The Tunisian Berber Queen - 11th century Muslim world

[Ruhi_Rose]

You might not have heard of her because as usual, she is hardly spoken about by modern Western historians. 

Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah  was born in Tunisia in 1039 and died in 1075 at age 36, either in Andalusia or Morocco.   She was a Tunisian Berber woman of influence in the early days of the Almoravid Berber empire which gained control of Morocco, western-Algeria and Al-Andalusia. Her father, Ibrahim an-Nafzawi, was a merchant originally from Kairouan in Tunisia.  But other reports say he was from Nefza in northern Tunisia.

Zaynab  married Luqut al-Maghrawi, Emir of Aghmat (a city in Morocco), date of marriage isn't known. He died In 1058, and she inherited much of his wealth.  Then she married the Almoravid Emir, Abu-Bakr Ibn-Umar in 1068 and offered to put her immense wealth at his disposal.  In 1071 Abu Bakr needed to go to suppress a desert rebellion against the Almoravids and he didn’t know how long it would take or whether at all he would return alive.  He also knew it wouldn’t be fair on his wife who wasn’t cut out to cope with the rigors of desert life.  Therefore, they mutually and amicably decided to divorce. He advised her to marry Yusuf ibn Tashfin if she needed his protection.  She married Yusuf the same year 1071 after completing her iddah and got the title of “malika” (queen).  Yusuf bin Tashfin was the leader of Almoravids in Andalusia from 1061-1107.  She reportedly died in 1075, only four years after her marriage and much before her third husband, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, who died in 1107.  From her three husbands she reportedly had five children.

The earliest reference to Zynab an-Nafzawiyyah is in the anonymous 12th-century text, Kitab al-Istibsar, where it says "In her time there was none more beautiful, intelligent and witty than Zaynab ... she was married to Yusuf, who built Marrakech for her." It says that Yusuf owed the conquest of the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria and Spain) to her advice.  Her expertise in conducting negotiations earned her the nicknames "the negotiator.”  Though the khutba was never issued in her name, she was recognized to share the power of her spouse.

Her legacy had immense impact on the status of women in Almoravid Morocco.  Education of women in Morocco was already the norm.  With Zaynab’s example, women also widely participated in state affairs. 

Here is a nice Youtube video titled “the brilliant mind behind Almoravid empire.”  This video has been made by some Moroccan circles who apparently preferred a somewhat feminist portrayal of the Berber Tunisian Queen.  But otherwise it gives a fairly good and accurate account of her biography and history.   Also there is a constant petty argument between Moroccans on one side and Tunisians and Algerians on the other, to grab every historical success in the region for themselves.  The video title says "Moroccan Queen"  but ethnically Zaynab was Tunisian.






11th century Tunisian Muslim queen, Zaynab an-Nafzāwiyyah. The larger portrait is AI generated. The inset shows a portrait of Zaynab made by an artist earlier.

[Zainab_M]

Very interesting history.  The only negative thing is there's too much AI interference.  Not only the larger portrait, but that video too in AI generated.  It's good that the portrait contains a natural art in the inset.  I wish the video was also a natural one.

[Ruhi_Rose]

Are AI generators also making videos?

[Zainab_M]

O yes, this website called Synthesia is an AI video generator that converts text to video with AI generated real looking images narrating the video scripts.

[Ruhi_Rose]

I get it .. well, I could sense something a bit amiss here as everything looked too artifically quintessential

Already AI art has pervaded everywhere.  I Would prefer lot more if at least videos were made naturally or traditionally.

[Zainab_M]

Exactly.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

AI is rapidly robbing the talent of real artists that isn't being appreciated by the connoisseurs of art.

This is surely engrossing history.  What I cannot figure out is, this girl was Tunisian.  Yet all her three husbands were Moroccans.  A bit unusual in those days.

[Ruhi_Rose]

AI is rapidly robbing the talent of real artists that isn't being appreciated by the connoisseurs of art.

Absolutely without a doubt. 

This is surely engrossing history.  What I cannot figure out is, this girl was Tunisian.  Yet all her three husbands were Moroccans.  A bit unusual in those days. 

Well yes, only Allah knows best.  But if we think logically, her life could have taken various turns and twists. Actually not much of her early life before her marriage is known, except that her first marriage was when she was around 16 or 17.  Her family was definitely from Tunisia, but not known whether she was born in Tunisia or Morocco.  It should be noted that her father was a merchant, a trader, and in those traders were frequently travelling especially within the vast region of the Muslim world.  In the course of it, many relocated from their countries of origin to another Muslim country particularly within the Maghreb for reasons of convenience and comfort for themselves and their families. Many of them visited the courts of emirs and caliphs to present their wares.  Some earned the favors of the leaders as their trusted merchants and established links with influential ones.  That may, to some extent, explain Zaynab's first marriage to a wealthy emir of a Moroccan city bringing her into the circle of the elites.  After the first husband died, which was probably just a few years after their marriage, she became known as a respected widow which apparently facilitated her marriage to another emir who was a friend of caliph Yusuf ibn Tafshin.  So, after her amicable divorce from her second husband, she was able to get married to a caliph.  I presume her Tunisian family lived in Morocco for most (or many) years of their lives.    But only Allah Almighty has the precise details.

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Right, that makes a lot of sense.  Very logical analysis, though only Allah knows best.

[N. Truth Seeker]

Yes, good analysis Sister Ruhi.  It is more or less known for sure that Zaynab Nafzawiyyah was born in Morocco, not Tunisia .. born in the Moroccan town of Aghmat, where she also married her first husband. 

But beware when you read her biography as many historians, most of them western viz. Johanna Strong, but also Ibn Khalidun, have given confused and wrong information about her life.

Ibn Khaldun claims before her first marriage she was the “concubine” of another Aghmat leader.  But from the chronology of her life that doesn’t add up nor appear logical.  Subsequently all western historians have echoed this random presumption of Ibn Khaldun.  By the way, Ibn Khaldun was himself a Tunisian academic who lived in the 14th century, more than 300 years after Zaynab an-Nafzawiyyah’s lifetime.  Despite his reputation of flourishing in the environment of the academia, several contents of Islamic history coming from him have turned out to be highly disputed if not altogether wrong.

Western historian, Johanna Strong, seems to be completely confused about Zaynab’s biography, confused about the names of her husbands and their chronological presence in Zaynab’s life.  This historian ends up saying Zaynab married 4 times by including the name of the man to whom she also claims Zaynab was a “concubine” and never legally married.  Contradictory and illogical information.

Though the year of her birth as 1039 seems correct and is consistent, year of death differs from differing sources, some say 1072, some 1075.  But I think the chances are the latter is more correct. 

And of course as Sister Heba said, only Allah Almighty has the precise details.

Also totally agree these AI arts and videos are robbing the talents of professional artists.

[Ruhi_Rose]

You're spot on brother.  I am thoroughly discerning when it comes to picking historical info.  As for Western historians, especially the contemporary ones, have been depending largely on manoeuvring and exploiting Islamic History to promote what they wished happened, not what did actually happen.  Ibn Khaldun was a paranoid thinker, and additionally he mixed history with too many needless and bootless philosophies (perhaps in an attempt to intellectually resemble the incoherent ancient Greek sages).  He was pretty much obsessed over bringing out the worst on Islamic History for he had little or no idea of the gross hooliganism that went on in European history.  According to Khaldun, the Islamic world was formulated on the basis of violence and coercion, both physical and symbolic, for the sake of controlling and monopolising political power and for hegemony.  With this quality of staggering ignorance it's not surprising that his fame rose only in modern times when Western historians saw his works as a useful tool to promote their own interest.  Fortunately there was no Western propaganda machine attached to politics in Khaldun's time.  Instead the West got its way through invasions, piracy and thuggery in the name of "exploration."  If the setup was like today, Khaldun was cut-out to become an ideal sellout. 

[Heba E. Husseyn]

Despite Khaldun's much talked about "rich experience" of witnessing political transformations across the Maghreb, Andalusia and Levant, he was quite full of misperceptions as a theorist and an armchair thinker.  The 'comprehensive' framework of his observations that he built is so theoretical, basically a doctrine of impracticability.