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

66 Queens and Courtesans
(sexuality) and to death (war), the ability to defend oneself and to
protect. It is a threshold which organizes the universe and distributes
beings in space, according to their relationships to power, their
power to kill and to defend thresholds.
Islam is one of the few religions to have erected the difference
between the sexes into a social architecture. Before Khayzuran,
'A'isha, the Prophet's wife, the first Muslim woman to claim and
assume a political career, was confronted by the same territorial
logic. 'A'isha's intelligence was also obvious: "A'isha was, among
all the people, the one who had the most knowledge of fiqh, the
one who was the most educated.' 53 She led the first armed resistance
against a caliph. She put herself at the head of an armed insurrection
in 36/658 against the fourth orthodox caliph, 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib.
She went to the mosques to harangue the mobs and call on them
to take up arms against 'Ali, and she then led some thousands of
men into battle. This battle is known as the Battle of the Camel,
referring to the camel ridden by 'A'isha, the only woman on the
battlefield. On that day 7,000 Muslims fell in the space of a few
hours. It was the first civil war, which traumatizes Islam right up
to today, and which marked the division of Islam into the Shi'ites
(those who remained the supporters of Caliph 'Ali and his
descendants) and the Sunnis (those who accepted as caliph the man
who would stop the civil war and restore peace, even if he was not
of the Prophet's family).
'A'isha was the first woman to transgress the hudud (limits), to
violate the boundary between the territory of women and that of
men, to incite to kill, even though the act of war is the privilege of
men and belongs to territory outside the harem. A woman does not
have the right to kill. Deciding on war is the function and raison
d'etre of men. 'A'isha, as the first woman who took a political
decision by leading armed men, remains forever linked in Muslim
memory with/frmz (disorder and destruction). 54 When 'A'isha went
on a campaign to recruit supporters, especially among the Companions
of the Prophet who held decision-making posts as governors
of provinces and thus could help her in raising an army, the argument
of those who opposed her initiative and decided to remain loyal
to Caliph 'Ali was never an argument based on her competence. It
was always systematically an argument based on territory. 55 And
that territoriality is symbolized by what Caliph 'Ali said to 'A'isha
after her defeat as she sat slightly wounded on her camel, which
was riddled with arrows: 'Humayra, is that what the Messenger of
God ordered you to do? Didn't he order you to remain quietly in