Fatima al-Suqutriyya
Fāṭima bint Aḥmad Muḥammad al-Jahḍamī (Arabic: فاطمة بنت أحمد محمد الجهضمي), known as Fāṭima al-Suqutriyya (Arabic: فاطمة السقطرية, Fatima the Socotran) and nicknamed al-Zahra on the model of the Prophet's daughter Fāṭima, for whom al-Zahra ('the shining one') was a popular epithet,[1] was a Yemeni writer and poet who lived on the island of Socotra in the third century AH (816–913 CE).[a] She is thought to be the first known Socotran poet.[2]
Biography
[edit]Little is actually known about al-Suqutriyya.[2] She is thought to have been born on the island of Socotra, during the third century AH.[3] She was a poet and was related to Sultan al-Qāsim bin Muḥammad al-Jahḍamī, the ruler of the Yemeni island of Socotra.[4] He was killed by Ethiopians who attacked the island.[4] Al-Suqutriyya reputedly wrote a qasida to Imam al-Ṣalt ibn Mа̄lik, who had assumed the imamate of Oman in 273 AH / 886 CE, requesting help from him.[4] The poem was sent by sea and found by a fisherman who passed it on to the imam.[5] The Imam sent a fleet of one hundred boats to Socotra, defeating the Ethiopian force on Socotra.[4][6]
Al-Suqutriyya died some time after the year 273 AH / 886 CE.[3]
Work
[edit]Al-Suqutriyya is known for the long poem attributed to her, addressed to al-Ṣalt ibn Mа̄lik. The opening of the poem runs
قل للإمام الذي ترجى فضائلُـــه * ابن الكرام وابن السَّادة النجــــبِ |
Tell the imam whose virtues are to be hoped for, the son of the noble and distinguished Sayyids, |
Reception
[edit]Al-Suqutriyya is considered a lost voice in Omani literature, whose work was re-discovered in the twentieth century.[8] In the assessment of Serge D. Elie, her poem
seems to be the first act of writing—or more aptly, discursive insurrection—attributed to a Soqotran, and as such it is the source of pride among Soqotrans. However, as this poem became part of popular ‘historiology’—that peculiar combination of orality and literacy, resulting into a synthesis of fact and fiction—the incident was believed to have taken place during the time of the Portuguese, and through a process of osmosis (as literacy remains a problem) has permeated the culture and shaped collective memory.[2]
Al-Suqutriyya's story and her poetry featured in an episode of "History and Heritage (Omani Personalities Immortalized by History)" presented by Dr. Hamid Al-Nawfali for Al-Ru'ya TV.[9] This programme became controversial when it was aired in Socotra, because it claimed that Al-Suqutriyya was from Oman.[10] A resident of the island, Abdul Karim Qabalan, called on the television company to apologise.[10] In 2016, the novelist Munir Talal published a retelling of the poem.[11]
Notes
[edit]- ^ The principal scholarly accounts of al-Suqutriyya are found in Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh bin Ḥumayd wal-Sālimī, Tuḥfat al-Aʿyān bi-sīrat ahl ʿUmān, 2 vols (Cairo: Matba‘at al-sufliyya, 1347/1928), p. 112 and Sālim ibn Ḥumūd, ʿUmān ʿabr al-tārīkh (Muscat, 1982), II, 191, cited by Isam Ali Ahmad al-Rawas, 'Early Islamic Oman (ca - 622/280-893): A Political History' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 1990), p. 273. See also R. B. Serjeant, 'The Coastal Population of Socotra', in Socotra: Island of Tranquility, ed. by Brian Doe (London: IMMEL Publishing, 1992), pp. 133–80 (pp. 136-40) (repr. in R. B. Serjeant, Society and Trade in South Arabia (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996), ch XVII) and J. C. Wilkinson, The Imamate Tradition of Oman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 332, 344.
References
[edit]- ^ جمعان الزهراني, قينان (11 June 2012). "اطمة الجهضمية تستنجد إمام عمان بقصيدة". الإسلام اليوم. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016.
- ^ a b c Serge D. Elie, 'Soqotra: South Arabia’s Strategic Gateway and Symbolic Playground', British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 33.2 (November 2006), 131-60, doi:10.1080/13530190600953278 (p. 158 n. 105).
- ^ a b "الجمهورية نت - علم وقصيدة السقطرية - فاطمة بنت أحمد محمد الجهضمي". 27 April 2014. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
- ^ a b c d "السقطرية". 4 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
- ^ "فاطمة الزهراء السقطرية من اعز نساء العرب (قصيدة رهيبة جدا) من فارس حمدان". vb.shbab7.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2020. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ "سقطرى المحتلة وبطولة العمانيين لتحريرها" (in Arabic). 17 July 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
- ^ Isam Ali Ahmad al-Rawas, 'Early Islamic Oman (ca - 622/280-893): A Political History' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Durham, 1990), p. 273.
- ^ محمد بن سليمان الحضرمي (2020). المشرب العذب.. قراءات في الشعر العماني. Alaan Publishing Co. pp. 82–3. ISBN 9789996933677.
- ^ Team, FictionX. "البوابة الإعلامية -وزارة الإعلام - سلطنة عمان -أحمد بن ماجد والزهراء السقطرية في برنامج". البوابة الإعلامية -وزارة الإعلام - سلطنة عمان (in Arabic). Retrieved 21 October 2020.
- ^ a b "اخبار محلية : تلفزيون عمان يثير موجة استياء في سقطرى". sahafahnet.net (in Arabic). Retrieved 21 October 2020.
- ^ "الزهراء السقطرية / إصدار جديد للكاتب اليمني/منير طلال - الرباط بريس". www.aribatpress.com. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
External links
[edit]- Of Oman's Poets: Al-Zahra Al-Soqatriya - Fatima bint Hamad bin Khalfan Al-Jahhamiya by Dr. Muhammad Al-Harthi