# Umm Kulthum bint Ali

Umm Kulthūm bint ʿAlī (Arabic: أُمّ كُلْثُوم بِنْت عَلِيّ), also known as Zaynab al-Ṣughrā (Arabic: زَيْنَب ٱلصُّغْرَىٰ, lit. 'the junior Zaynab'), was the youngest daughter of Fatima and Ali ibn Abi Talib. The former was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the latter was his cousin. Ali is also recognized as the fourth Rashidun caliph (r. 656–661) and the first Shia imam. A young Umm Kulthum lost her grandfather and mother in 632 CE. While she was still a child, the second Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (r. 634–644) asked for her hand in marriage, which was resisted by Umm Kulthum and her father Ali, possibly due to Umar's reputation for harsh treatment of women. By one Sunni account, Ali finally agreed to the marriage when Umar enlisted the support of prominent Muslims for his proposal.
Umm Kulthum survived the Battle of Karbala in 680, where her brother Husayn and most of her male relatives were massacred by the forces of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mua'awiya (r. 680–683). Women and children in Husayn's camp were taken captive after the battle and marched to Kufa and then the Umayyad capital Damascus. A public speech ascribed to Umm Kulthum in Kufa condemns Yazid, defends Husayn, and chastises the Kufans for their role in his death. She was later freed and returned to her hometown Medina.

## Early life

Umm Kulthum was the fourth child of Fatima and Ali ibn Abi Talib, and their youngest daughter. The former was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the latter was his cousin. Ali is also recognized as the fourth Rashidun caliph (r. 656–661) and the first Shia Islamic imam. Umm Kulthum is also known as Zaynab al-Sughra (lit. 'the junior Zaynab') to distinguish her from her older sister Zaynab al-Kubra (lit. 'the senior Zaynab'). The Arabic word zaynab literally means 'adornment of father'. Umm Kulthum was still a young child in 632 CE when her grandfather Muhammad and her mother Fatima both died.

### Alleged marriage to Umar

The second Rashidun caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab is said to have asked Umm Kulthum for her hand in marriage during his reign (r. 634–644), according to the Sunni historian Ibn Sa'd (d. 845) in his biographical Tabaqat. Still a child at the time, Umm Kulthum resisted this proposal, the report by Ibn Sa'd continues. This refusal is attributed by the Islamicist W. Madelung (d. 2023) to Umar's reputation for harsh treatment of women. Ali too was reluctant but eventually gave in, according to Ibn Sa'd, when Umar enlisted the support of prominent Muslims for his proposal. This proposal was likely an overture by Umar, who may have considered Ali's cooperation necessary in his collaborative scheme of government. While Ali reputedly advised Umar and his predecessor Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) in certain matters, their conflicts with Ali is also well-documented, but largely downplayed or ignored in Sunni sources, where there is often a tendency to neutralize the conflicts among the companions after Muhammad. In contrast, these conflicts might have been magnified in Shia sources.

## Battle of Karbala

Ali was himself elected caliph in 656, and later assassinated in his de-facto capital Kufa in January 661. Soon after Ali's death, his eldest son Hasan was elected caliph in Kufa, but later abdicated in favor of Mu'awiya (r. 661–680) in August 661. The peace treaty between Hasan and Mu'awiya stipulated that the latter should not appoint a successor. Hasan kept aloof from politics after his abdication in compliance with the peace treaty, but was poisoned and killed in 669, most likely at the instigation of Mu'awiya, who thus paved the way for the succession of his son Yazid (r. 680–683). Hasan was then succeeded as the head of Muhammad's family by his brother Husayn, who nevertheless upheld the treaty with Mu'awiya.
Mu'awiya designated his son Yazid as his successor in 676, in violation of his earlier agreement with Hasan. Yazid is often remembered by Muslim historians as a debaucher who openly violated the Islamic norms, and his nomination was met with resistance from the sons of Muhammad's prominent companions, including Husayn ibn Ali. On Mu'awiya's death and Yazid's succession in 680, the latter instructed the governor of Medina to secure Husayn's pledge of allegiance by force. Husayn immediately left his hometown Medina for Mecca at night to avoid recognizing Yazid as the caliph. After receiving letters of support from some Kufans, whose intentions were confirmed by his envoy, Husayn later left Mecca for Kufa, accompanied by some relatives and supporters, including Zaynab and Umm Kulthum. On their way to Kufa, Husayn's small caravan was intercepted by Yazid's army and forced to camp in the desert land of Karbala on 2 October 680 away from water and fortifications. The promised Kufan support did not materialize as the new governor of Kufa killed the envoy of Husayn and intimidated Kufan tribal chiefs. Having been surrounded for some days and deprived of the drinking water of the nearby Euphrates river, Husayn was later killed on 10 October 680, alongside most of his male relatives and his small retinue, in the Battle of Karbala against the army of the Umayyad caliph Yazid ibn Mu'awiya (r. 680–683).
After the battle, the women and children in Husayn's camp were taken prisoner and marched first to Kufa and later to the capital Damascus in Syria. Yazid eventually freed the captives, and they returned to Medina. The Muslim historian Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 893) records two speeches about Karbala in his Balaghat al-nisa', which is an anthology of eloquent speeches by women. He attributes one of the two speeches to Umm Kulthum in the market of Kufa, and the other to her sister Zaynab in the court of Yazid in Damascus. Most Shia authors, however, have later attributed both sermons to Zaynab, which the Islamicist T. Qutbuddin considers highly likely. Concerning the first sermon, Ibn Tayfur writes that the Kufans wailed and wept when they saw Muhammad's family in captivity. Umm Kulthum (or Zaynab) then addressed the crowd and chastised them for their role in Husayn's death and recounted the events of Karbala.