Fatemeh Zahra ( S.A ) In Orientalists View Point FOROOGH PARSA/MINA OSKOUEI

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1 FOROOGH PARSA/MINA OSKOUEI Abstract: Fatemeh Zahra is the daughter of the holy Prophet, Muhammad (p.b.u.h.& h.f) who is famous for her piety and patience. She was a knowledgeable person who married Imam Ali (p.b.u.h.). In this article, the author reviews this great personality in the Orientalists works; from the bias ones to moderate ones. Shia history, during its unleveled way to the present time, was attached to the name of Fatemeh Zahra. In fact, Fatemeh and her offspring wrote the page of this history. Followers and supporters of Imam Ali s thought and villayah are called Shia in Islamic history which was supported by Fatemeh who was the great defender of the asset of villayah. According to the traditions narrated from Sunnite and Shia scholars, Fatemeh is the supreme lady of heavens. She was her father s mother who took care of her father in Mecca and Ohud. She was the most similar person to the Prophet. She was always respected by holy Prophet. She was seat heart of the Prophet. The holy Prophet said God will resent when Fatemeh resents and will be glad when she is glad. But after the demise of holy Prophet, she was so lonely and estranged, in Medina, the city of Islam, among her relatives that she wished to join her father and even did not desire others knew about location of her grave after her death. After all, her illuminated face shinned even from behind the unclear face of the history. Since then, there have been written a number of books, poetries, and eulogies about her in different languages. In addition, the character of this holy lady is interesting for Islamic researches and they carried out researches about her. In this article, the best attempt has been made to review and classify these works. A Review over Western Islam Researchers The affair between Iran and west is historical. The powerful and major powers of the world at the age of Islam s advent, based on their political or geographical situations, decides to know this new religion and defend it, specially become Islam could expand its territory in a short time and conquered parts of Asia, Africa and Europe.Late 7 th A.D century, some parts of Europe have been conquered. In 17 th A.D Spain and Sicily were conquered by Muslims and consequently this territory expanded from The Rock of Gibraltar to Garrol to the south of Italy island. In Roman s rulership, in 7 th A.D Christians propagators opened the door of Islamic research. This is confirmed by some historical reports mentioned in Islamic and Christian s sources. Relationship between Islam and west depended on the political situations, commercial and 1 / 5

2 economical situations of those two civilizations. European civilization before Renaissance (early 1 th century) was governed by church and Christian scholars, therefore, researching about Islam was not possible without church supervising it. Cross Wars started, aiming at eliminating Islam and librating Jesus grave. Christian scholars for about 2 centuries poured oil on the fire of religious war. In Cross War, from late 11th to 13 th century, Europeans turned to East, getting to know wealthy Islamic heritage and took hundreds of books stored in Islamic libraries with them. Western scholars, even before it, were stated learning Arabic. Late 10th century, Pope Sylvester II, translated Islamic books. In 1130 A.D, in Toledo, Spain, a group of translators heading by Raymond was formed to translate the most significant scientific books written by Muslims. As translation of these religion books has been carried out by church, it was not devoid of bias judgment of the translators, in such a way that in translating Quran. Christian advertisers tended to distort its meaning and brought it under question. Western Islam researchers went through the same path up to 20 century. We can point to the works of Muir, Springer, Margoliouth, Cactani and Lammens in this regard. From mid 20 th century to its 9 th decade, comprehensive studies have been carried out on Islam and its difference aspect. These studies though benefiting Christians, mostly, were to criticize Islam rather than its unbiased recognition. For example, Bell, 1876, Scottish Orientalist, who wrote about Islam s birth place and the life time of the holy Prophet. Or Corbin and Massignon or Watt, after that, due to revolutions which have happened in science of philosophy we witness changes in Orientalists' studies like Madelung's. Orientalists and Fatemeh (s.a) About Fatemeh, except Islamic tradition narrators and authors, a number of non-muslim authors wrote books which can be classified in 3 groups. Non Academic and Bias Works One of the Orientalists who has written a book about Fatemeh was a Belgium priest called Henry Lammens ( ), who was written various books about the holy Prophet and Islam history. His attitude is so hostile that other Orientalists attacked him later on. Lammens tended to persuade us that traditions, all, are vague and doubtful, aiming at praising holy Prophet and Islam. He didn t prove this claim though. Interestingly he had some writings in which he praised Bani Omayyeh! He has a book called Fatemeh and Mohammad s daughters, published in 1912 in Rome, in which he featured Fatemeh as a darkle character. Becker and some other Orientalists questioned his baseless claims. Lammens to credit his claim, referred 2 / 5

3 readers to some source books; but if you refer to them, you find them baseless. Works Praising Fatemeh Zahra s Character These works usually belong to Orientalists who studies mysticism. Massignon ( ) is one of these Orientalists; he had a special interest in mysticism. He wrote about Fatemeh from Shia's point of view in 1938, and a book called "La Mubahala de Medine et l'hyperdulie de Fatima" in According to Massignon, Fatemeh had the same personality traits like her father. She was the host of new Muslims. She explained the Islamic principles; but her soul had not been recognized in her life time (Massignon, p.118). He introduced her as a unique, elevated soul, knowing her position comparable to Mary. He believed to comprehend her great soul and her activities it is essential to organize vague and scrambled reports to see a clear picture of her ideas and life style. Another Orientalist holding the same view point is Massignon s student, Henry Corbin. He was interested in Islamic philosophy. He had some words about Fatemeh in his book "Terre celeste et corps de resurrection de l'iran Shi'ite" Islamic-Iranian philosophy, whether Shia or non-shia, is less studied in West. According to him, Shia religion, official religion of Iran from Safavid dynasty era, was unknown to the west. He stated, knowing Prophet is the essential part of Islam and in Shia following imams is also essential. Far from Prophet s aim which is conveying God s words to people, duty of clarifying the gist of these messages and guiding people is on imams. Those who are responsible to lead people after the demise of holy prophet are Fatemeh and 12 imams. He said, in west we got used to see everything in materialistic way. Therefore it is unbelievable for us to understand all faith of a faithful person comes from a metaphysical issues and not a historical event. Unbiased and Moderate Works Among works which have been written about Fatemeh in the west, the entry of "Fatima" in Islamic encyclopedia in London is unbiased. The author of this entry is Veccia Vallgeri from Italy. She knew Fatemeh as an only daughter of holy Prophet being respected by all Muslims. She mentioned she was looking for an unbiased truth about Fatemeh but it seemed historical sources were not interested in recording events of her life time. Some events seem to be cited vaguely deliberately. The 2nd, 3rd, and first half of 4th century especially "Ansab Alashraf" by Belazari, "Tabaghat" by ibn Saad, "Sireye" by Ibn Hesham, dealt with Zahra s life time shortly. In the next works like "Al-Estia" by Ibn Abdulber, "Osdul ghabeh" by ibn Asir, "Al-Esabe" by Ibn Hajr purposefully her name was not mentioned. The contents of Vallgeri's article can be divided into 2 parts: Fatemeh's historic character and Fatemeh s 3 / 5

4 mystical character. In the first group, we find the following: birth and childhood, immigration from Mecca into Medina, marriage, her family s poverty, house, sons, Ali and Prophet, historic events, Fatemeh one of the kesa s companions, Fatemeh in Prophet s sickness, Fatemeh after the demise of holy Prophet, Fatemeh s claim about her heritage, her sickness and death, Fatemeh s appearance, behavior and personality. Mostly those traditions mentioned in various sources like Tarikh Al- Yaghabi, Sahih Bokhari, Tabaghat Ibn Saad, Ansab Al-asraf Balazari, about Fatemeh have been cited in this part. Regarding disputable traditions among Shia and Sunnite, the author has been tried to gather both Shia s and Sunnite traditions, for example about the purity of Prophet s household mentioned in surah Ahzab he pointed to kesa hadith. About taking allegiance from Ali, first he mentioned Yaghobi s tradition which says Fatemeh defended Ali. Then he narrated this tradition from Belazari, reporting details from Kitab al-siyassah and al-imamah. He concluded that though it is possible Shias exaggerated about this event, Umar s harsh behavior with Prophet s daughter should be real. And also about Zahra s grave, he cited different traditions, claimed it is not feasible to realize her grave. In this section, one part which is about Ali and Fatemeh and their argument gets attention. The author based on a couple of traditions mentioned in Sunnite books, which says Ali proposed Abu Jahl s daughter, claimed Fatemeh argued Ali on this subject. Holy Prophet interfered; he blamed Ali saying Fatemeh is part of my body; whoever bothers her in fact bothers me. It is obvious that the author could not notice to the fact that these baseless traditions have been mentioned in the latest sources and probably they were fabricated to justify first and second caliphs. The author under the title of Fatemeh s appearance and morality emphasized on her patience, hardworking and good-temper, and benevolence and Prophets wives knew her as their confidant. She loved holy Prophet and obeyed him. She was a brave woman who could defend Ali against Abu-Bakr. The author found many similarities between Mary among Christians and Fatemeh among Muslims like the similar title of "God s mother" for Mary and" mother of father" for Fatemeh. He added this title has only been cited in Usudul Eghabe by Ibn Asir (6 and 7 century ). In addition, it has been written that Abdul Rahman Ibn Auf and Usman were Fatemeh s suitors, suggesting her 100 camels carrying gorgeous clothes and dinar as her marriage portion. But Gabriel came to holy Prophet and said God chooses Ali as Fatemeh s husband and appoints angles to decorate heaven. Her marriage portion is half of the earth (or 1/5 0r ¼) and heaven and hell. But on the earth her marriage portion is 500 dinar which is Mehral-Sunnah. Simultaneously with the marriage of Fatemeh and Ali on the earth, in the sky Gabriel and other angles attended this ceremony saying "God is great", angles descend to the earth brining gifts from heaven for bride and groom. Angles brought different meals for Fatemeh at different times like Mary whom fruits were brought (by angles from heaven). Fatemeh came to this world purely and always she was pure, she didn t have period. As it is clear the author tried to portrait Fatemeh as Mary among Christian. Lady McAullife, the author of "Fatemeh" entry in Quran encyclopedia wrote God has chosen Mary and purified her to be superior to other women of the world. These traits, her purity and superiority over other women of the world have been mentioned for Fatemeh in the Islamic sources. The offspring of these two, suffered women of the history, were targeted by harshness and cruelties during history. McAullife, chief editor of Quran encyclopedia, wrote an entry about Fatemeh because of verse 33 of Ahzab sura and verse 61 of ale Emran sura and verse 42 of Ale Omran surah. 4 / 5

5 Conclusion Lammens comments and writings about Fatemeh are so bias that many Orientalists rejected them. Massignon and Corbin were able to introduce Fatemeh s spiritual personality to some extent. About McAullife, she tried to be as unbiased and fair as possible, though she rejected those traditions which pointed to her spiritual and metaphysical aspect of her personality. The fact is there is still no firm document in rejecting or accepting Shias traditions. Regarding historical personality of Fatemeh as the author mentioned the traditions about her birth year, death and marriage are sufficient. The wonder is though her dowry pictured in details or her clothes while she passed away and her coffin are reported exactly, there is no report or writing about her life s events, knowledge, her relationship with first or second caliphs or her death. Only in the recent sources we can find some information about her death. The preceding sources all believed that Fatemeh, the granddaughter of holy Prophet of Islam, was buried midnight while just a very few people accompanied her coffin. 5 / 5