Fatima bint Ali

Biographical and rijal works distinguish Fatima bint Ali as Fatima al-Sughra, separating her from Fatima al-Zahra, Fatima bint al-Husayn, and other women who shared the name. Al-Mizzi identifies her as a Qurashi Hashimite daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib and states that her mother was an unnamed umm walad. Her basic identity is therefore secure even though her maternal ancestry is not recoverable by name.

She is counted among women associated with hadith transmission. The sources connect her reports with her father Ali, her brother Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Hanafiyya, and Asma bint Umays. They also preserve uncertainty over whether she directly heard from her father. In an old-age report she denied remembering anything directly from him, so direct audition should not be asserted without qualification.

Her transmitters included al-Harith ibn Ka'b al-Kufi, al-Hakam ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Nu'aym, Urwa ibn Abd Allah, Musa al-Juhani, Nafi ibn Abi Nu'aym, and others. Reports associated with her include the Hadith of Position through Asma bint Umays and another report attributed through Ali. Al-Mizzi also notes that Ibn Hibban included her among reliable transmitters and that al-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah transmitted material from her.

Her marital history remains materially disputed. Ibn Sa'd's al-Tabaqat al-Kubra and Muhammad ibn Habib's al-Muhabbar name Muhammad ibn Abi Sa'id ibn Aqil as her first husband and identify Hamida as their daughter. In contrast, the report of al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar quoted by al-Mizzi, together with al-Majdi, names Abu Sa'id ibn Aqil. Later marriages to Sa'id ibn al-Aswad and then al-Mundhir ibn Ubayda ibn al-Zubayr are also reported. Because Abu Sa'id and Muhammad ibn Abi Sa'id are distinct identifications and the early sources do not agree, the blank documented marriage details were not altered.

In the historical narrative following Karbala in 61 AH, Fatima bint Ali appears among the women brought before Yazid. Al-Tabari preserves through Abu Mikhnaf, al-Harith ibn Ka'b, and Fatima bint Ali the report in which a Syrian man requested her and her elder sister Zaynab forcefully rejected the demand. This is important evidence for her presence in the post-Karbala ordeal, but it is presented within the limits of that transmitted chain rather than as independently corroborated contemporary documentation.

Musa al-Juhani reported meeting her when she said she was 86 years old. Al-Mizzi states that Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari dated her death to 117 AH. Because the date of the meeting at age eighty-six is not specified, no exact birth year has been calculated from that number. The circumstances of her death are also not preserved in detail.

Reliable early evidence does not establish her particular grave or burial place. Her historical significance lies in joining three areas of memory: the genealogy of Ali's household, women's participation in hadith transmission, and the experience of the Ahl al-Bayt after Karbala. Her profile also illustrates why namesakes, disputed marriages, and single transmitted chains must be stated openly rather than converted into later certainty.