Maria the Copt (Mariyah Al-Qibtiyyah)
Mariya Al-Qibtiya was one of the concubines/sex slaves of the prophet Muhammad. According to the sira she was sent to Muhammad as a gift from the Christians of Egypt. According to the hadith and the sirah her beauty incited the jealousy of Muhammad's wives, in particular Hafsa and Aisha. The jealousy they had of her and Muhammad's response was actually the cause of the "revelation" of some Qur'an verses according to the tradition. Although she bore the prophet a son who later died, the prophet never married her. The traditional sources compare her concubinage to that of Hajar to Ibrahim, based upon the fact that, according to the tradition, the closest person to Muhammad was the prophet Ibrahim. According to classical Islamic sources, had her son Ibrahim lived, he too would have been a prophet.
Life Before Muhammad
Not much is known of Mariyah's life before she was gifted to the prophet as a sex slave. According to the traditional sources, she was the son of a certain Scham'un from the town of Hafn in the region of Ansina. According to the traditional sources, she was gifted to Muhammad with her sister; but since the shari'ah prohibits a man having sexual relations with a woman and her sister, Muhammad was forced to choose between the two, and choose Mariya for her exceeding beauty.
Gifting to Muhammad and Conversion to Islam
According to the traditional sources, after the treaty of Hudaybiya