for him (1).

Among the fine qualities of the Negus is that Umm Ḥabībah, Ramla bint Abī Sufyān ibn Ḥarb al-Umawiyyah—Mother of the Believers—embraced Islam long ago together with her husband ʿUbaydullāh (2) ibn Jahsh al-Asadī. Her husband then migrated with her, slipping away to Abyssinia, where she bore him Ḥabībah, who later became a step-daughter of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Misfortune subsequently overtook him: he became impressed by Christianity, adopted it, and before long (3) died in Abyssinia.

When her waiting period had elapsed, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) sent a proposal to her, and she accepted. The Negus thereupon undertook the matter, witnessed her marriage to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and, from his own wealth, gave her on the Prophet’s behalf a dowry of four hundred dinars. Thus she received a favour granted to none of the other Mothers of the Believers. The Negus then outfitted her for the journey (4).

According to al-Wāqidī, in a report with a broken chain, the envoy who conveyed the proposal to the Negus was ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī.

He also said: Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to me, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah;

and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to me, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Bakr; they both said:

“The one who solemnised her marriage, to whom the Negus addressed his request, was Khālid ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ al-Umawī, and she was in her early thirties when she reached Medina (5).”

Maʿmar related: from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUrwah, from Umm Ḥabībah—that she had been married to ʿUbaydullāh ibn Jahsh, who had travelled to the Negus, and that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) married her while she was in Abyssinia,