Öz
Comparative analysis of certain Arabic, Persian and Turkish maqtals shows that the given data about Shahrbānū, who is claimed to be the mother of ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn Zaynalābidīn, the 4the imām of Imāmiyya in particular and the son continuing the Prophet Muḥammad’s grandson Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī’s bloodline in general, is crucially different. Regardless of their religious sects, Arabic maqtal writers of the 2nd-7th/8th-13th-centuries such as Abū Miḫnaf, Isfahānī, Ṭabarānī, Ibn Tāwūs, and Ibn Namā al-Ḥillî emphasize the role of descendants of Fāṭima and ʿAlī’s family, especially Zaynab bint ʿAlī, Ummu Kulthūm, Ruqayya, Sukayna etc. as the woman members of Ahl al-Bayt participating at the Karbalā Event. However, these authors do not mention the so-called Shahrbānū or any other name mentioned in the early sources for ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn Zaynalābidīn’s mother. Despite not being an independent maqtal, Manāqib Āli Abū Tālib by the Iranian scholar Ibn Shahrasūb is one of the first Arabic sources where the author dedicates a significant chapter for the biography of Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī and gives information about the participation of princess Shahrbānū, the daughter of the Sāsānian king Yazdajird III, at the Karbalā Event as the wife of the 3rd imām. As well as the late Arabic maqtals giving a special place to Shahrbānū among the participants of the Karbalā Event are written by Fāzıl Darbandī and ʿAbbās Qummī, the non-Arab Imāmiyya scholars from the Turkish or Persian cultural environment.
Unlike early Arabic maqtal writers’ silence about ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn’s non-Arab mother, whose name is not considered important to be mentioned, the Sāsānian princess Shahrbānū appears as an important figure in the Persian maqtals such as Rawḍat al-shuhadā and Jalâʾ al-ʿUyûn. It is worth mentioning that, both Persian maqtals contain conflicting data regarding the main events of Shahrbānū’s life stages. For instance, in his maqtal titled Jalâʾ al-ʿUyûn, Muḥammad Majlisī develops the image of Shahrbānū on the events occurring until her marriage to Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, while Kāshifī, the author of Rawḍat al-shuhadā, fictionalizes this image on her postmarital period. Unlike Kāshifī, who does not mention the background of Shahrbānū’s marriage to Husain ibn Ali, Majlisī emphasizes the marriage event based on the narrative attributed to the 5th imām Bāqir, which brings caliph ʿUmar ibn al-Ḫaṭṭāb over against ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib, where the former does not understand the Persian and misbehaves towards the Sasanian princess, while the latter speaks Persian fluently, protects the member of the Sāsānid dynasty, and heralds his son Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī foretelling that the noble foreign bride – Shahrbānū – will give birth to the next best virtuous man after him. To sum up, Shahrbānū described by Kāshifī is a wretched Sāsānian princess who is identified with the Ahl al-Bayt suffering from te Karbalā Event to Damascus, thus empathized with the audience of Rawḍat al-shuhadā. Whereas, Shahrbānū presented by Majlisī is a noble Sāsānian princess who glamorizes Medīnian maidens with her beauty, entered into holy matrimony with Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī through the spiritual guidance of the holy family – the Prophet Muḥammad, his daughter Fāṭima and son in law ʿAlī ibn Abū Ṭālib –, and finally, whose life ended up with the mission of giving birth to ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn Zaynalābidīn, and during all this process her privateness was protected against all kinds of Arab attacks. Despite all these fundamental differences, the image of Shahrbānū in both maqtals is based on imām Zaynalābidīn’s special status as the descendant of God’s two chosen folks – the Banū Hāshim from the Arabs and the Persians from the ʿAd̲j̲am – thus combining the “prophethood and kingship” or being “the son of the two nobles” (ibn al-ḫiyaratayn). In conclusion, the image of Shahrbānū in these Persian maqtals is generally based on the cultural heirship of the Sāsānids and the glorification of the Persian national identity. In particular, she is placed in a position equal to the Prophet Muḥammad’s daughter Fāṭima, because of being “the mother of imāms”.