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 {{islam-bio-stub