(), better known as or (), or Mary the Copt, died 637, was an Egyptian woman who, along with her sister Sirin, was sent to the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 628 as a gift by Al-Muqawqis, a Christian governor of Alexandria, during the territory's Persian occupation. She and her sister were slaves. She spent the rest of her life in Medina where she converted to Islam and married Muhammad with whom she had a son, Ibrahim. The son would die as an infant and then she died almost five years later. Al-Maqrizi says that she was a native of p-Manhabin (, ), a village located near Antinoöpolis. Biography In the Islamic year 6 AH (627 – 628 CE), Muhammad is said to have had letters written to the great rulers of the Middle East, proclaiming the continuation of the monotheistic faith with its final messages and inviting the rulers to join. The purported texts of some of the letters are found in Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings. Tabari writes that a deputation was sent to an Egyptian governor named as al-Muqawqis. Maria was a slave who was offered as a gift of goodwill to Muhammad in reply to his envoys inviting the governor of Alexandria to Islam. Muhammad manumitted her after the birth of her son. Tabari recounts the story of Maria's arrival from Egypt: The death of Ibrahim caused Muhammad to weep. Status as a wife or concubine Like Rayhana bint Zayd, there is some debate between historians and scholars as to whether Maria ever became Muhammad's wife or remained a concubine. An indication that she was a concubine is that when she bore her son to Muhammad, she was set free. There is also strong evidence that there was no living quarter for her in the proximity of the Prophet's Mosque. Only the wives of Muhammad had their quarters adjacent to one another in the proximity of his mosque at Medina. Maria was made to reside permanently in an orchard, some three kilometers from the mosque. Evidence that suggests she was a concubine is in the narration: The ‘female-slave’ referred to in this narration was Maria, the Copt, as specified in a hadith attributed to Umar and classified as sahih by Ibn Kathir, which names her Umm Ibrahim (the mother of Ibrahim). In a report from Ibn ‘Abbas and ‘Urwah b. al-Zubair concerning