Maria al-Qibtiyya
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| The Wives of Muhammad |
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Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya Maria al-Qibtiyya** *succession disputed **disputed |
Maria al-Qibtiyya (Arabic: مارية القبطية) (alternatively, especially in non-Arabic traditions, "Maria Qupthiya"), or Maria the Copt, was a Coptic Christian slave who was sent as a gift from Muqawqis, a Byzantine official, to the Islamic prophet Muhammad<ref>Ibn Ishaq, (translation by A. Guillaume). The Life of Muhammad, Oxford University Press, 1955. Page 653.</ref> in 628 CE. According to most Islamic accounts, she was Muhammad's wife, and therefore a Mother of the Believers (Arabic: "Umm-al-Momineen"). However, some scholars have claimed that she stayed as a concubine. She was the mother of Muhammad's son Ibrahim, who died in infancy. Maria never remarried, and died five years after Muhammad, in 637.
Her birthdate is unknown, though she was probably young when she was presented. Some Islamic accounts say that she was twenty, but no primary source mentions her age.
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[edit] The year of the deputations
In the Islamic year 6 AH (627-628 CE), Muhammad is said to have written letters to the great rulers of the Middle East, proclaiming the new faith and warning the rulers to submit. What purport to be texts of some of the letters are found in Tabari's history, which was written some 250 years after the events it chronicled. Tabari writes that a deputation was sent to an Egyptian governor named as al-Muqawqis.
A note in the State University of New York edition of Tabari states that this seems to be a version of Cyrus of the Caucasus, who was the Byzantine Patriarch of Alexandria (p. 98). The note adds that Cyrus did not become Patriarch until 631, and that an account placing him in Egypt three or four years earlier is therefore questionable.
Tabari does not give the text of the letter to the Patriarch. One website (here) gives what purports to be the texts of the letter and the reply; however, the provenance of these letters is doubtful.
[edit] Maria and her sister sent from the Patriarch
Tabari does, however recount the story of Maria's arrival from Egypt:
- In this year Hātib b. Abi Balta'ah came back from al-Muqawqis bringing Māriyah and her sister Sīrīn, his female mule Duldul, his donkey Ya'fūr, and sets of garments. With the two women al-Muqawqis had sent a eunuch, and the latter stayed with them. Hātib had invited them to become Muslims before he arrived with them, and Māriyah and her sister did so. The Messenger of God lodged them with Umm Sulaym bt. Milhān. Māriyah was beautiful. The Prophet sent her sister Sīrīn to Hassān b. Thābit and she bore him 'Abd al-Rahmān b. Hassān. (p. 131)
Many Muslim sources say that Muhammad later freed and married Maria, but it is not clear if this is historical fact or historical reasoning. Some Muslim traditions claim that Muhammmad offered to free Maria, but that she chose to remain a slave. To further complicate matters, slaves were to be automatically freed upon conversion to Islam, so it is not clear why Maria would have to be explicitly freed if she had already converted.
The fact that Maria was not housed along with Muhammad's other wives argues that she may have been a concubine or at least quite different than his other wives. Muhammad lived in a humble mud-brick dwelling next to the Medina mosque, and each of his wives had her own mud-brick room that functioned as a house on its own, built in a line next to his. Maria, however, was lodged in a house on the edge of Medina. Maria is also not listed as a wife in some of the earliest sources, such as Ibn Hisham's notes on Ibn Ishaq's Sira (Guillaume 691–798). Muslim sources are unanimous in saying that she was accorded the same honor and respect given Muhammad's wives, pointing out that she was given the same title as Muhammad's wives — "Mother of the Believers."
[edit] Maria in Muhammad's household
Maria bore Muhammad a son, named Ibrahim. Only one other of Muhammad's wives, the deceased Khadijah, had borne him children. Ibrahim died in infancy, but as long as he lived, Muhammad was a doting parent.
Muhammad's attentions to Maria certainly caused dissension among his wives, or other wives. This is related in numerous hadith.
What is not so clear is whether or not the sixty-sixth chapter of the Qur'an, surah At-Tahrim, was revealed on account of Maria. The sura reads, in part:
- "O Prophet, why do you make prohibited that which Allah has made lawful for you just to please your wives? Allah is forgiving and merciful. Allah has given absolution from such oaths. He is your master. He is all-knowing and wise. The Prophet made a story secret to one of his wives and she repeated it, but Allah revealed it to him. If he divorces you, perhaps his Lord will give him instead better wives than yourselves." (Qur'an, 66:1–5).
After a quarrel, Muhammad is said to have separated from his wives, sleeping by himself, until his wives humbly begged him to return to them.
Some historians, and commentators, say that the quarrel was caused by the other wives' jealousy of Maria. Other commentators say that the wives Aisha and Hafsa bint Umar had conspired against Zaynab bint Jahsh. This is known as the story of the honey. Some Western writers, such as Gilchrist and Rodinson, feel that the "story of the honey" is an expurgated version of the story of Maria.
[edit] References
<references/>
- Tabari. Vol. 8 of the Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, State University of New York Press, 1997.
- Rodinson, Maxime Muhammad. Random House, Inc., New York, 2002.
- Gilchrist, John. Muhammad and the Religion of Islam. Benoni, Republic of South Africa, 1986.ar:مارية القبطية
