The 28th verse of the fourth Sura does by no means sanction concubinage. It has nothing to do with it. It only treats of marriage. It, together with its preceding verse, points out whom we can marry and whom not. Its next verse interdicts concubinage when it enjoins marriage with the then existing slaves.
Maria the Coptic.
8. I will here take the opportunity of noticing Maria the Coptic, who is alleged to have been a concubine-slave of Mohammad, although she does not come under the category of prisoners made slaves. According to Sir W. Muir, the Roman Governor of Egypt had written to Mohammad:—"I send for thine acceptance two damsels, highly esteemed among the Copts."[352] The writer converts them at once into "two slave-girls," and remarks, "a strange present, however, for a Christian Governor to make."[353] She was neither a captive, nor a slave, nor was she described as such in the Governor's letter. I am at a loss to know why or how she has been treated by the biographers of the Prophet as a slave or a concubine.
(1) I have great doubts regarding the truth of the story that Mokowkas the Governor had sent two maids to Mohammad, and taking it for granted they were so sent, that one of them was the alleged Maria; (2) it is not a fact that she was a slave; (3) nor a concubine-slave of the Prophet; (4) nor she as such bore a son to him; (5) and lastly, the notorious scandal about her much talked of by European writers is a mere calumny and a false story.
It will be a very tedious and irksome task to copy the various traditions bearing on the above subjects and to discuss their authenticity, and criticise their genuineness, on the principles of the technicalities peculiar to the Science of Traditions, as well as on the basis of scientific and rational criticism. Therefore I will notice only briefly each of the above subjects.
Dispatch to Mokowkas.
9. (1) That Mohammad had sent a dispatch to Mokowkas, the Roman Governor of Egypt, and that in reply he had sent Maria the Coptic maid, together with other presents, to Mohammad, is not to be found in the traditions collected by the best critics of Mohammadan traditions like Bokhari and Muslim, who had sifted the whole incoherent mass of genuine and apocryphal traditions regarding the Prophet, and had picked up but a very small portion of them which they thought to be relatively genuine. We can fairly conclude that such a tradition, which is related by other non-critics and story-tellers, who have indiscriminately narrated every tradition—whether genuine or apocryphal—like Wákidi and Ibn Sád, was surely rejected by these Imams (Doctors in the Science of Tradition) as having not the least possibility of its genuineness. Even Ibn Ishak (died 150),[354] Hisham-bin-Abdul Malik (died 213 A.H.),[355] and Abul Mo'tamar Soleiman (died 143 A.H.[356])[357] have not inserted the portion of the tradition of Maria the Coptic maid being sent by the Egyptian Governor to Mohammad. The tradition narrated by Ibn Sád—(1) through Wákidi and Abd-ul-Hamíd from Jáfar, (2) and Abdullah bin Abdur Rahmán bin Abi Sásáta—is undoubtedly apocryphal, Wákidi and Abd-ul-Hamíd are of impeached integrity, or no authority at all. Ibn Khallikan, in his Biographical Dictionary, translated by Slane, writes regarding Wákidi:—"The Traditions received from him are considered of feeble authority, and doubts have been expressed on the subject of his (veracity.)"[358] Ibn Hajar Askalání writes regarding Wákidi in his Takrib, that "he has been struck off as an authority (literally left out), notwithstanding his vast knowledge." Zahabi's opinion of Wákidi in Mizán-al-Etedal is that Ahmed bin Hanbal said "he was the greatest liar." Bokhari and Abú Hátim say he is struck off (or left out as an authority).
Regarding Abd-ul-Hamíd, Zahabi writes that Abu Hátim said he is not quoted as an authority, and Sofián said he was a weak authority.
Jáfar and Abdullah bin Abdur Rahmán bin Abi Sásáta are of the middle period in the Tabaeen's class, and do not quote their authority on the subject.
Maria neither a slave;