This work, based almost entirely on the primary Arabic texts of Sunni and Shica Islam, offers a fresh examination of the life of Fatima, Muhammad's only surviving child, and reveals for the first time her distinctive and fascinating personality.

The only child of Muhammad to survive him, Fatima was from early times taken up by Shi'a Islam, for whose adherents she is the virgin mother, the heavenly intercessor with untold power before God's throne, and the grieving mother of al-Husayn, the Shi'a's most important martyr. During her life she was impoverished and weak, neglected, marginalized, and divested of justice: but her reward in heaven comprises incalculable riches, all those in heaven will bow their heads to her, and her company will be the angels and the friends of God. Here, for the first time, her story is told.

When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Husayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muhammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or ginn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs' blood, was the Karbala' event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmidi, stellar pupil of al-Buhari, and Ibn 'Asakir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn Ta'us and Egyptian polymath al-Suyuti. But this was not Umm Salama's only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-Husayn's fate disturb her nights. This is their story.

When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Husayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muhammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or ginn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs' blood, was the Karbala' event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmidi, stellar pupil of al-Buhari, and Ibn 'Asakir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn Ta'us and Egyptian polymath al-Suyuti. But this was not Umm Salama's only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-Husayn's fate disturb her nights. This is their story.

As Abu 'Abd Allah al-Husayn, son of 'Ali and Fatima and grandson of Muhammad, moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbala', his sister Zaynab was drawn ever closer to the centre of the family of Muhammad, the 'people of the house' (ahl al-bayt). There she would remain for a few historic days, challenging the wickedness of the Islamic leadership, defending the actions of her brother, initiating the commemorative rituals, protecting and nurturing the new Imam, al-Husayn's son 'Ali b. al-Husayn b. 'Ali b. Abi Talib, until he could take his rightful place. This is her story.

The only child of Muhammad to survive him, Fatima was from early times taken up by Shi'a Islam, for whose adherents she is the virgin mother, the heavenly intercessor with untold power before God's throne, and the grieving mother of al-Husayn, the Shi'a's most important martyr. During her life she was impoverished and weak, neglected, marginalized, and divested of justice: but her reward in heaven comprises incalculable riches, all those in heaven will bow their heads to her, and her company will be the angels and the friends of God. Here, for the first time, her story is told.