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Mother of the Believers
Rayhana bint Zayd
Mother of the Believers Rayhana bint Zayd
ريحانة بنت زيد‎
Born	Unknown
Died	c. 631 CE (9 AH); Medina, Arabia
Resting place	Al-Baqi Cemetery, Medina
Known for	Being widowed and taken captive during the Siege of Banu Qurayza in 627
Spouse(s)	Al-Hakim (died 627); Muhammad (627–631)
Family	Banu Nadir (by birth); Banu Qurayza (by marriage); Ahl al-Bayt (marriage)

Rayhana bint Zayd (Arabic: ريحانة بنت زيد, romanized: Rayḥāna bint Zayd; died c. 631 CE) was a Jewish convert to Islam from the Banu Nadir. Through marriage, she was also a part of the Banu Qurayza, another local Jewish tribe.^[1]^[2] During the siege of Banu Qurayza in 627, she was widowed and taken captive by the early Muslims and subsequently became a wife of Muhammad.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Their relationship produced no children and in 631 she passed on while in her home city of Medina.

Biography

The 9th century Arab historian Ibn Sa'd wrote that Rayhana went on to be manumitted and subsequently married to Muhammad upon her conversion to Islam from Judaism.^[7]^[8]

The 11th-century Persian religious scholar Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi agreed that she became one of Muhammad's wives and cited evidence that he had paid mahr for her. The 15th-century Egyptian religious scholar Ibn Hajar makes reference to Muhammad giving Rayhanah a home upon their marriage.^[9] Antonie Wessels of Cambridge University suggested that Muhammad married Rayhana for political reasons, particularly in light of her direct affiliation with two of the region's Jewish tribes—the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qurayza—while British-American author Lesley Hazleton felt it was evidence of Muhammad creating alliances.^[10]^[11] Conversely, Indian religious scholar Barakat Ahmad felt such rationale to support the notion of Rayhana and Muhammad's marriage was "meaningless" after both Jewish tribes were wiped out, in accordance with Talmudic law, following their betrayal of the early Muslims.^[12]

Similar to the status of the Egyptian woman Maria al-Qibtiyya—who, along with her sister Sirin bint Shamun, was gifted to Muhammad by the Egyptian governor Al-Muqawqis in 628—there is no universal consensus among Muslim scholars as to whether Rayhanah was one of Muhammad's wives.^[13]^[14]^[15]^[16] Hafiz ibn Minda^[who?] and Indian religious scholar Shibli Nomani, for example, believed that she returned to the Banu Nadir upon her manumission.^[17]

Abu ‘Ubaydah said about Muhammed:

He had four [concubines]: Mariyah, who was the mother of his son Ibraaheem; Rayhaanah; another beautiful slave woman whom he acquired as a prisoner of war; and a slave woman who was given to him by Zaynab bint Jahsh."^[18]

Rayhanah died in Medina in 631, eleven days after hajj and one year before Muhammad's death. She was buried in the city's al-Baqi Cemetery, like other members of Muhammad's family, known as Ahl al-Bayt (Arabic: أَهْل البَيْت, lit. 'people of the house or household').^[19]

References

^ Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, S. (2005). The Sealed Nectar. Darussalam: Darussalam Editing, p. 201.
^ Abdul-Rahman, M. S. (2009). Tafsir Ibn Kathir Juz’ 21 (Part 21): Al-Ankabut 46 To Al-Azhab 30. Londra: MSA Publication Limited, p. 213.
^ Tabari, Al (25 September 1990), The last years of the Prophet (translated by Isma'il Qurban Husayn), State University of New York Press, ISBN 9780887066917
^ Rodinson, Muhammad: Prophet of Islam, p. 213.
^ Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Safiur (2005), The Sealed Nectar, Darussalam Publications, p. 189, ISBN 9798694145923 (online).
^ Ali, Kecia (15 October 2010). Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam. Harvard University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-674-05917-7.
^ Guillaume, Alfred. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 466. Oxford University Press, 1955. ISBN 0-19-636033-1
^ Ibn Sa'd. Tabaqat. vol VIII, pg. 92–3.
^ Ibn Hajar. Isabaha. Vol. IV, pg. 309.
^ Ostle, R. C. (1974). "Antonie Wessels: A modern Arabic biography of Muḥammad: a critical study of Muḥhammad Ḥusayn Haykal's Hayāt MuḤammad. xii, 272 pp. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972. Guilders 50". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 37 (3): 689–690. doi:10.1017/s0041977x00127673. ISSN 0041-977X. S2CID 161497336.
^ Hazleton, Lesley (2013). The first Muslim : the story of Muhammad. New York. ISBN 978-1-101-60200-3. OCLC 858946813.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Ahmad, Barakat (1979). Muhammad and the Jews : a re-examination. Indian Institute of Islamic Studies. New Delhi: Vikas. ISBN 0-7069-0804-X. OCLC 6330142.
^ Bennett, Clinton, ed. (1998). In Search of Muhammad (reprint ed.). A&C Black. p. 251. ISBN 9780304704019.
^ Fred James Hill; Nicholas Awde (2003). A History of the Islamic World (illustrated ed.). Hippocrene Books. p. 24. ISBN 9780781810159.
^ Jerome A. Winer (2013). Winer, Jerome A.; Anderson, James W. (eds.). The Annual of Psychoanalysis, V. 31: Psychoanalysis and History. Routledge. p. 216. ISBN 9781134911820.
^ David S. Powers (2011). Muhammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 8. ISBN 9780812205572.
^ Nomani, Shibli (1979). The Life of the Prophet. Vol. II, pg. 125–6
^ Zaad al-Ma’aad, 1/114
^ al-Halabi, Nur al-Din. Sirat-i-Halbiyyah. Uttar Pradesh: Idarah Qasmiyyah Deoband. vol 2, part 12, pg. 90. Translated by Muhammad Aslam Qasmi.