Maria al-Qibtiyya
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Maria al-Qibtiyya |
Maria al-Qibtiyya (Arabic: مارية القبطية) (alternatively, "Maria Qupthiya"), or Maria the Copt, (died 637) was an Egyptian Coptic Christian slave who was sent as a gift from Muqawqis, a Byzantine official, to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 628.[1] According to some Islamic accounts, she was Muhammad's wife, and therefore a "Mother of the Believers" (Arabic: Umm-al-Momineen), other sources like Ibnul Qayyim talk about her being only a concubine. She was the mother of Muhammad's son Ibrahim, who died in infancy. Her sister, Sirin, was also sent to Muhammad; Muhammad gave her to his follower Hassan ibn Thabit.[2] Maria never remarried after Muhammad's death in 632, and died five years later. Her birthdate is unknown. No primary source mentions her age.
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[edit] 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 inviting the rulers to join. What purport to be texts of some of the letters are found in Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings, 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.[3] 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, 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 eununch, 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.
—Tabari, History of the Prophets and Kings.[2]
[edit] Maria in Muhammad's household
Many Muslim sources say that Muhammad later freed and married Maria, but it is not clear if this is historical fact or historical apology. 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.
Muhammad lived in a mud-brick dwelling next to the Medina mosque, and each of his wives had her own mud-brick room, 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.[4] 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."
Maria bore Muhammad a son, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, who died in infancy. Only one other of Muhammad's wives, the deceased Khadijah, had borne him children. Muhammad's attentions to Maria caused dissension among his other wives. 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 God has made lawful for you just to please your wives? God is forgiving and merciful. God 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 God revealed it to him. If he divorces you, perhaps his Lord will give him instead better wives than yourselves.
—Qur'an, 66:1–5
Historians John Gilchrist and Maxime Rodinson feel that the "story of the honey" is an expurgated version of the story of Maria.[5][6]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Gilchrist, John. Muhammad and the Religion of Islam. Benoni, Republic of South Africa, 1986.
- Ibn Ishaq, translation by A. Guillaume (1955). The Life of Muhammad. Oxford University Press.
- Rodinson, Maxime Muhammad. Random House, Inc., New York, 2002.
- Tabari (1997). Vol. 8 of the Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk. State University of New York Press.
