Ruqayya bint al-Husayn رُقَيَّة بِنْت ٱلْحُسَيْن | |
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| Born | c. 676 CE |
| Died | c. 680 CE Damascus, Umayyad Caliphate |
| Resting place | Sayyidah Ruqayya Mosque, Damascus |
| Father | Husayn ibn Ali |
Ruqayya bint al-Ḥusayn (Arabic:رُقَيَّة بِنْت ٱلْحُسَيْن) is said to have been a daughter ofHusayn ibn Ali, the thirdimam inTwelver Shia. Husayn and a small group of his supporters were massacred in theBattle of Karbala in 680CE on the order of theUmayyad caliphYazid (r. 680–683). Their women and children were then taken captive and marched to the capitalDamascus, where it is said that Ruqayya died at the age of about three, possibly due to the hostility of her captors. The shrine associated with Ruqayya in Damascus is a popular destination forShia pilgrimage. The child of Husayn who died shortly after Karbala is sometimes identified as Sakina.
Some early historians list only two daughters forHusayn ibn Ali, namely, Fatima andSakina.[1][2][3] These include theSunni authorsIbn Sa'd (d. 845) andal-Baladhuri (d. 892), and theTwelver authorsal-Mufid (d. 1022) andal-Tabarsi (d. 1153).[1] Some authors add Zaynab as the third daughter,[1][2] including the TwelverIbn Shahrashub (d. 1192) and Imad al-Din al-Tabari (d. c. 1300).[1] Finally, some others have reported four daughters for Husayn, including theShia Baha al-Din al-Irbili (d. 1293-4) and the Sunni Ibn Talha Shafi'i (d. 1339). Out of these four, the latter author only names Fatima, Sakina, and Zaynab.[2] The prominent polymathIbn Fondoq (d. 1170) lists the four daughters as Fatima, Sakina, Zaynab, and Umm Kulthum, but emphasizes that the last two died in childhood.[1][4] Ibn Fondoq elsewhere writes that Husayn was survived by Fatima, Sakina, and Ruqayya,[1][2] which suggests that Ruqayya is the same person as Umm Kulthum.[4] Aside from Fatima and Sakina, sources thus differ and some count Ruqayya among the daughters of Husayn.[5] This name is also mentioned in some accounts of Husayn's parting words for his family before he left for the battlefield one last time, but the Twelver clericM. Reyshahri (d. 2022) writes that this could also be a reference toRuqayya bint Ali, wife ofMuslim ibn Aqil, Husayn's slain envoy to theKufans.[6] The name Ruqayya also appears twice in a poem about Husayn ascribed to Sayf ibn Umayra Nakha'i, who was a companion ofJa'far al-Sadiq (d. 765), the sixthImam in Twelver Shia, but the attribution of this poem to Sayf is not certain.[2] Little is now known about her mother.[2] The child of Husayn who died shortly after Karbala is sometimes identified as Sakina.[7][8][9]
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Husayn denounced the accession of theUmayyad caliphYazid ibn Mu'awiya in 680 CE. When pressed by Yazid's agents to pledge his allegiance, Husayn first left his hometown ofMedina forMecca and later set off for Kufa, accompanied by his family and a small group of supporters. They were intercepted near the city and massacred by the Umayyad forces, who first surrounded them for some days and cut off their access to the nearbyEuphrates.[3] After the battle, the women and children were taken captive and marched to Kufa and then the capitalDamascus.[10] The earliest account of the death in captivity of a daughter of Husayn appears inKamel al-bahai by Imad al-Din al-Tabari without giving her name.[1][2] He writes that the women had hidden the death of Husayn from his young children until they were brought to the palace of Yazid. There a daughter of Husayn, aged four, woke up crying one night and asked for her father, saying that she had just seen him distressed and anguished in her dream. The women's cry awakened Yazid who then learned from his men about its cause. Yazid ordered Husayn's head to be taken to the child. The shock left the child ill and she died in the coming days.[1][2][11] The source of al-Tabari was the non-extantal-Hawiya fi masalib Mu'awiya by the Sunni scholar Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ma'muni.[1][2] TheSufi scholarHusayn Kashifi (d. 910) gives a similar account in his martyrologyRawzat al-shuhada, again without naming the child, this time sourced fromKanz al-ghara'ib fi ghasas al-aja'ib, a book by Najm al-Din Qasim Madhmakini about the first four caliphs, Husayn, and his elder brotherHasan (d. 670).[1][2] The main difference between the two versions is that the child dies on the same night in the latter version, and this is what the later sources report.[12] Some later sources also identify this child as Ruqayya or Zubayda.[1][2] A common narrative in theQajar-era ritual remembrance of the events in Karbala was that Ruqayya saw her father in a dream and prayed to be allowed to join her. She died soon after and her death was regarded as a form of martyrdom which thus released her from her suffering at the hands of the Umayyads.[13] Some modern sources identify as Sakina this young child of Husayn who is said to have died in captivity in Damascus.[14][9]
A shrine in Damascus is often associated with Ruqayya.[1] Among others, this is the view of the Twelver authors Muhammad Hashim Khorasani (d. 1933-4) and Muhammad Haeri Karaki (alive in 1548 CE).[15] Some have instead considered the shrine to be the burial site of Husayn's head, including the Sunni historiansIbn Kathir (d. 1373) andal-Dhahabi (d. 1348).[1] Yet some others have reported it as the grave of Ruqayya bint Ali,[1] which might be inCairo instead.[2] There are also eye-witness accounts in some sources that the grave belongs to a female child, whose body had to be exhumed and reburied during the repairs to the site.[1][15] The attribution of the shrine to Ruqayya bint al-Husayn is thus not certain, according to Reyshahri, who nevertheless believes that the site is associated with theAhl al-Bayt, that is, the House of Muhammad.[16] A popular destination for Shia pilgrimage, the shrine is located in the Suq al-Emara market to the north of theUmayyad Mosque. There are also surviving records of multiple reconstructions and expansions, as early as the fifteenth century CE.[1] The current building was completed about 1991 CE,[2] exhibiting a mix ofSyrian andIranian architectures, with substantial use of mirrors, tiles, and white stone.[1]
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