Female Islamic Saints

FĀṬIMAH AṢ-ṢUGHRĀ

Fāṭimah aṣ-Ṣughrā (b. 671), or Fāṭimah the Younger, so called because she resembled her grandmother Fāṭimah, was a great granddaughter of Muḥammad and the eldest daughter of his grandson Ḥusayn and his wife Umm Isḥāq, and so was also called Fāṭimah al-Kubrā, Fāṭimah the Elder. When her father went on campaign to Karbala against the Caliph Yazīd, some ḥadīths state that she came with him, while it is more commonly supposed that she stayed behind in Medina because she was ill. When Ḥusayn was defeated, he posthumously entrusted Fāṭimah his written will, which she delivered to his successor Zayn al-‘Ābidīn. She married her cousin Ḥasan al-Muthanā ibn Ḥasan before Karbala, remarrying and after his death in battle, and she died in Medina at a disputed time.

West AsiaImami Shi‘i.