Sawdah bint Zamah () was the second wife of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

and regarded as "Umm-ul-Mu'mineen" (Arabic: أمّ المؤمنين, romanized: ''ʾumm al- muʾminīn''), "Mother of the Believers".

Early life

Sawdah was born and raised in Mecca in

Pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ...

. There is a disagreement as to when she was born. According to one source, when she was married to Muhammad, her age was around 50, other sources claim her age during the marriage to be around 40 to 55 years old, which would only narrow her birthday to around 566-580 CE. Her father, Zam'ah ibn Qays, was from the

Banu Amir ibn Lu'ayy Banu or BANU may refer to: * Banu (name) Banu (), also spelled Bano, is a Persian names, Persian name for girls popular in Iran and other Persian language, Persian-speaking countries. It is also used in Turkey, Pakistan Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, ...

clan of the

Quraysh The Quraysh () are an Tribes of Arabia, Arab tribe who controlled Mecca before the rise of Islam. Their members were divided into ten main clans, most notably including the Banu Hashim, into which Islam's founding prophet Muhammad was born. By ...

tribe in

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

. Her mother, Al-Shamus bint Qays, was from the Najjar clan of the

Khazraj The Banu Khazraj () is a large Arab tribe based in Medina. They were also in Medina during Muhammad's era. The Banu Khazraj are a South Arabian Qahtanite tribe that were pressured out of South Arabia as a result of the destruction of the Marib ...

tribe in

Madina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

.Tabari, ''Tarikh al-Rusul wa’l Muluk''. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. (1998). ''Biographies of the Prophet’s Companions and Their Successors'' vol. 39 p. 169. New York: SUNY Press.

First husband and first Hijra

She married As-Sakran ibn Amr, who was one of the early converts to Islam. They had two sons, Abdur Rahman ibn as-Sakran and Abd ibn as-Sakran, who much later died in the

Battle of Jalula The Battle of Jalula was fought between the Sasanian Empire and the Rashidun Caliphate soon after conquest of Ctesiphon. After the capture of Ctesiphon, several detachments were immediately sent to the west to capture Qarqeesia and Heet the f ...

in 637 against the

Sassanids The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...

Migration to Abyssinia

Sawdah and Sakran

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

Abyssinia Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...

when Muhammad ordered many of the Muslims to perform

Hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (also ''Hejira'' or ''Hegira''), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers in 615 CE * L ...

in order to avoid persecution by the

. Sakran left for Abyssinia by sea with Waqqas. Sawdah was one of the first women to immigrate to Abyssinia in the way of Allah. A few years later they returned to Mecca, where As-Sakran died, and she became a widow for the first time in her life.

Marriage to Muhammad

Soon after

Khadija Khadija, Khadeeja or Khadijah () is an Arabic feminine given name, the name of Khadija bint Khuwaylid, first wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. In 1995, it was one of the three most popular Arabic feminine names in the Muslim world, along wi ...

's death, Muhammad married Sawdah in the same month of

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

of the 10th year after the start of his prophethood. Sawdah was hesitant to accept at first, as she already had six children and feared that they would disturb Muhammad. But Muhammad convinced her by saying, “The best women ever to have ridden the backs of camels are the virtuous women of the

, who are the most affectionate toward small children and the most excellent in doing good to their husbands when they

he women He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

are wealthy.” When Sawdah became old, some time after Muhammad's marriage to

Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya (, Hind ʾibnat ʾAbī ʾUmayya, 580 or 596 – 680 or 683), better known as Umm Salamah () or Hind al-Makhzūmiyya () was the sixth wife of Muhammad. "Umm Salama" was her '' kunya'' meaning, "mother of Salama". She was ...

, and Qur’an 4:128–9 was revealed. Other traditions, on the other hand, hold that Muhammad did not truly repudiate her but that she was afraid he would, and it was not repudiation that was being considered in the verse revelation but rather some kind of compromise on the divorce so long as she could remain his wife in name.

Later life and death

After the death of Muhammad, Sawdah along with other wives received a gift of money annually from the

Caliphate A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

, which she spent on charity. She,

Aisha Aisha bint Abi Bakr () was a seventh century Arab commander, politician, Muhaddith, muhadditha and the third and youngest wife of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. Aisha had an important role in early Islamic h ...

, Hafsa, and Safiyya always remained very close. She lived a long life and died in 54 AH in Medina, where she was buried in Jannat-al-Baqi.

Ibn Sa'd Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Sa‘d ibn Manī‘ al-Baṣrī al-Hāshimī or simply Ibn Sa'd () and nicknamed ''Scribe of Waqidi'' (''Katib al-Waqidi''), was a scholar and Arabian biographer. Ibn Sa'd was born in 784/785 CE (168 AH) and di ...

puts her date of death to the year 674. After her death,

Muawiyah I Mu'awiya I (–April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and immediately after the four Rashid ...

, the reigning first caliph of the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...

dynasty, bought her house in Medina for 180,000 ''dirhams''. According to other sources, she died in Medina towards the end of caliph 'Umar's reign in 22 AH, 644 CE.

References

External links

2 Muslims.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawda Bint Zama 674 deaths Wives of Muhammad Year of birth unknown 6th-century Arab people 7th-century Arab people Muslim female saints 570 births Burials at Jannat al-Baqī