The Tale of Princess Fatima, Warrior Woman: The Arabic Epic of Dhat al-Himma - Softcover

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Melanie Magidow is an independent scholar and professional translator. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission.

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Ancestors: The Opening Episode of the Epic

Al-Harith (Fatima's great-great-grandfather) was a legendary leader of the Bani Kilab tribe. He led a brave life of hunting in the rugged Yemeni deserts, steppes, and river valleys in the days of the seventh-century caliph Abd al-Malik bin Marwan. One day, in the process of capturing some ferocious men and looting a camp, he saw a girl named Al-Rabab, and he fell in love. The girl's father, emotionally attached to her, cried when Al-Harith approached. Al-Harith asked the father, "Why are you crying, Shaykh?"

"I'm crying because you're taking my daughter by force. If you didn't take her against her will, then I would not cry. If you really want her, then marry her properly. It's to your advantage, ultimately, to follow the prophet's example."

Al-Harith readily released the elderly man, his daughter, and all their people, giving the man one thousand she-camels and a hundred gold dinars as dowry. After ensuring that the marriage was legitimate and respectable, Al-Harith and Al-Rabab moved on into the wilderness.

It was not long before Al-Rabab became pregnant. One night near the end of her pregnancy, she saw in her dreams that she was in a desert, surrounded by plains. As she neared a tall hill, her hem lifted and fire came out from beneath it in incandescent colors. When it reached the ground, it burned everything both near and far. She whirled around, and she too was engulfed in flames.

Al-Rabab started in her sleep in sheer terror. Al-Harith asked, "What's wrong, dear?"

"I saw something terrible and had such a fright," and she told him her dream from start to finish.

"Tomorrow I'll get a diviner. I'll bring you someone knowledgeable. You can tell him the dream and see what he says."

At daybreak, Al-Harith rode to the scholar's camp. There he exchanged greetings and introduced himself, and the men of the camp invited him to sit with them before asking what he needed. He explained, "Gentlemen, I come to you in need. I have seen you defer to this shaykh, and I understand that he is incredibly wise." Then Al-Harith sat closer to the shaykh, greeted him, and recounted his wife's vision.

The shaykh replied, "I see that yours is a special situation, and so the interpretation will also be uncommon. For if I am correct, based upon my knowledge of the holy books of all the great peoples, this woman will give birth to an extraordinary child, unmatched in his time for greatness, ethics, and good looks. Yet I fear that the mother will die when he appears safely in this world."

Al-Harith found the news generally positive. "The important thing is that he will live. His mother and I have seen much, and death comes for rich and poor alike."

Al-Harith returned to his camp with the shaykh and took him to meet his wife. He told her what the shaykh had said and asked her to recount her dream. Turning to the shaykh, she spoke in verse:

O Shaykh, by the Sacred Family,

By Mina, Zamzam, and the Maqam of Abraham,

I had an astonishing dream

Hear my words, and interpret my vision

I saw that I was in a great desert,

Spacious prairies surrounding me.

Beneath me was a tall sand dune,

My hem lifted, and my tears fell,

And from within me there came a fire

It flared and burned

In many colors, including black

It spread, burning the tent,

Burning the tribes and campsites

It turned, lighting up the darkness, and

I was terrified and afraid:

That is what happened to me in the dream.

The shaykh replied in kind:

I tell you the meaning of the dream,

And what you saw in the dark,

Your child nears, full of fury,

He will be long remembered.

He will arise, a brave and heroic warrior,

Stirring up enemies among every people

He will be raised an orphan, lacking both father and

Mother, and he will travel far and wide

From him there will come a valiant leader

Opposing enemies with the sword

This is the sign I have from my studies

In interpretation of your dream.

Then he recorded the dream and the baby's genealogy, put it in a tiny silver case, and gave it to Al-Rabab as an amulet for the baby.

Within days, Al-Harith fell ill and died. The leader's death, in a time of instability, caused chaos. No longer held back by fear and respect for Al-Harith, nearby tribes sought to claim all that was his. For Al-Rabab, the unrest followed a time of peace made possible by her husband's bravery. She cried hard for the memory of him and composed poetry mourning her loss. In grave danger, she decided to escape with the remaining servant, the others having already fled. Unfortunately, he had remained out of desire for her, which would prove her demise. When Al-Rabab asked the servant for help, he asked what he could do for her.

"Travel with me by night, so that no horses will come across us, and deliver me to my people or to any of the Arab encampments that will offer us sanctuary. We'll go in plain clothes because I fear that someone might take advantage of me. You know how much your master Al-Harith used to assert himself over the Arabs. I have become a prize. . . . Some hostile leader might demand from me that which men want from women, but I swear by the Victorious, the Almighty Sovereign, I will not give in to any man, good or bad."

"My Lady, I am at your service." They rode away at night as refugees, leaving most of the wealth behind. When he swerved away from the path, she followed unknowingly. They had been nearing a camp led by a man named Darim, but the servant saw her beauty and could not resist an attempt to seduce her. Al-Rabab resisted with insults and exhorted him to protect her honor and her person, but he claimed that he had waited long enough. She screamed at him that she had declined the offers of great leaders, so how could she give in to a servant? At the height of their argument, the servant knocked Al-Rabab to the ground, and she began bleeding. The servant backed away and asked, "What is this blood?"

Al-Rabab answered, "Didn't you know that I was pregnant with Al-Harith's child? You pushed me so hard that I've gone into labor." He dragged her to the river to wash, then moved away to think. Al-Rabab sat by the river crying, shaking from the contractions, wishing she could die instead of enduring the pains of labor. A little while later, Al-Rabab gave birth to a boy, like a piece of the moon. She cut the umbilical cord, wrapped him in a piece of her sash and her scarf, and put the silver amulet on him. Then she took him into her lap, and as he began nursing, his eyes opened. Looking down at him, she whispered, "Where is your father? If only he could gaze on you. . . . But this must be God's will for us. . . ."

The servant, overtaken by frustration after so nearly attaining his desire, blamed Al-Rabab for the timing of the birth. Despite her protestations that the timing was out of her hands, he struck her with a sword, and she slumped to the ground, dead. The servant took what money she had and left her on the sand before escaping to a mountainous area. Al-Rabab lay on her side, the infant in her lap, still latched to her breast.

A man named Darim ruled the valley...