The Arabs have been characterized throughout the ages by bravery and honor, and women are no different from men in this regard. Arab women have also been distinguished by bravery, and this proverb is evidence of the cunning, strength, and courage of the Arab woman.
The saying “May Allah have mercy on Muzna” was a saying repeated among some Arab tribes. Muzna is Muzna bint Mansur Al-Matarudi from the Banu Khalid tribe. One day, all the men of her village went to Friday prayer, and the distance between their village Al-Ushayziyah and Unayzah is 7 kilometers. This means that the men would be late, especially since they were accustomed to drinking coffee after prayer at one of their acquaintances and would not return home until after Maghrib prayer.
Some Bedouin youths learned of this, so they planned to steal Al-Matarudi’s livestock. They indeed went and drove Al-Matarudi’s livestock far away toward the east, opposite the direction of Unayzah, and there were no men in the neighborhood to stop them.
But Muzna, the daughter of Al-Matarudi, saw them and felt anger at the theft of her father’s property, so she decided to intervene. She looked for clothes belonging to her brother, put them on, and covered her face. She also brought a group of women with her, made them disguise themselves like her, and they mounted horses. They rode as if they were a group of brave knights.
They pursued the Bedouins and began circling around them from a distance as if intending to attack them, which struck terror into the hearts of the thieves. Then she approached them and ordered them in a hoarse voice to return the livestock they had stolen. She also swore by divorce three times to make them think she was a male knight, and threatened to kill them one by one, and she did this while circling around them brandishing a weapon.
The Bedouins decided immediately to return the livestock, but they asked the name of the knight in front of them. She told them, “I am Hamad Al-Matarudi.” When they returned the livestock, she hosted them and told them that dinner would come to them, and entered with the women into the house to prepare food for the enemy guests until the men returned to the village. When the men found the guests in hospitality, they welcomed them, and they did not know anything of what had happened.
But the guests asked to see the knight Hamad Al-Matarudi. Muzna had told her father what had happened, so he told everyone that this knight who forced the Bedouins to return the livestock was none other than his daughter Muzna Al-Matarudi.
After the news of this day spread, suitors hurried to ask for Muzna’s hand, whose news spread among the Arabs and in the councils of princes. Muzna was betrothed to the son of Jiluwi bin Turki Al Saud, married him, and gave birth to Prince Abdullah bin Jiluwi, who became the governor of Al-Ahsa.
After that, when people heard someone praising himself with something he did not possess, they would say, “May Allah have mercy on Muzna.”