ZAYNAB BINT ʿALĪ (c. AH 5–62; 626/7–682 CE), daughter of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Fāṭimah al-Zahrāʾ, was the first granddaughter of the prophet Muḥammad. She is best known for her courageous and eloquent role supporting her brother, the second Shīʿah Imām Ḥusayn, at the time of his martyrdom in the Battle of Karbala, and for protecting his family in the following months of Umayyad imprisonment.

Life

Zaynab was born in Medina a few years after Muḥammad's immigration thereto in the early days of Shaʿbān of the year AH 5 (626 or 627 CE). She was the third child born to ʿAlī and Fāṭimah—after Ḥasan (the first Shīʿah imām) and Ḥusayn—with about a year's interval between each child. Her birth was followed by that of a sister, Umm Kulth...