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Maria the Copt (Mariyah Al-Qibtiyyah): Difference between revisions
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Maria the Copt (Mariyah Al-Qibtiyyah) (view source)
Revision as of 09:02, 21 November 2021
, 21 November 2021→Influence on Islamic Law
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The use of Mariyah sexually by the prophet was taken as an example for later Muslims. Her sexual exploitation by Muhammad formed part of the basis for later sexual slavery in various Islamic empires, up to the very current day with the ISIS terrorist organization taking Yazidi girls in Iraq as sex slaves on the prophetic model. Since Mariyah also bore Muhammad a son, and was this an umm-walad أم ولد or mother of a boy for the prophet, her story was integral to later Islamic discourse about the place of the sons of slave women in Islamic societies. Since the raiding for sexual slaves formed a large part of the wealth-building enterprise undertaken by later Islamic caliphates and empires such as the Umayyads, Abbasids and many others the number of children born to slave women quickly proliferated in Islamic society. There were so many children of concubines in Islamic society that several contenders for the throne of the caliphate ended up being the children of slave women. The rightly guided-caliphs and the early Umayyads were all free-born Arab men, but in 740 Zayd bin Ali made an unsuccessful bid for the caliphate, and he was the mother of a slave women. His opponent used his lineage as the son of a sex slave to mock and belittle him, claiming that his birth to an un-free woman disqualified him from the throne. Yet yy 744, Yazid III became the first caliph born of a slave mother; thereafter, the next 3 Umayyad caliphs and most of the Abbasids caliphs were the sons of concubines. Zayd bin Ali in his arguments for why the son of a slave woman such as himself should be eligible for caliph made great reference to Isma'il and Hajar. Hajar's biography bears many resemblences to Mariyah's; both were from Egypt, both were the concubines of prophets, both suffered the jealousy of the rightful wife(wives) of the prophet, both bore sons for the prophet, with the name of the son of Mariyah being the name of the husband of Hajar. Later caliphs and other sons of concubines would invoke the legacy of Mariyah and her son Ibrahim, who might have been another prophet, to justify their place in Islamic society. | The use of Mariyah sexually by the prophet was taken as an example for later Muslims. Her sexual exploitation by Muhammad formed part of the basis for later sexual slavery in various Islamic empires, up to the very current day with the ISIS terrorist organization taking Yazidi girls in Iraq as sex slaves on the prophetic model. Since Mariyah also bore Muhammad a son, and was this an umm-walad أم ولد or mother of a boy for the prophet, her story was integral to later Islamic discourse about the place of the sons of slave women in Islamic societies. Since the raiding for sexual slaves formed a large part of the wealth-building enterprise undertaken by later Islamic caliphates and empires such as the Umayyads, Abbasids and many others the number of children born to slave women quickly proliferated in Islamic society. There were so many children of concubines in Islamic society that several contenders for the throne of the caliphate ended up being the children of slave women. The rightly guided-caliphs and the early Umayyads were all free-born Arab men, but in 740 Zayd bin Ali made an unsuccessful bid for the caliphate, and he was the mother of a slave women. His opponent used his lineage as the son of a sex slave to mock and belittle him, claiming that his birth to an un-free woman disqualified him from the throne. Yet yy 744, Yazid III became the first caliph born of a slave mother; thereafter, the next 3 Umayyad caliphs and most of the Abbasids caliphs were the sons of concubines. Zayd bin Ali in his arguments for why the son of a slave woman such as himself should be eligible for caliph made great reference to Isma'il and Hajar. Hajar's biography bears many resemblences to Mariyah's; both were from Egypt, both were the concubines of prophets, both suffered the jealousy of the rightful wife(wives) of the prophet, both bore sons for the prophet, with the name of the son of Mariyah being the name of the husband of Hajar. Later caliphs and other sons of concubines would invoke the legacy of Mariyah and her son Ibrahim, who might have been another prophet, to justify their place in Islamic society. | ||
As Mariyah was an umm-walad of the prophet, and as the concept took on greater importance in Islamic society as the children of concubines, the example of Mariyah was used in Islamic law to specify the rights, privileges and duties of an umm-walad in Islamic law. Although the umm-walad is elevated above the rank of the normal slave, she is still a slave. The husband has the right to avail himself of her sexually whenever he wants, as Muhammad continued to with Mariyah (and as Allah instructed him to do). There was some discussion in Islamic sources such as ibn Kathir as to whether the umm-walad must be freed. There were ahadith to the affect that Muhammad freed Mariyah after she bore him Ibrahim; the conclusion of Islamic law is that this may or may not have happened but if it did this was done out of Muhammad's special love for Mariyah and is not applicable to slave women who bear children in general. The son of an umm-walad, though, was taken to be a free man, as Ibrahim would certainly have been free had he survived to adulthood. The umm-walad can also not be sold from her master or separated from her son. | As Mariyah was an umm-walad of the prophet, and as the concept took on greater importance in Islamic society as the children of concubines, the example of Mariyah was used in Islamic law to specify the rights, privileges and duties of an umm-walad in Islamic law. Although the umm-walad is elevated above the rank of the normal slave, she is still a slave. The husband has the right to avail himself of her sexually whenever he wants, as Muhammad continued to with Mariyah (and as Allah instructed him to do). There was some discussion in Islamic sources such as ibn Kathir as to whether the umm-walad must be freed. There were ahadith to the affect that Muhammad freed Mariyah after she bore him Ibrahim; the conclusion of Islamic law is that this may or may not have happened but if it did this was done out of Muhammad's special love for Mariyah and is not applicable to slave women who bear children in general. The son of an umm-walad, though, was taken to be a free man, as Ibrahim would certainly have been free had he survived to adulthood. The umm-walad can also not be sold from her master or separated from her son. The prophetic example of Muhammad and Mariyah provides an example of the umm-walad in the biography of the prophet himself, and the exalted status of their son would prove a powerful rhetorical tool in the disputes over the places of the offspring of umm-walads in Islamic societies. | ||
==Historicity== | ==Historicity== | ||