Arwa al-Sulayhi

Arwa bint Asma (Arabic: أروى بنت أحمد بن محمد بن جعفر بن موسى الصليحي الإسماعيلية‎‎ Arwa bint Asma Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Mūsá ṣ-Ṣulayḥī al-Ismā'īliyyah, c. 1048–1138, died 22nd Shaban, 532 AH) was the long-reigning ruler of Yemen, firstly through her first two husbands and then as sole ruler, from 1067 until her death in 1138. She was the greatest of the rulers of the Sulayhid Dynasty and was also the first woman to be accorded the prestigious title of hujja in the Isma'ili branch of Shia Islam, signifying her as the closest living image of God's will in her lifetime. She is popularly referred to as as-Sayyidah al-Ḥurrah "the Noble Lady" (السيدة الحرة), al-Malika al-Hurra "the Noble Queen" (الملكة الحرة al-Ḥurrātu l-Malikah) and the Little Queen of Sheba (ملكة سبأ الصغيرة Malikah Sabā' aṣ-Ṣaghīrah).

As female sovereign, Arwa al-Sulayhi has an almost unique position in history: though there were more female monarchs in the international Muslim world, Arwa al-Sulayhi and Asma bint Shihab were the only female monarchs in the Muslim Arab world to have had the khutba proclaimed in their name in the mosques as sovereigns.

Arwa was born in 440 Hijri, 1048 in Haraz, which was the heartland of Isma'ilism in Yemen. She was the niece of the then ruler of Yemen, Ali al-Sulayhi. Orphaned at a young age, she was brought up in the palace at Sana'a under the tutorship of her aunt, the formidable Asma bint Shihab, her mother in Law, co-ruler with, and wife of, Ali bin Muhammad. In 1066, at the age of 17, Arwa married her cousin Ahmad al-Mukarram bin Ali (bin Muhammad As Sulaihi), with the city of Aden as her mahr, and Queen Asma bint Shahab became her mother-in-law. Arwa assisted her mother-in-law and her husband after death of Ali al-Sulayhi. She had four children, Muhammed, Ali, Fatimah and Umm Hamdan.

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