (especially members of the Prophet’s family), contemporary social issues, and fiction.

Raised in the Delta port city of Dumyat (Damietta), she was taught the Qur’an and classical Arabic literature by her father, an al-Azhar educated teacher at a mosque-based religious institute. Although he educated her in the traditional style at home, mosque, and Qur’anic school (kuttab), he objected to her attendance at public schools. With the assistance of her mother and maternal great-grandfather, she managed to get a secular education (at El Mansurah) despite her father’s objections.

‘Abd al-Rahman began her literary career by writing poems and essays for Al-nahdah, a women’s magazine, and became a literary critic for the semi-official newspaper Al-ahram in 1936, the same year she entered the Faculty of Letters at Fu’ad I University. At this time, she assumed the pen-name Bint al-Shati’ (“Daughter of the Shore”) in order to conceal her identity from her father. Her first articles for Al-ahram focused on conditions in the Egyptian countryside, but she is best known for her later works on religious and literary topics. She received her doctorate in 1950 for a thesis on the poet Abu al-‘Ala’ al-Ma‘arri (d. 1058).

In 1951, ‘Abd al-Rahman became professor of Arabic language and literature at ‘Ayn Shams University in Cairo. Throughout the 1960s, she participated in international literary conferences, served on several government sponsored committees on literature and education, and was a visiting professor at the Islamic University in Ummdurman (Sudan), the University of Khartoum, and the University of Algiers. After retiring from her position at ‘Ayn Shams University, she became professor of higher Qur’anic studies at al-Qarawiyin University in Fez, Morocco. Her regular articles for Al-ahram, her biographies of the women of the Prophet’s household, and especially her exegesis of the Qur’an brought her recognition and distinction in Egypt and throughout the Arab world.

‘Abd al-Rahman’s pursuit of public education offered her little challenge after her early education at the hands of her father, until she met Professor Amin al-Khuli when she was a student at Fu’ad I University (later Cairo University). He introduced her to the literary analysis of the Qur’an that became her trademark. In 'Ala al-jisr, ‘Abd al-Rahman decribes her entire life as a path to this encounter with Amin al-Khuli, whom she married in 1945. Her work is seen as the best exemplification of his method, and she has been much more prolific than her teacher, who died in 1966.

‘Abd al-Rahman’s rhetorical exegesis of the Qur’an makes a plea for removing the Qur’an from the exclusive domain of traditional exegesis (commentary) and placing it within literary studies. Whereas some earlier exegetes allowed for a multiplicity of interpretations of any single Qur’anic verse, seeing in this multiplicity a demonstration of the richness of the Qur’an, ‘Abd al-Rahman argues that every word of the Qur’an allows for only a single interpretation, which should be elicited from the context of the Qur’an as a whole. She rejects extraneous sources, particularly information derived from the Bible or Jewish sources (Isra'iliyat), the inclusion of which in traditional Qur’anic exegesis she sees as part of a continuing Jewish conspiracy to subvert Islam and dominate the world. She also argues that no word is a true synonym for any other in the Qur’an, so no word can be replaced by another. Whereas many scholars believe certain phrases in the Qur’an were inserted to provide the text with its characteristic rhythm and assonance, ‘Abd al-Rahman insisted that every word of the Qur’an is there solely for the meaning it gives.

‘Abd al-Rahman was both deeply religious and very conservative, despite her active public life. On the subject of women’s liberation, she affirmed the principle of male guardianship over women but firmly rejected male responsibility for the behavior of women. She insisted that a proper understanding of women’s liberation does not abandon traditional Islamic values. She was consistently supported and honored by successive Egyptian regimes.

'A'ishah 'Abd al-Rahman died of a heart attack following a stroke in Cairo on December 1, 1998.

'A'ishah 'Abd al-Rahman was born in Damietta in the governate of Domyat. Her father taught at the Domyat Religious Institute. When she was ten, her mother, though illiterate, enrolled 'A'ishah in school while her father was traveling. Though her father objected, her mother later sent 'A'ishah to El Mansurah for further education. Later, 'A'ishah studied Arabic at Cairo University earning her undergraduate degree in 1939, and an M.A. degree in 1941.

In 1942, 'A'ishah began work as an Inspector for teaching of Arabic literature for the Egyptian Ministry of Education. She earned her Ph.D. with distinction in 1950 and was appointed Professor of Arabic Literature at the University College for Women of the Ains Shams University.  

'Abd al-Rahman wrote fiction and biographies of early Muslim women, including the mother, wives and daughters of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as literary criticism.  She was the second modern woman to undertake Qur'anic exegesis, and though she did not consider herself to be a feminist feminist, her works reflect feminist themes. She began producing her popular books in 1959, the same year that Naguib Mahfouz published his allegorical and feminist version of the life of the Prophet Muhammad.

'Abd al-Rahman was married to Sheik Amin el-Khouli, her teacher at Cairo University during her undergraduate years. She died of a heart attack on December 1, 1998,  following a stroke in Cairo. She donated all her library to research purposes, and in 1985 a statue was built in her honor in Cairo.

A selective bibliography of her works reads as follows:

• The Egyptian Countryside (1936)
• The Problem of the Peasant (1938)
• Secret of the Beach and Master of the Estate: The Story of a Sinful Woman (1942)
• New Values in Arabic Literature (1961)
• Contemporary Arab Women Poets (1963)

Alternative names include:

'Abd al-Rahman, 'A'isha
'Abd al-Rahman, 'A'ishah
'A'isha 'Abd al-Rahman
'A'ishah Abd al-Rahman
Bint al-Shati’
Daughter of the Riverbank
Daughter of the Shore

Notes on the Use of The Women of Islam

For this on-line work, entries are listed alphabetically ignoring spaces, commas, hyphens and apostrophes.Listings which contain identical names are listed in chronological order unless the name is the beginning of a series of individuals from the same country.In that case, the names are grouped in chronological order within the context of the individual country.

In order to facilitate ease of reference, names used are those by which the person is commonly known to the Muslim world. Arabic names that begin with prefixes such as the "al"in "al-'Abbas" are listed under the root portion of the name. Thus, a listing for "al-'Abbas" would be found under "'Abbas."

Additionally, the following abbreviations are used in this text: b. = born; d. = died; c. = circa (or about); r. = period of reign; and ? = uncertain.

Introduction

I am not a Muslim. I am simply a man in search of truth -- the truth about myself, my people, my country, my world and God. In my search for truth, I have discovered that there is much that I once believed to be true that is certainly not the total truth and, indeed, may not be true at all.

I once believed that I am only an "African American". However, in my search for truth, I discovered that such a label is not entirely true. I discovered that, like me, most persons of African descent who live in the United States also have European and Indigenous American blood. By labeling such individuals as being only "African American", society may be denying essential elements of their being.

As a so-called "African American", I once believed that American slavery defined my past and impacted my present. But once I escaped the confines of the label, I learned that my triple heritage -- my African, European and Indigenous American heritage -- is far richer than I could ever have imagined. With a triple heritage, African slavery is not an overriding historical theme. With a triple heritage, the self-evident fact is that for people like me the overriding historical theme concerns the creation of a new people and the beginning of a new experiment with fascinating possibilities for the future history of man.

Another consequence of discovering the nature of a triple heritage is the realization that one of the defining labels that is currently en vogue in American society simply does not fit. On almost any day of the week, in schools, churches, and the halls of power throughout the land, one can hear pronouncements being made concerning the "Judeo-Christian" heritage of America. However, as a person with a triple heritage, there are other religious traditions which have obviously had some bearing on the individual that I am today. In addition to my "Judeo-Christian" heritage, there is also a lingering influence of the tribal religions of the African and Indigenous American peoples and, perhaps more significantly, there is the ongoing influence of Islam.

In discovering the truth about the African part of my heritage, I was frequently confronted by the role that Islam played in developing African society and in initiating the African diaspora. After all, it was the Muslim Arab merchants who took African slaves and companions with them as they traversed the then known world.China, Malaysia, India, and Spain all came to be the home of Africans because of the peripatetic Arabs. It was the Muslims who spread their religion to both the West and East coasts of Africa and through persuasion and intermarriage converted the African people to the Islamic faith. And it was African Muslims from the west coast of Africa who frequently were the slave cargo of the European ships that came to the Americas, speaking such Muslim languages as Hausa, Mandingo, and Fulfulde. It was these forefathers who played such an integral part in the bold experiment which eventually made me what I am.

Yes, Islam has, undoubtedly, had an historical role in defining what it means to be an African American.But, for me, there is even more.

For me, there are moments and times in my life which are indelibly etched in my psyche. There was the time while living in Glasgow, Montana, in the early 1960s that I became aware of the sport of boxing when a brash young boxer by the name of Cassius Clay defeated the "invincible" bear known as Sonny Liston. Cassius Clay would soon become the legendary Muhammad Ali -- a Muslim who became the dominant sports figure of my generation.

There was the time in high school in 1969 when I first began to explore my African heritage by reading a story about a small time hoodlum who underwent two Islamic conversions -- first as the Nation of Islam leader known as Malcolm X and later as the more orthodox Muslim, El Hajj Malik Shabazz.

Then there was the crucial period of my life when during my first two years of college, in 1972 and 1973, I served as the "Minister of Information" of the Amherst Afro-American Society under the leadership of Umar Zaid Muhammad.

No, I am not a Muslim. But my personal heritage, and my personal experiences, compel me to say that here too I have a triple heritage.I have not just a Judeo-Christian heritage, but rather a heritage that is a combination of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.