15 – Kisrā Yazdegerd ibn Shahriyar ibn Parwiz
The very last of the Sasanian kings.
His full name was Yazdegerd ibn Shahriyar ibn Parwiz, a Zoroastrian Persian. He was routed by the army sent by ʿUmar; the Muslims seized Iraq, while he fled to Merv. His reign swiftly came to an end: the commanders of his own realm revolted against him and killed him in 30 AH.
Another view holds that the Turks attacked him by night, killed his close attendants, and forced him to flee and hide in a house whose owner then betrayed and slew him—only to be killed in turn for the deed. (1)
16 – Khadījah bint Khuwaylid ibn Asad al-Asadiyyah, Mother of the Believers
The foremost woman of the worlds in her time.
Known as Umm al-Qāsim, she was the daughter of Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Qusayy ibn Kilāb, a Qurashī of the clan of Asad. She was the mother of the Messenger of Allah’s children, the very first to believe in him and to affirm his truth before anyone else, the one who steadied his heart and accompanied him to her cousin Waraqah. (2)
(*) Al-Maʿarif, pp. 235, 459, 612; al-Fasawi, Tarikh, 3/301-304; Shadharat al-dhahab, 1/37.
(1) See Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿarif, pp. 666-667.
(* *) Ibn Saʿd, Tabaqat, 8/52 and 1/131-133; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿarif, pp. 59, 70, 132, 144, 150, 219, 311; al-Fasawi, Tarikh, 3/253-257; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3/182-186; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istiʿab, 4/1817; Ibn al-Athir, Jamiʿ al-usul, 9/120-125; Ibn al-Athir, Usd al-ghabah, 7/78; al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, 1/41; al-Haythami, Majmaʿ al-zawaʾid, 9/218-225; Ibn Hajar, al-Isaba, 12/123; al-Muttaqi, Kanz al-ʿummal, 13/690; Ibn al-ʿImad, Shadharat al-dhahab, 1/14.
(2) See the hadith of ʿAʾisha in Sahih al-Bukhari, 1/21, 26 (“The Commencement of Revelation”). Khadija said to him ﷺ: “By Allah, He will never disgrace you: you maintain kinship ties, bear the burdens of the helpless, provide for those who lack, honour the guest, and aid people in the cause of truth.” She then took him to her cousin Waraqa b. Nawfal and said, “Listen to your nephew.” After the Messenger of Allah ﷺ described what he had seen, Waraqa replied, “This is the namus (the Angel of Revelation, i.e., Gabriel) …”