Maymunah bint al-Harith

Maymunah bint al-Harith al-Hilaliyah (Arabic: ميمونة بنت الحارث الهلالية‎‎, Maymūnah bint al-Ḥārith al-Hilālīyah) was a wife of Muhammad. Her original name was Barrah, but Muhammad changed it to Maymuna.

Family

Her father was al-Harith ibn Hazn from the Hilal tribe in Mecca. Her mother was Hind bint Awf from the Himyar tribe in Yemen. Her full sister was Lubaba the Elder. Her paternal half-sisters were Layla (Lubaba the Younger), Huzayla and Azza. Her maternal half-siblings were Mahmiyah ibn Jazi al-Zubaydi, Asma bint Umays (a wife of Abu Bakr), Salma bint Umays (a wife of Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib) and Awn ibn Umays.[1] Ibn Kathir also mentions a tradition that Zaynab bint Khuzayma (a wife of Muhammad) was another maternal sister.[2]

Marriage to Muhammad

She married Muhammad in 629 in Sarif, about ten miles from Mecca, just after the Lesser Pilgrimage.[3] He would have been 58 years old, and she was probably in her late twenties or early thirties.

Maymuna lived with Muhammad for three years until his death in 632.

Death

Maymuna's death-date is controversial.

According to Al-Tabari: "Maymuna died in the year 61 A.H. [680-681] during the caliphate of Yazid ibn Muawiyah. She was the last of the wives of the Prophet to die, and her age was then 80 or 81."[4] However, Al-Tabari asserts elsewhere that Umm Salama outlived Maymuna.[5]

Ibn Kathir writes: "After the Prophet's death, Maymuna continued to live in Medina for another forty years, dying at the age of 80, in 51 A.H. [71 C.E.], being the last but one of the Prophet's wives to die."[6] However, at least four of Muhammad's other widows (Safiya, Sawda, Aisha and Umm Salama) were still alive in 71 C.E.

Ibn Hajar also cites a tradition implying that Maymuna predeceased Aisha. "We stood on the walls of Medina, looking out … [Aisha said]: 'By Allah! Maymuna is no more! She has gone, and you are left free to do whatever you like. She was the most pious of all of us and the most devoted to her relatives.'"[7][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Muhammad ibn Jarir Al-Tabari, Tarik ul-Rasul wa'l-Muluk, vol. 39. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. (1998). Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and Their Successors, p. 201. New York: State University of New York Press.
  2. ↑ Ismail ibn Umar ibn Kathir, Al-Sira al-Nabawiyya, vol. 3. Translated by Le Gassick, T. (2000). The Life of the Prophet Muhammad, p. 122. Reading, U.K.: Garnet.
  3. ↑ Guillaume/Ishaq p. 531. Tabari vol. 39 p. 186.
  4. ↑ Landau-Tasseron/Tabari, p. 186.
  5. ↑ Landau-Tasseron/Tabari, p. 177.
  6. ↑ "Ibn Kathir: Wives of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW)". islamawareness.net.
  7. ↑ Al-Hakim al-Nishaburi, Mustadrak vol. 4 p. 32.
  8. ↑ Ibn Hajar, Al-Isaba vol. 8 p. 192.
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