Sayyida Nafisa

Sayyida Nafisa (d. 208 AH / 830 CE), the full name As-Sayyidah Nafīsah bint Amīr al-Muʾminīn Al-Ḥasan al-Anwar ibn Zayd al-Ablaj ibn Al-Hasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-ʿAlawiyyah al-Ḥasaniyyah, was a female descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and a scholar and teacher of Islam. Having taught Sunni Imam Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i, she is the best known female scholar of hadith in Egypt. Biography She was born in Mecca in about 762 CE, to Al-Hasan al-Anwar the son of Zayd al-Ablaj, son of Al-Hasan the grandson of Muhammad. She spent her later life in Cairo, where there is a mosque bearing her name. Marriage and career She married Is-ḥāq al-Muʾtamin, son of Ja'far al-Sadiq, himself a descendant of Muhammad. She emigrated with him from the Hejaz to Egypt. She had two children, a son named 'Qāsim' and a daughter named 'Umm Kulthūm'. Her students came from faraway places, and among them was Al-Shafi'i, the man behind the Shafi'i school of Sunni fiqh. She financially sponsored his education for him. Ibn Kathir in al-Bidayah wa al-nihayah reports about her the following statement: