Laylā bint Ṭarīf (Arabic: لَيلْى بنت طريف, d. 815 CE) was a female warrior and poet and one of the
Khawarij
The Kharijites (, singular ), also called al-Shurat (), were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661). The first Kharijites were supporters of Ali who rebelled against his acceptance of arbitration talks to settle the ...
, a group known for its members' fanaticism and violent opposition to the
established Caliphate, believing that leadership of the Muslim community was not limited to male
Arabs
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
of the
Quraysh tribe. On the basis of women fighting alongside Muhammad, the Khawarij have viewed combat as a requirement for women, and Laylā bint Ṭarīf is a prominent example of this custom. Laylā was the sister of the Kharijite leader
al-Walid ibn Tarif al-Shaybani (d. 795). After al-Walīd's death, Laylā took on the leadership of his army and fought two battles before her clan forced her to step down.
Sample
As translated by
Abdullah al-Udhari
Abdullah may refer to:
* Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
* Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village
* ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan
* '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...
, Laylā's elegy for her fallen brother runs:
Her work shows some influence from the earlier woman poet
al-Khansa
Tumāḍir bint ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn al-Sharīd al-Sulamīyah ( ar, تماضر بنت عمرو بن الحارث بن الشريد السُلمية), usually simply referred to as al-Khansāʾ ( ar, الخنساء, links=no, meaning "snub-n ...
.
[Abdulla el Tayib, 'Pre-Islamic Poetry', in ''The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period'', ed. by A. F. L. Beeston, T. M. Johnstone, R. B. Serjeant, and G. R. Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 27-113 (at p. 88).]
References
815 deaths
Arab women
Women poets of the medieval Islamic world
Arabic-language women poets
8th-century women writers
9th-century women writers
8th-century Arabic poets
9th-century Arabic poets
Women warriors
Kharijites
Women in medieval warfare
Women in war in the Middle East
Arab women in war
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