| Native Name: | غزالة |
| Native Name Lang: | Arabic |
| Birth Place: | Mosul |
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Ghazāla (; died 696 AD near Kufa) was a leader of the Kharijite movement.
Ghazāla, born in Mosul, was the wife of Shabib ibn Yazid al-Shaybani. Shabib rebelled against Umayyad rule, and Ghazala was actively at his side. She commanded troops, following in the footsteps of previous Muslim women like Juwayriyya bint al-Ḥārith at the Battle of Yarmuk.
In one battle, she made the Umayyad governor Hajjāj ibn-Yūsuf flee, and take refuge in his palace in Kufa.[1] As a result, a poem was composed shaming him for posterity:
You are a lion against me, but in the battle an ostrich which spreads its wings and hurries off on hearing the chirping of a sparrow.In 696 AD (77 AH), after having controlled the city of Kufa for a day, Ghazāla led her male warriors in prayer as well as recited two of the longest chapters from the Quran during the prayer in the Mosque.[3] [4] [5]Why did you not go forth in the conflict and fight with Ghazala hand to hand? But no! Your heart fled from you (as if) with the wings of a bird.[2]
She was killed in battle, and her head was cut off for presenting it to Hajjaj. However, her husband Shabib sent a horseman who killed the carrier of his wife's head, and had a proper burial for it.