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

How Does One Say 'Queen' in Islam? 15
history of struggle for individual autonomy and independence. Freedom
is the opposite of slavery. This is a very significant distinction
in understanding Muslim dynamics today. When French children
say liberte, memories come to their mind of the people's demonstrations
and struggles in the streets of Paris in 1789 drummed into
them by their teachers. When Arab children say this word, the
images that come to their minds are of the pomp of the Golden
Age of the Abbasid aristocracy, which always sets our teachers
dreaming of the jawari, those beautiful slaves who thronged the
streets of Baghdad as never again in Arab history. The admiration
of my teacher for Abbasid pomp was the essential message that I
got as a child. It was only in secondary school that I heard about
the extent of slavery during that period. The concept of hurr is
associated in our minds with the paired words aristocracy/slavery.
Sayyida, the feminine form of sayyid (master, lord) is opposed to
'abd (slave). Nowadays in modern Arabic, whether classical or
spoken, we use al-sayyid to say Mr and al-sayyida to say Mrs.
The linguistic root of hurr, which means 'free', is associated with
aristocratic sovereignty and not with the struggle against despotism,
as is the case with the word liberte in the famous French motto of
'liberte, egalite, fraternite'. Hurr in Arabic has no democratic or
popular connotation; on the contrary, hurr is what distinguishes a
person from being a slave, from being inferior. If freedom in modern
French is linked with the struggle of the people for their rights
against despotism, hurriyya is rooted in the opposite idea, that of
the sovereignty of aristocrats. Ibn Manzur tells us that a synonym
of hurr is ashraf, the privilege of aristocrats to trace their ancestors
far back. In all things the sharaf is the superior part ('uluw), the
part that dominates; and the ashraf among human beings are the
superior ones. 13 Al-hurr is also the noble deed; the hurr in any
category is the best. In this way a hurr land is a fertile land, a hurr
cloud is a rain-filled cloud, and the hurr part of the house is the
best and most comfortable part. 14 Hurr, then, is a concept intrinsically
linked to sharaf, the aristocracy, the elite, the superior group.
One of the names for eagle is al-hurr. 15
Paradoxically, while Islam was born of a democratic design that
limited the power of the aristocracies, the word ashraf was never
devalued; in fact the contrary is true. The Quraysh nobles were the
ashraf in pre-Islamic Arabia. But after the triumph of Islam, ashraf
always designated the elite, the notables of a city or country, and
especially and most particularly the descendants of the Prophet. Alashraf,
the sharifs, are the privileged ones who can trace their