The Tale of Princess Fatima Warrior Wom

Published in English for the first time and the only Arabic epic named for a woman The Tale of Princess Fatima recounts the thrilling adventures of a legendary medieval warrior universally known throughout the Middle East and long overdue to join world literature's pantheon of female heroes.. A Penguin Classic. A fearsome sword-slinging heroine who defeated countless men in stealth attacks on horseback Dhat al-Himma or Princess Fatima was secretly given away at birth because she wasn't male only to triumph as the most formidable warrior of her time. Known alternately as she-wolf woman of high resolve and calamity of the soul she lives on in this rousing narrative of female empowerment in which she leads armies of more than seventy thousand men in clashes between rival tribes and between Muslims and Christians; reconciles with her father after taking him prisoner; and fends off her infatuated cousin who challenges her to a battle for the right to marry her. Though her cousin suffers an ignominious defeat he impregnates Fatima against her will and when she gives birth to a Black son disowns his own son who also grows up to be a great warrior eventually avenging his mother's honor. The epic culminates in a showdown between Fatima and another formidable warrior woman and earns Fatima a place alongside the likes of Circe Mulan Wonder Woman Katniss Everdeen and other powerful women.