Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints
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Doaa Omran
Abstract
Many Western and Eastern female saints from the Middle Ages miraculously healed infertility and helped mothers protect their children, even in desperate circumstances. One such example from the Islamic tradition is Sayyidah (lady) Nafīsah (762–824), a descendant of the Prophet Muḥammad. Sayyidah Nafīsah performed karāmāt (miracles performed by saints) that helped women. Nafīsah bint al-Ḥasan’s karāmāt continue to work, as people nowadays still visit her eponymous mosque and mausoleum in Cairo. She was born in Mecca but stayed in Cairo for the last fifteen years of her life, where she established a majlis (a knowledge circle) explaining the ḥadīth (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muḥammed) and the rules of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to an audience of both women and men. According to medieval Arabic sources, she performed at least one hundred and fifty miracles. One account narrates how she prayed when the Nile ran dry, and the water level rose again. Because water symbolizes fertility, this account relates to infertile women praying for conception and mothers with their offspring. European history also shows a similar pattern. For example, St. Margaret and St. Brigid of Kildare, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary – also known as St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. People considered the former two patron saints of childbirth similar hagiographic examples appear in The South-East English Legendary and Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend (ca. 1447). People venerated St. Elizabeth of Hungary as the patron saint for marriage, brides, and mothers seeking help with their children. This article aims to clarify Sayyidah Nafīsah’s fecundity, prolificacy, abundance, and motherhood miracles by studying them vis-à-vis those of her European counterparts. I propose that piety, austerity, and diligent worship are common tropes in the lives of Muslim and Christian saints. The posthumous recording of these stories may have led to inaccuracies and even exaggerations regarding the miracles described. I will demonstrate how both traditions share persistent, common folk traditions, as people continue to visit these shrines believing that their prayers can be answered – even when strict monotheism disapproves this practice.
Abstract
Many Western and Eastern female saints from the Middle Ages miraculously healed infertility and helped mothers protect their children, even in desperate circumstances. One such example from the Islamic tradition is Sayyidah (lady) Nafīsah (762–824), a descendant of the Prophet Muḥammad. Sayyidah Nafīsah performed karāmāt (miracles performed by saints) that helped women. Nafīsah bint al-Ḥasan’s karāmāt continue to work, as people nowadays still visit her eponymous mosque and mausoleum in Cairo. She was born in Mecca but stayed in Cairo for the last fifteen years of her life, where she established a majlis (a knowledge circle) explaining the ḥadīth (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muḥammed) and the rules of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to an audience of both women and men. According to medieval Arabic sources, she performed at least one hundred and fifty miracles. One account narrates how she prayed when the Nile ran dry, and the water level rose again. Because water symbolizes fertility, this account relates to infertile women praying for conception and mothers with their offspring. European history also shows a similar pattern. For example, St. Margaret and St. Brigid of Kildare, and St. Elizabeth of Hungary – also known as St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. People considered the former two patron saints of childbirth similar hagiographic examples appear in The South-East English Legendary and Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend (ca. 1447). People venerated St. Elizabeth of Hungary as the patron saint for marriage, brides, and mothers seeking help with their children. This article aims to clarify Sayyidah Nafīsah’s fecundity, prolificacy, abundance, and motherhood miracles by studying them vis-à-vis those of her European counterparts. I propose that piety, austerity, and diligent worship are common tropes in the lives of Muslim and Christian saints. The posthumous recording of these stories may have led to inaccuracies and even exaggerations regarding the miracles described. I will demonstrate how both traditions share persistent, common folk traditions, as people continue to visit these shrines believing that their prayers can be answered – even when strict monotheism disapproves this practice.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Miracles, Wonders, and Human Existence Globally and in the Pre-Modern Age: Also an Introduction 1
- (False) Miracles, Doctors and the potentia of Saints in the Gaul of Gregory of Tours 107
- Apostle’s Miracles and Kings’ Authority in West Francia (ca. 850–ca. 1050) 127
- Fecundity, Motherhood and Healing Karāmāt (Miracles): A Comparative Study of Sayyidah Nafīsah and Christian Women Saints 161
- Intertextuality and the Transcendental Miracle of Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī’s Risālat al-Ghufrān (The Epistle of Forgiveness) (1033 C.E.) 189
- The Miracles of Solomon: A Comparative Study of Al-Thaʿlabī’s Qiṣaṣ Al-Anbiyāʾ and “The City of Brass,” a Tale in the Arabian Nights Collection 215
- Miracle Accounts as Teaching Aids and Learning Tools: Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum as a Mirror of Everyday Life and the History of Mentality 241
- The Ultimate Miracle: Revival of the Dead in Alfonso X’s Cantigas de Santa Maria 275
- Miracle of Miracles: Improbable Choices and Impossible Outcomes in Dante’s Paradiso 299
- Miraculosa gratia: Discerning the Spirit, Discerning the Body in the Liber of Angela of Foligno and in the Vita of Clare of Montefalco 337
- Miraculous Revelation in the Middle English Pearl 375
- The Miracles of the Immaculate Conceptions in the St. Anne’s Legend and the Middle English Joseph of Aramathie 405
- “Many ferlis han fallen in a fewe ȝeris”: Debt, Obligation, Godly Presence, and Grasping the Miraculous in Piers Plowman 427
- Margery Kempe and Miracles: Guarding Understanding and Interpretation of Experience 459
- Where Has God Gone in the Vernacular Renderings of Lanfranc’s Chirurgia magna? 477
- Non vidit, sed firmiter credit – The Many Roles of Jews in Christian Miracle Narratives 505
- “Never of Myselff”: Failure and Interiority in Malory’s “The Healing of Sir Urry” 555
- Between Wonders and Miracles. The Use and Abuse of Natural Substances in the Healing Rituals of Late Medieval and Early Modern Popular Culture 581
- Between Wonder and Science: Alchemy in Augurello’s Mini-Epic Chryrsopoeia (1515) 619
- “Miraculous Light” – Natural Phenomena and Divine Salvation in the Medieval and Early Modern World 647
- Biographies of the Contributors
- Index
