Fatima in three voices

The life of Fatima bint Muhamad in the writings of the 20th century

Abstract

This paper examines three twentieth-century works about Fatima the daughter of Muhammad: Fatima et les filles de Mahomet (1912), by Henri Lammens, Banat al-Nabi (1956) by ‘Aysha ‘Abd al-Rahman, and Loin de Medina: filles d’Ismael (1982), by Asya Djebar. The thin description of Fatima in the classical sources leaves a wide space for interpretation. These three authors use it to the fullest and describe Fatima in accordance with their personal experience, their ideology, their time, and their political goals. Their different interpretations are presented and compared in order to shed light on certain aspects of the modern discourse about the formative period of Islam.