Hind bint Utba ibn Rabi'a () was an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

commander, the wife of

Abu Sufyan ibn Harb Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya (; ), commonly known by his ' Abu Sufiyan (), was a prominent opponent-turned companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was the father of the first Umayyad caliph Mu'awiya I () and namesake of the S ...

and the mother of

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashid ...

. Hind fought against the

early Muslims From 613 to 619 Common Era, CE, the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad gathered in his hometown of Mecca a small following of those who embraced his message of Islam and thus became Muslims. The first person who professed ...

and the

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

until converting to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

herself in 630 after the conquest of Mecca. She is highly praised by

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

Muslim sources for her military role at the

Battle of the Yarmuk The Battle of the Yarmuk (also spelled Yarmouk; ) was a major battle between the Byzantine army, army of the Byzantine Empire and the Arab Muslim Rashidun army, forces of the Rashidun Caliphate. The battle consisted of a series of engagements ...

under caliph

Umar ibn Khattab Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muh ...

Biography

She was born in Mecca, the daughter of one of the most prominent leaders of the

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

, Utba ibn Rabi'a, and of Safiya bint Umayya ibn Abd Shams. Hence Safiyya and Utba are cousins. She had two brothers: Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba and

Al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a Al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Rabi'a born on 583 (died 624)age of 41 was the son of Utba ibn Rabi'a and brother of Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba and Hind bint Utba. Just like his father, Walid was opposed to Muhammad and Islam. He was a fierce Meccan warrior ...

. She also had two sisters: Atika bint Utba and Umm Kulthum bint Utba. Her father and her paternal uncle Shaibah ibn Rabī‘a were among the chief adversaries of Islam who eventually were killed by

Ali Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until his assassination in 661, as well as the first Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Born to Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib an ...

in the

Battle of Badr The Battle of Badr or sometimes called The Raid of Badr ( ; ''Ghazwahu Badr''), also referred to as The Day of the Criterion (, ; ''Yawm al-Furqan'') in the Qur'an and by Muslims, was fought on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH), near the pre ...

. Hind's son was Mu'awiya. Her first husband was Hafs ibn Al-Mughira from the

Makhzum The Banu Makhzum () was one of the wealthy clans of the Quraysh. They are regarded as being among the three most powerful and influential clans in Mecca before the advent of Islam, the other two being the Banu Hashim (the tribe of the Islamic prop ...

clan, to whom she bore one son, Aban.Ibn Saad/Bewley p. 165. Hafs died young after an illness. Hind then married his brother al-Fakah, who was much older than she was, but she accepted him because she wanted her son to grow up within his father's family. Al-Fakah owned a banqueting hall that the public were allowed to enter freely. One day he left Hind alone in the hall and returned home to see one of his employees leaving in a hurry. Assuming that his wife had a lover, he kicked her and asked her who the man had been. She replied that she had been asleep and did not know that anyone had entered, but al-Fakah did not believe her and he divorced her immediately. Hind then found herself the subject of gossip. Her father Utba asked her to tell the truth about her divorce. "If the accusations are true, I will arrange to have al-Fakah murdered; and if they are false, I will summon him to appear before a soothsayer from Yemen." Hind swore by the gods that she was innocent, so Utba called the soothsayer. Hind was sitting among a crowd of women; the soothsayer walked up, struck her on the shoulder and said, "Arise, you chaste woman and no adulteress. You will give birth to a King!" Al-Fakah then took her hand, ready to accept her back as his wife; but Hind withdrew her hand and said, "Go away, for I shall make sure to bear him to some other man." Hind refused another suitor in order to marry Abu Sufyan, who was her maternal first cousin and paternal second cousin, c.599. Her family borrowed the jewellery of the Abu'l-Huqayq clan in

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

so that she could adorn herself for the wedding. From 613 to 622, Muhammad preached the message of Islam publicly in Mecca. As he gathered converts, he and his followers faced increasing opposition. In 622 they emigrated to the distant city of Yathrib, now known as

. In 624, Muhammad organized an attack on the caravan led by Hind and her husband, Abu Sufyan, that was travelling to Syria for trade purposes. Once they got word of the incoming attack, Abu Sufyan put word out to organize a Meccan army to defend the caravan. This led to the

. The Muslims defeated the Meccans and Hind's father, son, brother and uncle were all killed in that battle.Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 337. Hind accompanied the Meccan forces to the

Battle of Uhud The Battle of Uhud () was fought between the early Muslims and the Quraysh during the Muslim–Quraysh wars in a valley north of Mount Uhud near Medina on Saturday, 23 March 625 AD (7 Shawwal, 3 AH). After the expulsion of Hijrah, Muslims from ...

. She was among the women who sang, urging on their warriors.Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 371. ''On, ye sons of Abdaldar,'' ''On, protectors of our rear,'' ''Smite with every sharpened spear!'' ''If you advance we hug you,'' ''spread soft rugs beneath you;'' ''if you retreat we leave you,'' ''leave and no more love you.'' During this battle,

Jubayr ibn Mut'im Jubayr or Jubair is an Arabic masculine given name, which means "mender", "unbreaker". People named Jubayr include: * Jubair ibn Mut'im People using it in their patronymic include: * Sa'id ibn Jubayr *Ibn Jubayr People using it in their family n ...

bribed his slave

Wahshi ibn Harb Waḥshī ibn Ḥarb (), also known as Abu Dusmah was a former slave of Jubayr ibn Mut'im before becoming a freedman and a ''Sahabi'' (companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad). He is best known for killing a leading Muslim fighter, Hamza ibn ...

with

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing slaves by their owners. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that the most wi ...

to kill Muhammad's uncle

Hamza The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...

. Whenever Hind passed Wahshi, she supposedly called, "Come on, black man! Satisfy your vengeance and ours!" because Hamza was the one who had killed her uncle. Wahshi speared Hamza in the height of the battle; after Hamza was killed, Wahshi returned to retrieve his spear and then left the battle. According to some sources, Hind chewed the liver of a mutilated Hamza though these sources are considered weak and unauthentic by Sunni scholars. ''We have paid you back for Badr'' ''and a war that follows a war is always violent.'' ''I could not bear the loss of Utba'' ''nor my brother and his uncle and my first-born.'' ''I have slaked my vengeance and fulfilled my vow.'' ''You, O Wahshi, have assuaged the burning in my breast.'' ''I shall thank Wahshi as long as I live'' ''until my bones rot in the grave.'' After the

Conquest of Mecca The conquest of Mecca ( , alternatively, "liberation of Mecca") was a military campaign undertaken by Muhammad and Companions of the Prophet, his companions during the Muslim–Quraysh War. They led the early Muslims in an advance on the Quray ...

in 630, however, Hind accepted Islam. In the

the Muslims were outnumbered by the Byzantines, but with the help of the women and boys amongst them, defeated the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

. Two of the earliest history books on Islam pay great tribute to Hind for her action in the midst of the battle.Islamic Conquest of Syria A translation of Fatuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi Translated by Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi Page 325 al-Baladhuri 892 9Islamic Conquest of Syria A translation of Fatuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi Translated by Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi Page 331 to 334 They show how the early Muslim women, including Hind bint Utba and

Asma bint Abi Bakr Asmāʾ bint Abī Bakr (; 594/595 – 694-695CE) nicknamed Dhat an-Nitaqayn (meaning she with the two belts) was one of the companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and half-sister of his third wife Aisha. Her nickname Dhat an-Nitaqayn was giv ...

, were instrumental in the Battle of Yarmouk. The Muslims were hugely outnumbered. Every time some men ran away, the women turned them back and fought, fearing that if they lost, the Romans would enslave them. Every time the men fled, the women would sing:Islamic Conquest of Syria A translation of Fatuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi Translated by Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi Page 331-332 ''O you who flees from his loyal lady!'' ''She is beautiful and stands firmly.'' ''You're abandoning them to the Romans'' ''to let them the forelocks and girls seize.'' ''They will take what they want from us to the full'' ''and start fighting themselves.'' Hind sang the same song she had sung when she fought against the Muslims in the battle of Uhud: ''Night star's daughters are we,'' ''who walk on carpets soft they be'' ''Our walk does friendliness tell'' ''Our hands are perfumed musk smell'' ''Pearls are strung around these necks of us'' ''So come and embrace us'' ''Whoever refuses will be separated forever'' ''To defend his woman is there no noble lover?'' After seeing the women fight, the men would return and say to each other: "If we do not fight, then we are more entitled to sit in the women's quarter than the women." At one point, when arrows started raining down on Abu Sufyan and he tried to turn his horse away, Hind struck his horse in the face with a tent-peg and said: "Where do you think you're going, O Sakhr? Go back to battle and put effort into it until you compensate for having incited people in the past against Muhammad." An arrow later hit Abu Sufyan in the eye and he became blind.Islamic Conquest of Syria A translation of Fatuhusham by al-Imam al-Waqidi Translated by Mawlana Sulayman al-Kindi Page 332

References

Notes

* Guillaume, A. -- ''The Life of Muhammad'', Oxford University Press, 1955 * Madelung, Wilferd -- ''The Succession to Muhammad'', Cambridge University Press, 1997 * Watt, W. Montgomery -- ''Muhammad at Medina'', Oxford University Press, 1956

External links

Answering Ansar - a Shi'a site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hind bint Utba 6th-century births 7th-century deaths Women companions of the Prophet Women in medieval warfare Women in war in West Asia Banu Abd Shams Arab women in war Priestesses