of Greater Syria, and he had scarcely been there for any length of time before he died in his idolatry.

No sooner had word reached Madinah that al-Ghumaysāʾ was now a widow than many men longed to marry her; yet they feared she would send them away disappointed because of the difference in faith between them and her.

Zayd ibn Sahl (1) — better known as Abū Ṭalḥah — nevertheless dared to hope for her acceptance, relying on the bonds of kinship that linked them, for both of them belonged to the clan of Banū al-Najjār.

Abū Ṭalḥah went to al-Ghumaysāʾ’s house and, addressing her by her teknonym, said, “O Umm Sulaym, I have come to ask for your hand; I pray you will not send me away disappointed.”