Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

126 The Arab Queens
cousin, 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib, to whom she bore two sons, Hasan and
Husayn. 23 Because of who their mother was, they were regarded as
the only ones carrying on the Prophet's lineage and the only ones
having the right to lead the Muslims. Some people claim that Fatima
had a third son named al-Muhassan, who died young. 24 All claims
of descent from the Prophet must go back to the two children born
to Fatima and 'Ali, Hasan and Husayn.
After the death of Fatima, 'Ali married eight women. 25 In order
to understand 'Ali's importance in Shi'ism, it is necessary to recall
his death even more than his descendants. He died a martyr in an
assassination that was politically motivated and meticulously
planned, after he had been evicted from power by caliph Mu'awiya.
After his death, his children and their descendants were persecuted.
The name of 'Ali would forever be associated with injustice, political
murder of the innocent, and violation of the message of brotherhood
and equality among the Muslims. 'Ali became the symbol around
which rallied all those who felt their rights denied or who claimed
unjust treatment. 26
Throughout the centuries political challenge of an established
regime has been expressed in Islam in terms of claims of nasab,
filiation, lineage. Claim of descent is then always contested, as it
must be, by one's political opponents. The basic idea of Shi'ism is
that only 'Ali, because of his closeness to the Prophet, and his
descendants can be as legitimate as the Prophet was. For, although
all the caliphs since the death of Muhammad claim descent from
one single Quraysh ancestor, their degree of closeness to the Prophet's
branch varies considerably. The Umayyads only shared two
Quraysh ancestors with him; the Abbasids, closer because they
descend from his uncle 'Abbas, share four ancestors with him
(Quraysh, 'Abd Manaf, Hashim, and 'Abd al-Muttalib). Only 'Ali
was doubly close to the Prophet, as his first cousin (the Prophet's
father, 'Abdallah, was the brother of Abu Talib, the father of 'Ali),
and as his son-in-law, the husband of Fatima and father of her
children. This close ancestral link was the basis of the legitimacy of
the Fatimids. It was their authority for establishing a countercaliphate,
which could finally bring into being on earth the hope
for a just political regime - that of the Shi'ites. Their strategy was
straightforward and systematic: first to form an army of adherents
by giving them the essential knowledge; then to transform them
into soldiers, which followed naturally afterwards. The Fatimid
seizure of power illustrates this process to perfection. The first
Fatimid generals who worked in the field were not narrow-minded