Duldul was a mule owned by the Islamic prophet
Muhammad.[1][2]
[Duldul was the] name of the white mule of the Prophet, which had been given to him by
the Muḳawḳis [q.v.], at the same time as the ass called
Yaʿfūr/ʿUfayr. After serving as his mount during his campaigns, she survived him and died at
Yanbuʿ so old and toothless that in order to feed her the barley had to be put into her mouth. According to the
S̲h̲īʿī tradition,
ʿAlī rode upon her at the
battle of the Camel and at
Ṣiffīn.[3]
She is an Alid symbol in
Shia Islam. The first
Safavid Emperor,
Ismail I, rose to power as the leader of
Kizilbash,
antinomianSufi warriors who were
fervently Alid. Ismail, a noted poet under the pen name Hatayi, justified his own divine role as leader by variously writing that he himself is Ali's offspring; he is Ali himself; he possesses
Zulfiqar, Duldul and ‘Ali’s hat.[4]
^Bashear, Suliman (1991). "Riding Beasts on Divine Missions: An Examination of the Ass and Camel Traditions". Journal of Semitic Studies. XXXVI (1): 37–75.
doi:
10.1093/jss/XXXVI.1.37.