2. Women in Warfare

Not much is recorded about the women of pre-Islamic Arabia and the Middle East, except in the descriptions of Roman and Greek traveller-historians at the time, the few inscriptions found in the area and the codified laws of Mesopotamia. But we do also find evidence of the women of pre-Islamic times from the lingering cultural practices recorded in early Islamic historical texts and in poetry.

Atargatis or al-Uzza surrounded by Syrian/Nabataean zodiac

Queens of notoriety among the Arabs actually led their own armies; others accompanied their husbands to the battlefront. Women often went to war along with men in Arab history, sometimes to encourage, singing songs of courage and victory, to succor the wounded, and also to fight in the battle. An ancient institution that Nabia Abbott terms "the cult of the Lady of Victory" entailed the association of a woman of high standing with the portable pavilion of the tribal deity that was carried to battle (Abbott 1941, 262). Other women, accompanying the woman representing the "Lady of Victory" and protective deity, would sing war songs accompanied by their lutes. The "Lady of Victory" with flowing hair and her body partly exposed was such a significant symbol of tribal honor that if she was captured the battle was lost and the warriors dishonored. At the conclusion of the successful conflict, the women would go to the battlefield to assist their wounded, while finishing off any lingering enemies with a club and, upon occasion, mutilating the bodies of corpses in their thirst for revenge (Abbott 1941, 263).

One late striking example of such female participation in warfare was Hind bint ‘Utbah, the highly active and outspoken wife of the chief leader of Mecca , Abu Sufyan, and an early enemy of the Prophet Muhammad. Hind was to become noted also as the mother of Mu’awiyah, who governed the province of Syria and following Hind's death established the Islamic Umayyad dynasty, of which he was the first caliph. Hind was a devout supporter of her tribal goddesses until the days when she gave up her deities and converted to Islam. Prior to her conversion, Hind contended ferociously against Muhammad and his people. At the famous battle of Uhud, in a fit of revenge for having lost her father and brother in the previous Badr conflict, Hind went to the battlefield with her women of the "Lady of Victory" where she fashioned and wore hideous victory "jewelry" by cutting off the ears and noses of the fallen of Muhammad’s. She mutilated the corpse of Muhammad's uncle Hamzah and further cut out his liver and bit it. At the defeat of Mecca , as she realized that there was no more hope against Muhammad's band, she angrily toppled her idols and bemoaned: "We have certainly been deceived in you" (Abbott 1941, 274-75).

The Goddess al-Lat, a.k.a. Allat or al-Ilahat

Following Hind's conversion to Islam she continued to participate in warfare, now for the side of Islam. She and Abu Sufyan aided Mu’awiyah as the governor of the province of Syria in his battles against the Byzantines. At the Battle of Yarmuk, Hind's daughter was wounded and Hind herself was characterized again as encouraging the warriors by shouting "Strike the uncircumcised with your swords!" (Abbott 1941, 277) Hind also became an independent merchant-trader, following her divorce from Abu Sufyan, indicating that she was a courageous woman, capable and very bright (Abbott 1941, 277-78). She also showed great independence in seeking a divorce from the very notable Abu Sufyan.

Following the winning over of Mecca the men first swore their allegiance to Islam; then Hind leading the women of Mecca as their spokeswoman pledged her loyalty to Islam and one God as seen in the following narrative from the traditions where Muhammad leads her in the oath:

Muhammad: Thou shalt have but one God.

Hind: We grant you that.

Muhammad: Thou shalt not steal.

Hind: I only stole provisions from Abu Sufyan, who is too stingy to give me enough.

Muhammad: That is not theft.

Muhammad: Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Hind: Does a free woman commit adultery?

Muhammad: Thou shalt not kill thy children [by infanticide].

Hind: We brought up our young children but you killed them full grown at Badr.

Muhammad: Thou shalt not slander.

Hind: Slander is indeed abominable and exceeds all bounds.

Muhammad: Do not disobey me in anything that is right.

Hind: Had we intended to disobey you, we would not be here now. (Abbott 1941, 276-77; Ahmed 1992, 57-58)

Hind was sensitive about slander, having been herself accused of adultery by her first husband who charged that he saw a strange man leaving Hind's private quarters and sent her back to her family. Hind's father, ‘Utbah was furious and threatened to kill the husband in retaliation for the insult even if his daughter was guilty (Abbott 1941, 269).

Another remark implies a bit of sarcasm as Hind, who had lost her father and brother in the Battle of Badr, told Muhammad that they do not have to commit infanticide or perhaps exact revenge by blood to decrease their numbers; their people have already been depleted and revenge exacted by his battles for the cause of Islam. The comment that Hind makes about Abu Sufyan's stinginess and her need to steal from him, is verified by later traditions that following her divorce from Abu Sufyan she borrowed money from the caliph ‘Umar, because she could not borrow the money from her miserly husband (Abbott 1941, 277-78).

Finally, Hind was ready to concede to the one true God as her goddesses had failed her, but she did not concede her pride in her position as a free and upstanding woman. The comment "does a free woman commit adultery" may have had a broader meaning than the dignity of her position and strength of her character, however. As Montgomery Watt has also indicated, her point may have been that no sexual contract a free woman would make could be termed inappropriate (See Watt 1981, 384). This may have been a reference to matrilineal marital practices, which viewing from several incidents, Hind may have held onto in her life, such as (1) Hind's brush with a reputation of adultery, (2) her own choice of her next husband from among several suitors, (3) the later divorce from Abu Sufyan, and (4) the tradition that Mu’awiyah refused to give the hand of his middle-aged, divorced mother to an unnamed suitor. These incidents may demonstrate that Hind was freer in making her own sexual alliances even though she appears to have joined her husbands in the patrilineal culture. Hind at least seems to have been in control and to have been the one to choose her own destiny.

Another interesting and feisty character recorded in the traditions of Ibn Ishaq's biography of the Prophet was Umm Jamil, the sister of Abu Sufyan and the wife of the clan leader at Mecca , Abu Lahab. The Qur'an cursed Abu Lahab and Umm Jamil for refusing protection to Muhammad, which curse infuriated them, and Umm Jamil, carrying a stone pestle in her hand, went looking for Muhammad who was sitting with Abu Bakr. It is said that God made Muhammad invisible to her; speaking to Abu Bakr she began to scorn Muhammad who was "satirizing" her. She said that if she had found Muhammad she would have smashed his mouth in with her stone and, then declaring herself a poet, articulated her views:

We reject the reprobate. His words we repudiate. His religion we loathe and hate. (Ahmed 1992, 48; translation from Alfred Guillaume's Life of Muhammad)

al-Uzza

Muhammad's adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah, on an excursion against the Fazarah clan, found that they were again led by the aged but powerful widow Umm Qirfah. She and her beautiful daughter were taken captive and the aged female leader was executed hideously by tying her feet to horses which were sent in opposite directions, tearing her in two. The daughter later had an opportunity for revenge when she was able to gather together groups in opposition, and "like her mother, she led her men in person, riding on her mother's camel." Her importance in the battle was great and the leader of her opponents, Khalid the Sword of Islam, offered a hundred camels to the one who disabled hers. She finally fell, but the tradition says not before a hundred had fallen before her (Abbott 1941, 280).