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

148 The Arab Queens
In pursuit of her aims, 'Arwa first decided to transfer her capital
from San'a to Jabala, a small fortress-city clinging to the mountainside.
She installed her husband and the Sulayhi treasures there
and began to tighten the noose around Sa'id Ibn Najah by negotiating
new alliances. One year later, in 481/1088, her army crushed
Sa'id in the vicinity of Jabala. 30 'Arwa's success was due more to
her use of the terrain and to the spreading of false rumours than to
her military superiority. She persuaded Sa'id to attack her by making
him believe that all her allies were in the process of abandoning
her. In fact she had demanded that they go to Ibn Najah and hint
to him that in case of attack on Jabala they would not come to her
aid. Sa'id fell into the trap and attacked Jabala, completely confident
that al-Hurra was isolated and weakened. Once Sa'id had been
killed, his wife, Umm al-Mu'arik, was brought as a prisoner to
'Arwa. 'Arwa ordered that Sa'id be decapitated and his head planted
on a pole in front of his wife's cell as had been done before with
'Ali. 31 The law of vengeance required a perfect symmetry in symbol
and deed. And this act, which proved that al-Hurra was just as
cruel a politician as Sa'id, the enemy of her dynasty, should remove
all illusions of any possible feminine compassion.
The historians emphasize that 'Arwa gave her full attention to
military conquests, needing to prove that the dynasty was still as
strong as ever despite the loss of its great leader 'Ali and the
disability of al-Mukarram. In politics, unlike in music, being a
woman does not soften behaviour. Yasin al-Khatib al-'Amri, a
nineteenth-century historian, describes 'Arwa as a sovereign who
'perfectly understood how to manage the affairs of state and of
war'; 32 and a modern author calls her 'an intellectually gifted and
accomplished woman'. 33 For Zarkali, 'Arwa 'was an efficient queen
and a matchless administrator'. She left some very beautiful architectural
and engineering monuments, especially the famous San'a
mosque and the road to Samarra. She also took great interest in
the setting up of cultural and religious centres and seeing that
scholars and teachers were well paid. 34 But above all she is remembered
for her role as a spiritual leader and the service she rendered
Shi'ism in propagating it throughout Asia.
For Zarkali, the author of the A'lam, the collection of biographies
of celebrities, she was 'one of the leaders of Isma'ilism'. 35 Other
more cautious writers make a distinction between the temporal
power that 'Arwa received from al-Mukarram and the religious
power that the latter transmitted to his cousin Saba. Al-Thawr
specifies that 'Arwa was officially given the temporal power by her