When she herself passed away, her husband Isḥāq ibn Jaʿfar resolved to convey her to the Prophet’s City, but the people of Egypt prevented him and asked that he leave her (1) with them. She was therefore buried in the very house where she had lived, in a quarter formerly known as Darb al-Sibāʿ, situated between today’s Old Cairo and Cairo proper. The whole neighborhood has since vanished; nothing remains there now except her grave.

Her death took place in the month of Ramaḍān of that same year, as Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Ibn Khallikān records in Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (2). He says:

“The people of Egypt venerate her—and do so to this very day. The common folk have gone to great lengths concerning her, uttering extravagant claims and many expressions that they should know are impermissible in such a context. Some even attribute her lineage to Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (3), though she is not of his descendants. What ought to be believed about her is the measure of righteousness befitting pious women of her rank. May Allah have mercy on her, ennoble her, and make Paradise her abode.”

Al-Faḍl ibn al-Rabīʿ (5) was the son of Yūnus ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Farwa Kaysān, a client of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. The downfall of the Barmakid family was accomplished at his hands. After their fall he was appointed vizier (6) to Hārūn al-Rashīd. He enjoyed great influence with the caliph, imitated the Barmakids to an extreme degree, and they, in turn, imitated (7) him. He continued to exert every effort against them until they were destroyed, as noted above (8).

Qāḍī Ibn Khallikān (9) relates that al-Faḍl once entered upon Yaḥyā ibn Khālid while Yaḥyā’s son Jaʿfar was signing documents before him. Al-Faḍl had with him ten petitions, yet not one of them was granted; for each he was met with some excuse. He gathered them together (10) and said, “Return, disappointed and abased!” Then he stood up, reciting: