The Queen Was Actually a Man: Arwa Bint Ahmad and the Politics of Religion

Arwˆ bint Aúmad (d. 532/1137) ruled in Yemen for Ž fty-Ž ve years. She played an important political role and at the same time occupied the highest rank in the Ismˆ’“l“ religious hierarchy after that of the imam. Her religious policies, particularly her special relations with the Fatimids, led to the transfer of the Fatimid literary legacy to Yemen, and hence to its preservation following the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate. She likewise organized the new structure of the Yemeni Ismˆ’“l“ da’wa, thus contributing to its survival after the fall of the Sulayhid dynasty. The proposed paper investigates Arwˆ’s career from two diVerent angles: the Fatimid Egyptian and the Yemen Ismˆ’“l“. The main point will be the way they dealt with the fact that she was a female ruler. The Fatimid caliph-imam al-Mustan§ir Ž rst issued a decree stating that to follow her was a religious duty. He then appointed her to the rank of úu<[a, the highest after that of the imam, in order to give her rule a more emphatic legitimacy. The Yemeni Ismˆ’“l“ position is best represented in al-Sul ˆn alÝa ˆb’s religious tract ýˆyat al-mawˆl“d, where he argues that Arwˆ’s female body was no more than a body envelope covering her original male essence. The fact that Arwˆ was a woman posed a serious problem for both the Fatimids and the Yemeni Ismˆ’“l“s. In each case they tried to deal with it in a way that suited their political and religious interests. Arw bint Aúmad al-êulayúiyya (r. 477-532/1084-1137) was not an ordinary person. She was an Ismˆ’“l“ woman from Yemen. In other words, she is a triply marginalized historical Ž gure. Her Ž fty-Ž ve © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Arabica, tome L,1 Also available online – www.brill.nl