re: #126 wrenchwench

Wow, easy mistake to make. Same color hijab, little tiny photos, one different vowel…

A Little Hind History

You wouldn’t have wanted to cross their namesake, Hind bint Utbah. She was the wife of a powerful Meccan anmed Abu Sufyan who (previous to becoming Muslim) opposed Islam and fought against the Muslims.

Hind’s father, brother, and uncle were all killed in the Battle of Badr, in which the Muslims had defeated the Meccans. She vowed revenge and offered a reward for anyone who could bring her the heart of Hamza, who was believed to have been the man who killed her father & brother.

About a year later, during the Battle of Uhud at which Hind was present in a support capacity, her Ethiopian slave brought down Hamza with a javelin attack. It’s alleged that when Hamza fell she (or someone) cut open his corpse and ate his liver (or at least took a bite out of it). O_o

Moral of the story: You don’t wanna piss of a woman named Hind, heh.¹

Addendum: Hind and Abu Sufyan both eventually became Muslim. Years later, Hind’s son, Muawiya, had a falling out with Ali which ultimately resulted in the Sunni-Shia schism when Muawiyah’s son, Yazid, was held responsible for the death/martyrdom of Hussein (Ali’s son and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah) at the hands of his (Yazid’s) army during the Battle of Karbala (in Iraq). The Shia believe that it was Muawiya who was also responsible for the death of Hussein’s brother Hasan, who was poisoned. ²

Anyway, Muawiyah was eventually crowned Caliph (in 661) and established the Umayyad Caliphate, whose capital was… wait for it…Damascus!

Does anyone need a map to go with that? // As you can see, tensions & passions in places like Iraq & Syria go back nearly 1400 years, so we’re kinda in way over our heads no matter what we choose to do.

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1. I’m not 100% sure, but IIRC it might have been that incident that preceded the injunction against the mutilation of corpses.

2. It is alleged by the Shia that Muawiyah wanted the caliphate for his son Yazid and, because Hasan was seen as a competitor, incited one of Hasan’s wives to murder him by promising her that Yazid would marry her if she helped them. See Wikipedia for more info.

Update 6:30 ET/9:30 ET: Had to fix some typos & add a missing link. Please refresh your browser window to see them.