As emblems deployed by medieval authors for comic relief, to substantiate miracles, and to correct moral failings, certain riding beasts have been instrumental to the construction of early Islamic history and have even attained celebrity status. These venerated mounts—from Muhammad's talking donkey, Yaʿfur, to his five mares that spawned the legend of the Arabian horse—expose the literary threads weaving together history and myth and the steps taken to glorify the time of the Prophet.Footnote 1 But riding beasts serving prophets and early Islamic heroes were more than passive objects; they were historical actors integral to the narrative of Muslim conquest.
A beloved she-mule, the hybrid offspring of a mare and a donkey, Duldul emerges in the pages of the literature of Arab conquests and accounts of Muhammad's life and sayings. Duldul, meaning “porcupine” in Arabic, was the Prophet's mount. She then served ʿAli b. Abi Talib (d. 661), fourth caliph and Muhammad's son-in-law. After decades of faithful service, Duldul died in a grove of trees sometime during the reign of the first Umayyad ruler Muʿawiya (r. 661–80). Beginning in early Islamic accounts, Duldul's status is illustrious. Tales of the she-mule are even found in the celebrated Arabian Nights. “Tell me of five that are in Paradise and are neither humans, jinns nor angels,” said a court philosopher. The slave-girl Tawaddud replied, ‘Jacob's wolf and the Seven Sleepers’ dog and Esdras's ass and Salih's camel and Duldul the mule of the Prophet (upon whom be blessings and peace!).’”Footnote 2
Just what was so appealing about a she-mule named Duldul? How has the figure of Duldul shaped the medieval Muslim imagination? To address these questions, this article first analyzes three literary genres: maghāzī (narratives of the Muslim conquest), hadith (sayings and traditions of Muhammad), and sīra (biographical information), which detail Duldul and her role in early Islamic history. The second section explores medieval attitudes toward Duldul and she-mules in general, drawing largely from the prolific Abbasid writer al-Jahiz (d. 868) and extending to the Mamluk writer al-Damiri (d. 1405). Shared by the Prophet and the Imam, Duldul took part in important moments of conquest and civil war. I argue that Duldul signified political succession and became a tool of legitimation to navigate an emergent Shiʿa-Sunni rift. The she-mule's historical and legendary persona became a literary measure and countermeasure for laying claim to the memory of Muslim conquests, providing a lens into the relationship between hadith construction and Shiʿa-Sunni polemics. By taking riding beasts like Duldul seriously as historical actors, we can gain deeper insight into sectarian disputes of Muhammad's legacy in medieval Islamic society.
Animals as Actors
Renewed interest in studying the “animal turn” has inspired a wave of scholarship uncovering the limits and liminalities of animal-human relationships.Footnote 3 Susan Nance, in The Historical Animal, captures the difficult questions that historians face when reading accounts of animals, two of which are pertinent to the study of Duldul. First, how we can use sources to properly historicize animal actors; and second, is it possible to recognize animals as “factors of causation” in history?Footnote 4 The first question exposes the blind spots that have persisted in historical analysis, for animals undoubtedly played a part in the shaping of early Islamic history and yet have been relegated to an inferior status. To omit animal subjects from the historical narrative is, in and of itself, a methodological and political decision; an act for which Nance rightly takes us to task. By recognizing animals as “factors of causation” we can better explain transitions of political, economic, social, and ecological power in society.Footnote 5
Previous studies of animals in Islam largely have focused on medieval Arabic veterinary treatises, hunting manuals, books of falconry, and animal fables.Footnote 6 Scholarship on the study of horses, ants, and postal pigeons reveals a more recent push to investigate medieval historical views toward specific species.Footnote 7 Such investigations yield remarkable insights into premodern social systems of animal care, health, and administrative use. Richard Bulliet's ambitious study The Camel and the Wheel centered the camel as a historical actor and a viable economic competitor with the wheel. Bulliet tasked readers with investigating the social, economic, and military role of the camel and sparked a series of one-humped and double-humped histories.Footnote 8 Some scholars have pressed for environmental histories that undertake a cross-species approach. Such work has exposed a rich cultural tapestry of human and animal relationships.Footnote 9 Housni Alkhateeb Shehada, in his comprehensive study of medieval Islamic baytara (veterinary medicine) titled Mamluks and Animals, traces both Mamluk veterinary science and the social, political, and cultural frames that shaped Mamluk veterinary writing.Footnote 10 Decidedly not a species-specific approach, his book nevertheless reminds us of the importance of reading animals as historical actors, as premodern historical authors saw them.
More recent anthropological forays into the entangled realities of human and nonhuman beings propose novel ways of rethinking representations of the self. Edwardo Kohn calls for an “anthropology beyond the human” to interrogate the complex relationships between human and animal.Footnote 11 To study how humans and animals interrelate requires us to rethink the ways that we, in turn, animate or de-animate the actions of animals.Footnote 12 Evaluating how we pattern animal behavior by using human frames of reference raises the troubling idea that our representations might reflect more about ourselves than about animals. Intentionally or not, humans endow animals with agency and identity, generating a sense of connection in personal and meaningful ways. Relatedness denotes an intimacy with animals that, whether loving, indifferent, or hostile, inscribes an affective experience.Footnote 13 Interrogating our own animal subjectivities reflects a broader social desire to understand ourselves, a process of self-discovery through human-animal relations that also can be found in medieval Islamic historical writing.
Although the premier Abbasid belletrist, al-Jahiz, devoted an entire treatise to the mule, modern literary studies have overlooked Duldul. On the other hand, previous scholarship has addressed the practice and prevalence of mule breeding in the late antique Near East. As Albert Leighton shows, Jewish prohibitions toward mule breeding practices stemmed from a religious anxiety over hybridity: a cross-species union viewed as contrary to nature that produces a sterile offspring.Footnote 14 But the mule was sturdier than a donkey and less prone to disease than a horse, traits that encouraged the spread of mule breeding practices across the Roman Empire. Roman legal debates over property assessments and commercial transactions for animals riddled with defects or sterility resulting from interspecies coupling did not extend to the mule, since castration, according to Roman jurists, did not impede the mule's stamina or work output, for he was already unable to procreate.Footnote 15 Similar to the vulgarity of the donkey in Roman literature, an unrefined character incompatible with the horse (an animal arousing more aristocratic sensibilities), the mule represented a banality mirroring the lower classes.Footnote 16 And yet ecclesiastical authorities rode on mules in ceremonial displays, a tradition dating back to when Solomon sat on King David's mule.Footnote 17 The paradox of the mule and she-mule, creatures beholden to baser instincts although identified in biblical tradition as the humble mounts of prophets, also appears in the writings of al-Jahiz.Footnote 18
For al-Jahiz, man is a microcosmic reflection of the world and thus can embody multiple animal representations: “in him are the shapes of all kinds of animals.”Footnote 19 The ability of man to imitate the braying of a donkey, for example, reveals an intersectionality between man and animal where beastly rhetoric can be interpreted, performed, and made human. Al-Jahiz conflates the physical resemblances (and, in some cases, the personality traits) between man and animal.Footnote 20 The 10th-century philosopher al-Tawhidi (d. 1023), drawing largely on al-Jahiz's Kitab al-Hayawan (The Book of the Animal), writes that the “morals of many types of animals are in accordance with the nature of people.”Footnote 21 For some medieval Muslim intellectuals and poets, physical likeness with a particular animal could be a manifestation of a similarity in interior state.Footnote 22 Medieval Muslim authors such as al-Jahiz and al-Tawhidi sought to capture the kinship between man and animal, a relationship that could be deciphered by man, who despite humans’ elevated status exhibits a range of animal resemblances.
Some Muslim scholars view animals as creatures with souls and posit that nonhuman animals will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment.Footnote 23 Perhaps the most famous and controversial Qurʾanic verse regarding nonhuman animals declares that “There is not an animal in the earth, nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are peoples like you” (Qurʾan 6:38). Nonhuman animals in the Qurʾan, referred to largely as dabba (pl. dawābb), not hayawān (pl. hayawānāt) which takes on the Qurʾanic meaning “true existence,” form a community and are afforded a certain respect, purpose, and position in the larger animal world.Footnote 24 Certain animals even carry blessings, and they should be treated with appropriate ethical consideration, especially with regard to charitable endowments, animal rights, and ritual slaughter. Thus, the killing of certain animals—such as bees, ants, frogs (their croaking is considered a form of praise to God), magpies, and hoopoes—is prohibited in Islam.Footnote 25
Animal ethics has been a pressing area of study for scholars Richard C. Foltz and Sarra Tlili, both of whom argue for a much-needed rethinking of humans’ relationship to animals.Footnote 26 For the Qurʾanic exegetes Fakr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1210) and Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Qurtubi (d. 1273), the relative degree of mental complexity attributed to nonhuman animals was a matter of theological debate, a discussion that had an impact on the status of particular animals in relation to man and God.Footnote 27 For if anthropomorphized animals possess intelligence, rational faculties, and language, what does this tell us about medieval views of the animal world and the importance of man? As Tlili indicates, the lower status given to nonhuman animals has both religious and rational justifications, born out of a practical need to place animals within a proper inferior position.Footnote 28 Significant disagreement occurred among intellectuals such as the theologian Ahmad b. Habit (d. ca. 842–47) and the jurist Ibn Hazm (d. 1064) over the position of nonhuman animals as religious and moral subjects.Footnote 29 This was a line of theological inquiry unsettled by the perplexing notion that nonhuman animals may have more mental faculties than humans give them credit for, a degree of subjectivity that becomes increasingly apparent in the case of the she-mule.
Duldul in Early Islamic Tradition
According to the historian al-Tabari (d. 923), Duldul was the white (sometimes gray) she-mule (baghla) given to Muhammad by the Egyptian administrator al-Muqawqis in the year 628.Footnote 30 Citing the earlier Muslim historian and biographer of Muhammad, al-Waqidi (d. 823), al-Tabari writes that, “Hatib b. Abi Baltaʿa returned from al-Muqawqis with Mariya, her sister Sirin, his she-mule Duldul, his donkey Yaʽfur, and garments.”Footnote 31 Soon after, the sisters converted to Islam and Duldul became “the mule of the Prophet, the first she-mule seen in Islam, given to the Prophet by al-Muqawqis . . . and the she-mule survived until the time of Muʿawiya.”Footnote 32 The origin of al-Muqawqis in the Islamic and Coptic traditions has been a matter of debate. The name al-Muqawqis corresponds to the Melkite Patriarch Cyrus who resided in Alexandria in 631, although this interpretation has been challenged in more recent scholarship.Footnote 33 Upon receiving one of Muhammad's earliest delegations, al-Muqawqis replied with various gifts, including Duldul and two Coptic concubines: Mariya and Sirin.
Most medieval Muslim historians, relying on al-Waqidi's report, preserve a similar version of al-Muqawqis either gifting or transporting Duldul to Muhammad in 628; whereas a few indicate that Farwa b. ʿAmr al-Judhami, a 7th-century Muslim convert and governor of Maʿn (a city in southern Jordan), presented the she-mule to the Prophet.Footnote 34 Al-Waqidi offers two chains of transmission, from Musa b. Muhammad b. Ibrahim (d. ca. 767–77) and Abu Bakr b. ʿAbd Allah b. Abi Sabra (d. 779), that identify Duldul as a present gifted by al-Muqawqis and another she-mule named Fidda gifted by Farwa b. ʿAmr al-Judhami.Footnote 35 On the other hand, al-Zuhri (d. 741), an Arab Qurayshi transmitter of hadith who pioneered sīra-maghāzī literature and historiography of Muhammad, claims that it was Farwa b. ʿAmr al-Judhami who gifted Duldul.Footnote 36 In spite of the fact that al-Zuhri was renowned for his memorization skills and expert reporting of hadith, most medieval Muslim historians accepted al-Waqidi's version.Footnote 37 The main discrepancy in al-Zuhri's report may lie with Maʿmar ibn Rashid (d. 770), a Basran scholar and a favored student of al-Zuhri's, whose reliability has been questioned by modern historians.Footnote 38
The conflicting aspects of Duldul's origin story in al-Waqidi's and al-Zuhri's narratives underscore the (dis)continuities found in maghāzī and hadith scholarship, two genres with different epistemological aims. Hadith collections can differ substantially in their maghāzī materials—in method, style of reporting, and content—to reflect the historiographical aspirations of their compilers.Footnote 39 Acknowledging both al-Waqidi's and al-Zuhri's reports, the Syrian hadith expert al-Dhahabi (d. 1348) provides an explanation for the confusion over who gifted Duldul. “One of the she-mules was from al-Muqawqis, gray, and he calls her Duldul, with a donkey he calls ʿUfayr, and a she-mule he calls her Fidda, and she was one of the she-mules from Farwa b. ʿAmr al-Judhami, with a donkey he calls Yaʿfur.”Footnote 40 Al-Dhahabi reconciles the misunderstanding over who gifted Duldul, for both al-Muqawqis and Farwa b. ʿAmr al-Judhami bestowed she-mules to Muhammad, but introduces another issue over who gifted Yaʿfur and ʿUfayr, two donkeys with strikingly similar names.
Al-Waqidi preserves several accounts of Muhammad astride a she-mule when God and the Ansar (“helpers” from Medina) crushed the polytheists who controlled the Kaʿba. But it is the Battle of Hunayn (630) that marked Duldul as a riding beast instrumental to early Muslim success in warfare. Al-Waqidi clarifies that at a critical moment in the battle—when the polytheists seemingly gained an upper hand and Muslim forces feared an imminent assault—Muhammad calmly ordered Duldul to sit on the ground. He then grabbed a fistful of dust and cast it toward the faces of the enemy, thereby achieving victory.Footnote 41 The stirring account of Muslims triumphing against all odds, a victory achieved through Duldul's battlefield aptitude and calm, attests to the role that the she-mule played in early Muslim warfare. Following this battle, some of Muhammad's companions, such as his paternal uncle al-ʿAbbas b. ʿAbd al-Muttalib (d. 653) and the second caliph ʿUmar b. al-Khattab (d. 644), also rode Duldul.Footnote 42 Literary attention to the revered companions that rode Muhammad's she-mule adds to the charisma of the riding beast and the respect shown for her service to the Prophet. After Muhammad's death, Duldul served ʿAli and joined him on military campaigns.
The Twelver Shiʿi theologian Shaykh al-Mufid (d. 1022), in Kitab al-Irshad (Book of Guidance), a text extolling Shiʿa elite who conversed with wild animals and were saved by their mounts, records the miraculous acts performed by ʿAli while riding Duldul. Heading toward Siffin to battle Muʿawiya, ʿAli led his beleaguered troops in the direction of Mecca in search of water and uncovered a wellspring underneath some rock.Footnote 43 Shaykh al-Mufid's account substantiates ʿAli's rightful succession to Muhammad: only “a prophet or the testamentary trustee of a prophet” could have found the wellspring's exact location.Footnote 44 Again, after the Euphrates had overflowed to the point of endangering Kufan residents, ʿAli rode on the she-mule of Muhammad and through God's assistance reduced the floodwaters.Footnote 45 The Shiʿi scholar Sharif al-Radi (d. 1015) similarly details ʿAli's rescue of Kufan residents while on Muhammad's she-mule.Footnote 46 Although Shaykh al-Mufid and Sharif al-Radi do not specify the she-mule's name, according to Shiʿi hadith, ʿAli was entrusted with Duldul's care after Muhammad's death and reportedly rode Duldul in the Battle of the Camel (656) and the Battle of Siffin (657).Footnote 47
Yet, other medieval Muslim writers present slightly different versions of ʿAli's inheritance of Duldul. In Kitab al-Qawl fi al-Bighal (Book of Sayings about the Mules), al-Jahiz details the seizure of a gray she-mule at the battle of Nahrawan (658):
ʿAli b. Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) frequently rode on the gray she-mule of ʿAbd Allah b. Wahhab which he captured [ghanima] on the day of Nahrawan. This is the saying of the Shiʿa and others [who] deny that ʿAli oversaw the looting of possessions from the property of Muslims just as he did not seize wealth from the companions [at the Battle of] the Camel.Footnote 48
Al-Jahiz mentions Duldul's name in the preceding sentence and clarifies that Muhammad rode this same she-mule on the Day of Hunayn (630).Footnote 49 Thus, ʿAbd Allah b. Wahhab's gray she-mule taken by ʿAli is none other than Duldul. The seizure of the she-mule is a polemical point. A notoriously controversial writer, al-Jahiz paints a disparaging picture of ʿAli taking Duldul from ʿAbd Allah b. Wahhab by reasoning that ʿAli would seize anything, even from other Muslims and warriors at the Battle of the Camel. More importantly, al-Jahiz discloses that ʿAli had captured the she-mule as booty at the Battle of Nahrawan, which occurred roughly a year after the Battle of Siffin. This chronology raises doubts over ʿAli's inheritance of Duldul after Muhammad's death. If ʿAli had not obtained Duldul until the Battle of Nahrawan, that undermines the Shiʿi tradition of ʿAli riding Duldul at the Battles of the Camel and Siffin.
Al-Jahiz was not the only 9th-century scholar to question ʿAli's direct inheritance of Duldul. Al-Tirmidhi (d. 898), Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (d. 875), al-Bukhari (d. 870), and others recount that Duldul was one of three items Muhammad left to an inheritor after his death—the other two being his armor and the land—however none explicitly names the she-mule's inheritor.Footnote 50 On the other hand, other 9th-century Muslim historians infer that ʿAli inherited Duldul directly from Muhammad. Ibn Saʿd (d. 845) mentions that ʿAli rode the white she-mule of Muhammad, suggesting that ʿAli inherited Duldul.Footnote 51 The historian al-Baladhuri (d. 892) also observes that ʿAli rode the gray she-mule of Muhammad but does not specify Duldul's name; a common practice, as the identification baghla shahbā’ (gray she-mule) often referred to Duldul.Footnote 52 Confusion over the proper identification of Duldul is largely a result of how medieval Muslim writers signified Duldul by just using the descriptor “gray she-mule” or conceived of a second she-mule entirely.Footnote 53 Despite this inconsistency, the more widely accepted tradition follows that Duldul and baghla shahbā’ are one and the same.
Other 9th-century hadith specialists considered Duldul a vehicle representing the transmission of caliphal authority. Ibn Abi Shaybah (d. 849) narrates that ʿAli “was the owner [ṣāḥib] of the gray she-mule,” and then adds, “like Muʿawiya.”Footnote 54 In a report originating from Suhayl b. Abi Salih (d. 755), a controversial Medinese transmitter, the description of Muʿawiya as the final recipient of Duldul is a politicized account that colors Duldul's Umayyad inheritance.Footnote 55 Early Islamic reports of Duldul's ownership after ʿAli's death do not explicitly indicate Muʿawiya's possession of the she-mule; rather, they state only that the she-mule survived until the time of Muʿawiya.Footnote 56 Ibn Abi Shaybah, on the other hand, identifies ʿAli and then Muʿawiya as the inheritors of Duldul, linking the ownership of this she-mule to the path of political succession. The hadith scholar and Abbasid judge Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) also conveys Duldul's role as reflecting the transmission of political authority. Ibn Qutayba identifies ʿAli's inheritance of Duldul after the Battle of Hunayn, since ʿAli and ʿAbbas b. ʿAbd al-Muttalib “took ownership of Muhammad's she-mule.”Footnote 57 Ibn Qutayba's added mention of ʿAbbas b. ʿAbd al-Muttalib, a figure instrumental to the dynastic authority of the Abbasids, is a reference to the Abbasids as the final, symbolic inheritors of Duldul. The connections made between Duldul, ʿAli, Muʿawiya, and ʿAbbas b. ʿAbd al-Muttalib demonstrate that 9th-century scholars like Ibn Abi Shaybah and Ibn Qutayba began to view Muhammad's she-mule as a tool of political legitimation for gaining control over the narrative of early caliphal succession.
Naturally, such an unfavorable presentation of ʿAli in al-Jahiz's narrative over Duldul's disputed inheritance would have outraged Shiʿa scholars. Writing less than a century after al-Jahiz, the prominent Shiʿi hadith compiler Shaykh al-Saffar al-Qummi (d. 903) clarifies that, “The Messenger of God (Peace and Blessings upon him) left behind the properties of a sword, armor, a goat, a male servant and a gray she-mule . . . so ʿAli b. Abi Talib inherited all of this.”Footnote 58 The Shiʿi hadith compiler al-Kulayni (d. 941) likewise defends ʿAli's direct inheritance of Duldul from Muhammad: “the Prophet left behind the goods, a sword, armor . . . and his gray she-mule. So ʿAli b. Abi Talib inherited all of this.”Footnote 59 A distinguished ʿAlid litterateur employed by the Buyid court, al-Sharif al-Radi, also verifies ʿAli's direct inheritance of Duldul in a report transmitted on the authority of al-Hasan b. ʿAli (d. ca. 669–70). ʿAli reportedly told his son, “The Messenger of God assigned to me his she-camel al-ʿAdbaʾ, horse al-Murtajaz, she-mule, donkey, and sword Dhu-l-Faqar.”Footnote 60 The Shiʿi tradition of ʿAli inheriting Duldul and Muhammad's famed double-edged sword Dhu-l-Faqar had a political aim: both the she-mule and the sword, emblems embodying military might and political legitimacy, signified ʿAli's inheritance of Muhammad's legacy and rule.Footnote 61
The 10th-century Shiʿi hadith compiler Ibn Babawayh (d. 991) also strengthens the association between Duldul and ʿAli in a report transmitted on the authority of Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ansari (d. 697), a companion of the Prophet. On the night of ʿAli and Fatima's wedding, Muhammad went to their house and “arrived on his gray she-mule and folded a velvet fabric over her and spoke to Fatima.”Footnote 62 The mention of Muhammad's she-mule is a surprising aspect of the account considering the chronology of Duldul's arrival. ʿAli and Fatima (Muhammad's daughter) married sometime in the year 624, roughly four years before Muhammad received Duldul as a gift. If we are to believe that Duldul was the “first she-mule seen in Islam”—a detail found consistently across numerous reports—then, according to Ibn Babawayh, Duldul was somehow present at this marriage that cemented ʿAli's close familial connection to Muhammad.Footnote 63 Regardless of the questionable timeline, Ibn Babawayh's inclusion of the gray she-mule, presumably Duldul, at this pivotal union adds a richness to the Shiʿi tradition of the she-mule's connection to her inheritor, ʿAli.
Other 11th-century historians corroborate hadith accounts of Duldul as the main (if not only) she-mule that belonged to ʿAli. The Sunni hadith scholar Abu Nuʿaym al-Isbahani (d. 1038) clearly identifies Duldul as the she-mule of ʿAli. Citing an eyewitness account, al-Isbahani records the observations of the Shiʿi hadith transmitter Dawud b. Sulayman (a companion of Imam al-Rida). While at the outskirts of Kufa with his father, Dawud b. Sulayman sees “a bald shaykh on a she-mule. My father was saying, ‘She is Duldul.’ The people had surrounded the shaykh, and I said, ‘Oh father, who is this?’ He said, ‘This is the King of Kings of the Arabs. This is ʿAli b. Abi Talib.’”Footnote 64 Despite using hadith to debate Imami Shiʿi claims that ʿAli should have been the first caliph instead of Abu Bakr, Abu Nuʿaym's biographical works greatly influenced 10th- and 11th-century Shiʿi hadith compilers.Footnote 65 What is apparent from the compilations of Shaykh al-Saffar al-Qummi, al-Kulayni, al-Sharif al-Radi, and al-Isbahani is a concerted effort to classify ʿAli as the sole and direct inheritor of Duldul.
Why were some medieval historians and hadith compilers so concerned with the inheritance of this she-mule? A chief reason lies with Duldul's authoritative role in constructing a particular historical narrative of early Islam. When ʿAli received Duldul from Muhammad, this represented a declaration to his followers that ʿAli was the rightful successor and a continuation of the legacy of the prophets. A symbol of religious and political legitimacy for Shiʿi writers and apologists, Duldul became a literary foil against the efforts of some 9th-century Sunni writers to question the she-mule's inheritance and, by extension, the claim of the ʿAlids. Moreover, as a riding beast conferring authority, Duldul is a lens through which we can see the competing political drives of Abbasid and early Buyid writers. The literary project of 10th- and 11th-century hadith specialists to clarify ʿAli's direct inheritance of Duldul reflects the patronage of the Buyids who provided financial support and political protection to encourage Shiʿi scholarship. Tied to the political expansion of the Buyids, the network of 10th- to 11th-century scholars like al-Kulayni, Ibn Babawayh, Shaykh al-Mufid, and Shaykh Tusi led to the blossoming of Shiʿi theological doctrine and, in turn, more control over the historical narrative. As a historical subject, Duldul reflects more broadly the literary strategies of Shiʿi apologists to affirm and defend an ʿAlid political history.
Second, Duldul's battlefield calm on the Day of Hunayn marked the she-mule's ability in warfare. For each time Duldul rode into war she contributed to some form of military accomplishment. Although the Battle of Siffin was arguably not considered a success since arbitration with Muʿawiya embittered many of ʿAli's followers, the episode nevertheless illustrated ʿAli's rightful possession of Duldul at a pivotal crossroad in ʿAlid history. Duldul was not just a riding beast of Muhammad and ʿAli; the she-mule embodied the transmission of political authority, becoming a prominent pawn for intrareligious competition. Perhaps that explains why the Mamluk historian al-Dhahabi appears to have contested ʿAli's direct inheritance of Duldul following Muhammad's death. Al-Dhahabi states that the first caliph Abu Bakr had been gifted Duldul.Footnote 66 He evidently recognized Duldul as a tool substantiating political and religious authority; therefore, Duldul belonged to Abu Bakr who had succeeded Muhammad. The need to clarify Duldul's inheritance continued to bother premodern historians like al-Dhahabi, illustrating the abiding legacy and historical role of Duldul in confirming political succession in the early Islamic historical narrative.
Medieval Attitudes Toward Duldul and She-mules
Although Duldul was Islam's “first she-mule”—a uniqueness that elevated her status among the riding beasts of Muhammad—she was one of several mules gifted to Muhammad as a recognition of the authority of Islam.Footnote 67 As Michael Bonner has shown, the gifting of riding beasts was integral to Muhammad's military campaigns. The example of Tabuk (630) underscores the importance of gift giving, for many members of the Muslim community were able to participate in this expedition only through the generous contribution of riding animals, weapons, and supplies.Footnote 68 Outside of this more practical function, gift giving also can bestow religious blessings, social status, and loyalty. Muhammad passed down several gifts that, by nature of their close connection to the Prophet, were commodities imbued with spiritual currency. Prized inanimate gifts establish political and spiritual ties that can last and accrue value over time. As an economic object, the she-mule could not be passed down from generation to generation; for unlike a robe or a shroud, animals die.Footnote 69 This made the dispute over Duldul's direct inheritor all the more significant; even though she-mules can live well into their thirties and forties, a finite lifespan demanded an urgency for a deserving recipient of Muhammad's mount.
Despite Duldul becoming a battle-hardened she-mule, her value as a gift might be less than a horse or donkey because the she-mule is a hybrid species unable to reproduce. Property appraisals of nonhuman animals—purpose (military or commercial) and biological well-being (age, health, and gender)—factored into the assessment of gifts and zakat (charity).Footnote 70 The product of an unnatural coupling of a mare and a donkey, the she-mule did not possess a true ancestry; a detail that adds to Duldul's uniqueness. However, the ability to produce offspring was a trait considered crucial to the assessment and value of livestock. Regardless of the anxieties over animal sterility and hybridity raised in Islamic legal discourse on ritual purity, gift giving, and food consumption, the she-mule was a preferred mount ridden during the Muslim conquests because of the historical precedent and success established by Duldul.
Duldul played a small yet unequivocal role in the knowledge production surrounding Muhammad's life, and medieval Muslims declared enduring respect for her. As a tool in the production of cultural memory, Duldul expressed a historical personality that medieval readers could engage with, recognize, and perhaps even covet. Admiration for Duldul compelled some Muslims to purchase a similar looking she-mule of their own. The Hanafi scholar Ibn al-Jassas (d. 981) confessed, “I seek a she-mule like the she-mule of the Prophet and I will even call her Duldul.”Footnote 71 Reminiscing over the glory of the Muslim conquests drove Abu Saʿid (d. 1049), a poet and mystic living in Nishapur, to lament the current state of affairs and exclaim, “Where is his she-mule Duldul, where is his sword al-Samsama, where is Muhammad's outer garment [burda] and dress [ḥulla], where has his people's [desire to] give support and nourishment gone?”Footnote 72 Abu Saʿid admonishes Muslim greed and abandonment of charitable virtues, and lists Duldul first among Muhammad's prized possessions. His criticism of the 11th-century Muslim community rests on Duldul's role as a yardstick measuring moral decline. Ibn al-Jassas's desire to own a noble steed like Duldul and Abu Saʿid's condemnation of his contemporary Muslim community both demonstrate that Duldul continued to shape the medieval Muslim social imagination well after her death.
Al-Jahiz, in his treatise on mules, best captures Duldul's good fortune and renown for her involvement in Muslim intrareligious warfare. He preserves a comment made by Ibn Abi ʿAtiq (grandson of first caliph Abu Bakr) to ʿAʾisha (wife of Muhammad): “By God, we did not wash our heads on the day of the camel, so how is it not ‘the day of the mule!’”Footnote 73 The Day or Battle of the Camel occurred between ʿAʾisha and ‘Ali over caliphal succession in the year 656. “We did not wash our heads” signifies the loss of the battle to ‘Ali, but the more intriguing end of the statement humorously challenges the name of the battle, for ‘Ali won while astride a she-mule whereas his vanquished antagonist rode a camel. Al-Jahiz presents Ibn Abi ʿAtiq's comedic assertion to underscore the she-mule's vital role in early Muslim campaigns (Fig. 1).
‘Ali b. Abi Talib riding Duldul (upper right) at the Battle of the Camel. Inayatullah al-katib al-Shirazi / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Purchase — Smithsonian Unrestricted Trust Funds, Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, S1986.238.
Drawing from maghāzī materials and sīra, al-Jahiz provides a social history and biography of the she-mule: a compilation of historic deeds and sayings associated with the esteemed mount of Muhammad and his companions. He pairs endorsements of the she-mule's subtleties of power with witty aphorisms and poems addressing the nature of her relationship with man. His treatise begins with a description of the she-mule's commendable aspects:
The best is her conduct, well-tempered character, and bold commands in which secrecy is her essence. Her outer appearance has humility, her behavior has advantages, and her nimble gait of movement is firmly fixed and destined. Since the distinguished nobles’ [ashrāf] affection remains in connection with her, simultaneously greater still are those who allege her defects. When they reported in her a lasting purity of character, how is there an apparent surplus of shortcoming in her? How do they forgive what is odious about her, while finding peculiarities concealed in her? Until man outgrows them, the moralist searches her for as al-Saʿdi said, “Brother of mine, as the days of life end . . . species are colored by happenstance; If a characteristic became insignificant, then it would leave the species . . . while a characteristic is driven away from me, there remains no defect in her.”Footnote 74
An entirely misunderstood creature, the she-mule remains an enigma for man who, paradoxically, has valued her many esteemed traits yet continues to find cause to malign her. Al-Jahiz remains confounded by the many who appear to underestimate the she-mule, as she is a riding beast well respected by the elite nobles of early Islam. In addition, the poetic reflection of al-Saʿdi points to the perfection found in the she-mule, a riding beast that has retained her best qualities as man struggles to remove his defects.Footnote 75 For al-Jahiz, the she-mule has a reservoir of morally superior attributes for man to learn from.
Providing a source of entertainment for the 9th-century audience, al-Jahiz weaves myth and history to valorize the she-mule who similarly attained mythic proportions. Reminiscent of the allegorical and didactic appeal found in al-Jahiz's treatise on mules, the epistle Tadaʿi al-Hayawanat ʿala al-Insan ʿinda Malik al-Jinn (The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn) composed by the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ (Brethren of Purity), an esoteric group of anonymous 10th-century litterateurs, illustrates the intelligence and subjectivity of the mule. Articulating a call for animal justice against their maltreatment by human oppressors, the mule serves as the representative for the beasts and avers the mistaken belief that animals are the unwitting slaves of man.Footnote 76 Even though the mule lost the case to the human representative—who argued that the virtuosity of saintly people (awliyaʾ) redeemed men—the sophisticated and satirical posturing of the mule illustrates the dynamic skills of mules beyond a mere utilitarian purpose.Footnote 77 A comparable argument can be found in Risalat al-Sahil wa-l-Shahij (Letter of a Horse and a Mule) by the Syrian poet al-Maʿarri (d. 1058). Voicing complaints to ʿAziz al-Dawla (governor of Aleppo, d.1022), a mule draws on his noble lineage to Duldul to justify his claims: “Perhaps you don't know of al-Murtajaz or Khali or Duldul, from my family, or Yafur, my father or uncle?”Footnote 78 Tracing ancestry to Duldul, an infertile she-mule that attained recognition through her service to Muhammad, substantiated the mule's right to speak and challenge a human in al-Maʿarri's narrative.
Tales of talking mules have more than just entertainment value. For the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ, the mule's eloquent speech offered a measure of anonymity for the authors when critiquing humanity's shortcomings. The Qurʾanic exegete Ibn Kathir (d. 1373) notes the speech of certain animals (birds and ants), affirming that such language is not perceptible to man except in remarkable cases.Footnote 79 Evidence of humanlike abilities in riding animals can be found in numerous stories, from Muhammad's talking donkey Yaʿfur to Kaʿb b. al-Ashraf's (d. 624) donkey reprimanding his owner.Footnote 80 Medieval Muslim literary fascination with the speech and experiences of riding beasts conveys a reimaging of animal-human relations that looks beyond a rigid anthropocentric approach, conceiving of mules and she-mules as personable, opinionated creatures who are just as involved in choosing their riders as their riders are in choosing them. Both al-Jahiz and the Ikhwan al-Safaʾ present she-mules and mules as historical counterparts to man, and agents with their own moral and rational faculties. From an anecdote provided by al-Jahiz, the Arab general and insurrectionist ʿAbd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. al-Ashath (d. 704) explains that a she-mule has a keen nose for the many sins of men and women. Had the wife of Ibn al-Ashath's friend committed adultery, his friend's perceptive she-mule would surely have been aware of the indiscretion and escaped.Footnote 81 Al-Jahiz presents a she-mule as an intelligent creature with an ethical impulse that allows her to assess the morality of men and women.
For al-Jahiz, the uniqueness of Duldul lies both with her miraculous appearance in early Islam and her feminine nature. Conveying her extraordinary status, al-Jahiz writes that God “did not bring her for purchase nor inheritance nor a gift of surrender.”Footnote 82 Essentially, Duldul's arrival was a fortuitous event that did not happen under quotidian circumstances. In addition, al-Jahiz underscores her gender: “none of the mounts was a mule, rather it was a she-mule of the Prophet, a gift from al-Muqawqis, and Muhammad accepted her with affection [al-taʾaluf].”Footnote 83 Al-Jahiz's attention to Duldul's gender raises a question that he does not answer: why did Muhammad prefer a she-mule for battle rather than a mule? Duldul's feminine nature is an intrinsic aspect of her historical identity as a companion serving Muhammad. Although al-Jahiz does not fully explain why a she-mule remained a preferred mount, later premodern zoological writers provide a reason for the valorization of she-mules in early Muslim warfare.
In the comprehensive animal lexicon Hayat al-Hayawan al-Kubra (The Great Book on Animal Life), the Mamluk scholar al-Damiri explains why she-mules were more adept for war. Citing the jurist al-Nawawi (d. 1277), al-Damiri affirms that Muhammad “rode the she-mule into battle, the answer for this [decision] was to fulfill his prophethood and his courage.”Footnote 84 Unlike the she-mule, the mule's attitude (haiʾa) was not suited to military conflict: male mules “were riding mounts of peace and security not of war and fear [fī salam wa-amn lā fī ḥarb wa-khawf].”Footnote 85 Based on al-Damiri's view, Duldul's feminine gender conferred an instinctive aptitude for battle, a characteristic absent in male mules, that made her the ideal mount for Muhammad.
In addition to the symbolism of early Islamic success that accompanies riding a she-mule, there is mystery surrounding her origins and natural ability. Al-Damiri's fascination with unusual events, such as the birth of a she-mule from a black breeding mare and a white mule (generally a sterile animal), denotes a literary appreciation for the she-mule that appears throughout his text.Footnote 86 Describing early ʿAlids, hadith scholars, maghāzī writers, and notable jurists who rode she-mules while accomplishing historic deeds, al-Damiri demonstrates how the she-mule became entwined in the destinies of prominent Muslims living in the early Islamic period.Footnote 87 Al-Damiri shares an unmistakable appreciation for Duldul, describing her role carrying Muhammad in the Battle of Hunayn, the special care she received once her fighting days had ended, and her death in a grove of trees during Muʿawiya's reign.Footnote 88 He also directly compares Duldul's color to the brilliant whiteness of Buraq, a mythologized composite creature who assisted Muhammad on the night journey (isrāʾ).Footnote 89 Both Duldul and Buraq possessed a hybridity that endowed each of them with extraordinary abilities. Just as riding Buraq served to signify Muhammad's prophetic power, possessing Duldul reflected the transmission of political authority and control over the narrative of the Muslim conquest.Footnote 90
Conclusion
Duldul was given a name, an identity, and a memory, cultural and literary vestiges that attest to her enduring hold over the medieval Muslim imagination. Part of Duldul's distinctive appeal as a mount for Muhammad lay in her aptitude and calm in warfare. Simultaneously a gendered female and a powerful war-steed, Duldul bravely carried both Muhammad and ʿAli into battle. Duldul's uniqueness as the first she-mule overshadows her inability to produce offspring; perhaps being unable to reproduce provided Duldul with a martial advantage. For as al-Damiri indicates, she-mules rather than mules were better equipped for the strains and toils of war. Both al-Jahiz and al-Damiri underscore the singular characteristics of the she-mule; whether it is an air of mystery endowed by a hybrid union or battlefield calm. Medieval admiration for Duldul illustrates how certain riding beasts had individuality and intelligence that shaped memories of early Muslim conquest and civil war.
Examining Duldul's role in reflecting the transmission of political authority enriches our understanding of the literary strategies that 9th- to 11th-century Muslim writers used to control the historical narrative of the Muslim conquests, contest and navigate an emergent Shiʿa-Sunni rift, and claim ownership over the memory of Muhammad and ʿAli. By viewing Duldul as a historical actor, we gain deeper insight into the legacy of the Prophet and Shiʿa-Sunni polemic, for both existed in a responsive and generative relationship. Showing how the inheritance of Duldul signified the transfer of political authority after Muhammad's death, this article has touched upon a broader literary appreciation for the admirable qualities of she-mules, creatures that matched or outmatched the integrity of man in early Muslim tradition. Furthermore, I have revealed the role that Duldul played in the construction of early Islamic political succession—a literary and historical agency that calls for a reinvestigation of named and beloved riding animals in early Islamic history.
Acknowledgments
I am thankful for the wonderful support and feedback I received from my dissertation advisor Dr. Leor Halevi. I would also like to thank Dr. David Wasserstein, Dr. Anand Taneja, and Dr. Brendan Goldman who helped me revise this article. The revision would not have been possible without the continued support of my colleague Mohammed Allehbi and the members of the Vanderbilt Islamic Studies seminar. I am also grateful for the editorial comments of Joel Gordon and the reviewers.
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