Maria the Copt (Mariyah Al-Qibtiyyah): Difference between revisions

According to the traditional sources, after the treaty of Hudaybiya, the prophet Muhammad sent letters to the heads of various Middle Eastern powers inviting them to convert to Islam. One of these letters went to a certain Al-Muqauqis, who is not immediately identifiable with any historical person but seems to be the Melkite Patriarch Cyril of Egypt.<ref name="Brill1954">{{cite book | date = 1954 |Öhrnberg, Kaj| title = The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Khe-Naz. Vol. 5-7 | publisher = Brill | pages = 511| isbn = 978-90-04-08112-3 | oclc = 1000117476 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=d5kQzQEACAAJ}}</ref> He did not, apparently, accept the [[Dawah|call]] to Islam but in response sent Mariyah and her sister Shirin as sex slaves to Muhammad. That a Christian patriarch in Egypt would send Christian girls as sex slaves to this strange, obscure, and previously unknown heretic in Arabia was a question that apparently never arose on any side; there is no confirmation of any part of this story in contemporary Muslim or non-Muslim accounts from the 7th century, and the narrative itself only appears in Muslim sirah, tafsir and hadith literature written over a hundred years after the fact. On the way to Medina, she converted to Islam. When she and her sister arrived in Medina, since Muhammad could not have concurrent sexual relations with both sisters as per Islamic law, Muhammad chose Mariyah for her exceeding beauty. The prophet did not wed her, but rather kept her as his jarriyah or sirriyah, that is his sex slave. The prophet was very stricken with her gave her a house in the upper portion of Medina, which purportedly still exists to this day.<ref name="BRILL1990">{{cite book | author = BRILL | date = 1990 |F. Buhl| title = The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume 6, Fascicules 114a: Preliminary Matter and Binder | publisher = BRILL | pages =575 | isbn = 978-90-04-09358-4 | oclc = 753138826 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hYlytQEACAAJ}}</ref>

{{Quote|Tafsir of Al-Jalayn on Qur'an 66:1-3|

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As the Encyclopedia of Islam states, other narratives exist around these verses, but considering how bad they look for Muhammad it is unlikely that they were the most primordial narrative; rather, the above narrative would appear to be the oldest, and the others were later fabrications meant to protect the reputation of the prophet.