Asma' bint Shihab al-Sulayhiyya

Asma' bint Shihab al-Sulayhiyya was one of the famous women of Yemen, wife of Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sulayhi, king of Yemen, and mother of his son King Ahmad al-Mukarram; the Friday sermon on Yemen's pulpits named her along with her husband, as Kahhala reports after al-Zirikli's al-A'lam. ¹

She went on pilgrimage with her husband in 459 or 458 AH; he was killed at Umm al-Duhaym, and his killer, Sa'id ibn Najah the Abyssinian, known as al-Ahwal, took her captive, set her in her litter and placed before it the heads of her husband and of a brother of his killed with him. ¹ She was held for eight months or a full year in Zabid, the two heads hanging before the window of her house, while her son al-Mukarram in San'a did not know where she was; when he learned of it he came with an army, defeated the Abyssinians, freed her, took down the heads and built a shrine over them. ¹

She returned with her son to San'a and died there. ¹ Arwa bint Ahmad al-Sulayhiyya, who married al-Mukarram and later became queen of Yemen, grew up in her care. ²

• Kahhala's entry follows al-Zirikli's al-A'lam and gives no date of death.