Fāṭimah

or Fatima

born с 605, Mecca, Arabia

died 633, Medina

Daughter of Muhammad and the object of veneration in Shīite Islam.

In 622 she emigrated with her father from Mecca to Medina, where she married her cousin Alī. Their sons, Hasan and al-Husayn ibn Alī, are considered by Shīʽites to be the rightful inheritors of the tradition of Muhammad. Fāṭimah's marriage was unhappy, but she and her husband were reconciled by the Prophet, and she cared for her father in his last illness (632). She clashed with his successor, Abū Bakr, over property and died a year later. Later tradition added to the majesty of her life, and the Fātimid dynasty derived its name from hers.

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▪ daughter of Muḥammad

Arabic“Shining One”also spelled  Fatima , also called  al-Zahrāʾ  

born c. 605, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]

died 633, Medina

      daughter of Muhammad (the founder of Islam) who in later centuries became the object of deep veneration by many Muslims, especially the Shīʿites (Shīʿite). Muhammad had other sons and daughters, but they either died young or failed to produce a long line of descendants. Fāṭimah, however, stood at the head of a genealogy that steadily enlarged through the generations.

      To the Shīʿites she is particularly important because she was married to Alīʿ, whom the Shīʿites considered to be the legitimate heir of the authority of the Prophet Muhammad and the first of their imāms. The sons of Fāṭimah and ʿAlī, Ḥasan and Ḥusayn (Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, al-), are thus viewed by the Shīʿites as the rightful inheritors of the tradition of Muhammad, a further ramification of Fāṭimah's significance among Shīʿite believers. Accordingly, many Islamic traditions give a majestic if not miraculous quality to Fāṭimah's life.

      Fāṭimah accompanied Muhammad when he emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622. Soon after her arrival in Medina she married ʿAlī, the Prophet's cousin. Their first years were lived in abject poverty. When in 632 Muhammad was facing his last illness, Fāṭimah was there to nurse him. In general she was devoted to her domestic duties and avoided involvement in political affairs. Yet after Muhammad's death she had a sharp clash with Abū Bakr, who had succeeded Muhammad as leader of the Islamic community, and Fāṭimah supported ʿAlī in his reluctance to submit to Abū Bakr's authority. She came into conflict with the caliph a second time over property that she claimed Muhammad had left her. Abū Bakr refused to sanction her claim, and, according to most accounts, Fāṭimah refused to speak to him until her death from illness six months later.

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