al-Murdafat min Quraysh - ضمن Nawadir al-Makhtutat

al-Murdafat min Quraysh (The Successively Married Women of Quraysh) is a short historical treatise by the early Abbasid historian and genealogist Abu al-Hasan al-Madaini (135–225 AH / 752–840 CE) that documents notable women of the Quraysh tribe who married multiple husbands in succession al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.

Subject and Content

The treatise explores early Islamic and pre-Islamic social history through the marital biographies of elite Qurayshi women who had consecutive husbands following widowhood or divorce al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1. It records each woman's successive marriages, suitors, dowries, children, and significant domestic or political anecdotes, frequently citing related poetry al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.

Among the notable figures documented in the text are:

• Umm Kulthum bint Ali ibn Abi Talib, recounting her marriage to Umar ibn al-Khattab, her subsequent courtship by Sa'id ibn al-As, and her later marriages to Awn ibn Ja'far and Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Murdafat min Quraysh -….
• Umm Kulthum bint Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt, detailing her marriages to Zayd ibn Harithah, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, and Amr ibn al-As al-Murdafat min Quraysh -….
• Hind bint Utba, noting her marriages in the pre-Islamic era to al-Fakih ibn al-Mughira and Hafs ibn al-Mughira prior to marrying Abu Sufyan ibn Harb al-Murdafat min Quraysh -….
• Atika bint Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, including the verses composed for her by Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr, as well as her subsequent marriages to Umar ibn al-Khattab, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, and Amr ibn al-As al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.
• Sukayna bint al-Husayn, tracing her marriages to Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, Abdullah ibn Uthman ibn Abd Allah ibn Hakim ibn Hizam, al-Asbagh ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, Zayd ibn Amr ibn Uthman, and Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.

Transmission and Manuscript Tradition

The text opens with an isnad running through Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Kufi (254–348 AH), a companion of Tha'lab, from Abu al-Qasim Abd Allah ibn Muhammad, from Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn al-Harith al-Kharraz (d. 257 AH), directly from al-Madaini al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.

The surviving text was preserved in the Ahmad Taymur Pasha collection (MS 80 Majami'), within a compilation containing eleven treatises, bearing annotations in the hand of Tahir al-Jaza'iri al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…. In that manuscript, the work was titled Risalat al-Mutazawwijat min Quraysh (Treatise on the Married Women of Quraysh) al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…. The editor emended this title to al-Murdafat min Quraysh, identifying al-Mutazawwijat as a scribal corruption, since the treatise specifically concerns women who took successive husbands (ardafna zawjan ba'da zawj) rather than married women generally, which conforms to the title Kitab al-Murdafat min Quraysh listed under al-Madaini's works on marital reports in Ibn al-Nadim's al-Fihrist al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.

Publication

The work was edited by Abd al-Salam Harun and published as part of his multi-volume collection of rare Arabic texts, Nawadir al-Makhtutat al-Murdafat min Quraysh -…+1.