Maria al-Qibtiyya

Maria the Copt, umm walad of the Prophet ¹.

Ibn Sa'd relates that al-Muqawqis, lord of Alexandria, sent to the Prophet in year 7 AH Maria and her sister Sirin, a thousand mithqals of gold, twenty linen garments, his mule al-Duldul and his donkey Ufayr — with them a eunuch called Ma'bur who was Maria's brother — sending it all with Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a. Hatib presented Islam to Maria and she became Muslim, as did her sister; the eunuch became Muslim later in Medina ¹.

The Prophet lodged her in al-Aliya and the place came to be called "the mashraba of Umm Ibrahim"; she conceived by him and gave birth there in Dhu al-Hijja of year 8 AH ¹. Amra relates from A'isha that she was beautiful and curly-haired and the Prophet was taken with her; that he first lodged her, on bringing her, in a house of Haritha ibn al-Nu'man; and that he lingered with her until A'isha fretted — so he moved her to al-Aliya ¹. Al-Baladhuri said Maria's mother was a Byzantine ¹.

Al-Waqidi relates that Abu Bakr spent on Maria until he died, then Umar, until she died in his caliphate; al-Waqidi said she died in Muharram of year 16 AH — Umar would gather the people to attend her and prayed over her at al-Baqi' ¹. Ibn Manda said she died five years after the Prophet ¹.