View source for Sumayya

{{Short description|Companion (Sahabiyyah) of Muhammad}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sumeyah
| native_name        = {{lang|ar|سُمَيَّة}}
| image              = 
| alt                = 
| caption            = "Sumeyah" in Arabic calligraphy
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{circa|550}} <small>(72 BH)</small>
| birth_place        = 
| death_date         = {{circa|615}} <small>(7 BH)</small>
| death_place        = [[Mecca]], [[Hejaz]]
| nationality        = 
| occupation         = 
| known_for          = Being the first [[Shahid|martyr]] of the ''[[Ummah]]'' (Community) of [[Muhammad]], and a female [[sahabah|disciple]] of his
| spouse             = [[Yasir ibn Amir]]
| children           = [[Ammar ibn Yasir]]
| parents            = Khayyat <small>(father)</small>
| relatives          = Horayth ibn Yasir, Abdullah ibn Yasir <small>(sons or stepsons)</small>
}}
{{Islam}}

'''Sumeyah''' ({{langx|ar|سُمَيَّة}};  {{Circa|550–615}}), was the [[Timing of Sahaba becoming Muslims|first member]] of the ''[[Ummah|Umma]]'' (community) of the Islamic [[Muhammad in Islam|prophet Muhammad]] to become a [[martyr #Islam |martyr]] ({{langx|ar|شهيدة|shahīda|female martyr}}). Shortly after she was martyred, her husband [[Yasir ibn Amir]] was also killed for his conversion to Islam, making him the first male martyr ({{langx|ar|شهيد|shahīd}}).<ref name="Saad3">{{citation |author=Muhammad ibn Saad |title=The Companions of Badr |volume=3 |year=2013 |editor=Translated by Bewley, A. |chapter=Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir |location=London |publisher=Ta-Ha Publishers}}</ref><ref name="Saad8">{{citation |author=Muhammad ibn Saad |title=The Women of Madina |volume=8 |pages=185–186 |year=1995 |editor=Translated by Bewley, A. |chapter=Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir |location=London |publisher=Ta-Ha Publishers}}</ref><ref name="Razwy-Ch.UA">{{cite book |last1=Razwy |first1=Sayed A.A. |url=http://www.al-islam.org/restatement-history-islam-and-muslims-sayyid-ali-ashgar-razwy/uthman-third-khalifa-muslims#ammar-ibn-yasir |title=A restatement of the history of Islam & Muslims : C.E. 570 to 661 |date=1997 |publisher=World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities |isbn=0-9509-8791-3 |location=[[Stanmore, Middlesex]] |quote=Ammar ibn Yasser was also one of the earliest converts to Islam. As noted before, his mother and father were tortured to death by the pagans in Makkah. They were the first and the second martyrs of Islam, and this is a distinction that no one in all Islam can share with them. |access-date=31 July 2014}}</ref> Her full name is said to be '''Sumayya bint Khabbat''' or '''Sumayya bint Khayyat'''. Her son was [[Ammar ibn Yasir]].

==Early life==
She was a slave of Abu Hudhayfa ibn al-Mughira, a member of the [[Banu Makhzum|Makhzum]] clan in [[Mecca]].<ref name=Tabari39>Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari. ''Tarikh al-Rusul wa'l-Muluk''. Translated by Landau-Tasseron, E. (1998). ''Volume 39: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions and Their Successors'', pp. 29-30, 116-117. Albany: State University of New York Press.</ref> Her master gave her in marriage to [[Yasir ibn Amir]], who was from the Malik clan of the [[Madh'hij]] tribe in [[Yemen]]. After coming to Mecca to look for a lost brother, he had decided to settle there under Abu Hudhayfa's protection.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|188}}<ref name=Tabari39/> Sumayyah gave birth to their son [[Ammar ibn Yasir|Ammar]] c.566.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|188}}<ref>Muhammad ibn Saad. ''Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir'' vol. 3. Translated by Bewley, A. (2013). ''The Companions of Badr'', p. 203. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. "''Ammar was killed in Safar 37 AH at the age of 93.''"</ref><ref name=Saad8/><ref name=Tabari39/> Yasir also had two sons, Hurayth and Abdullah,<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|189}}<ref name=Tabari39/>

At a later date, Abu Hudhayfa freed both Sumayyah and her son Ammar; but they remained his clients for the rest of his life.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|188}}<ref name=Saad8/><ref name=Tabari39/><ref name=":0">Muir, W. (1861). ''The Life of Mahomet'', vol. 2, p. 125. London: Smith, Elder & Co</ref> It is said both that Abu Hudhayfa died "before Islam"<ref name=Tabari39/> and that he was "one of those who mocked the Prophet".<ref name=Tabari39/>

==Conversion to Islam==
According to one tradition, Sumayyah was one of the first seven "to display Islam", the other six being [[Muhammad]], [[Abu Bakr]], [[Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi|Bilal]], [[Khabbab ibn al-Aratt|Khabbab]], [[Suhayb ar-Rumi|Suhayb]] and her son Ammar.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|178}} "To display Islam" might refer to something other than conversion since, according to another tradition, Ammar was not converted until after the [[Muslim]]s had entered the house of [[Al-Arqam ibn-abil-Arqam|al-Arqam]] "after thirty men".<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|189}} Yasir and his son Abdullah also converted "on the rise of Islam",<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|188–189}}<ref name=Saad8/>{{rp|185}}<ref name=Tabari39/><ref name=Razwy-Ch.UA/><ref name=Razwy-Ch.AB>{{cite book|last1=Razwy|first1=Sayed A.A.|title=A restatement of the history of Islam & Muslims: C.E. 570 to 661|date=1997|publisher=World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities|location=Stanmore, Middlesex|isbn=0950987913|url=http://www.al-islam.org/restatement-history-islam-and-muslims-sayyid-ali-ashgar-razwy/abu-bakr-first-khalifa-muslims|accessdate=31 July 2014|chapter=''The family all members of which accepted Islam before any other family, was the Yasir family. Yasir, his wife, and their son, Ammar, all three accepted Islam simultaneously, and they were among the earliest Muslims.''}}</ref> but Hurayth had been killed by the Dil clan before 610.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|189}}<ref name=Tabari39/>

The [[Quraysh]] persecuted Muslims of low social rank.<ref name=Ishaq>Muhammad ibn Ishaq. ''Sirat Rasul Allah''. Translated by Guillaume, A. (1955). ''The Life of Muhammad''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-636033-1}}</ref>{{rp|143}}<ref name=Razwy-Ch.AB/> Sumayyah's family was vulnerable after the death of their patron, and it was other members of the Makhzum clan who tortured them to pressure them to abandon their faith.<ref name=Ishaq/>{{rp|145}}<ref name=Saad8/><ref name=Razwy-Ch.UA/><ref name=Razwy-Ch.EC>{{cite book|last1=Razwy|first1=Sayed A.A.|title=A restatement of the history of Islam & Muslims : C.E. 570 to 661|date=1997|publisher=World Federation of KSI Muslim Communities|location=Stanmore, Middlesex|isbn=0950987913|url=http://www.al-islam.org/restatement-history-islam-and-muslims-sayyid-ali-ashgar-razwy/early-converts-islam-and-their|accessdate=31 July 2014|chapter=''"The first victims of pagan attrition and aggression were those Muslims who had no tribal affiliation in Makkah. Yasir and his wife, Sumayya, and their son, Ammar, had no tribal affiliation. In Makkah they were "foreigners" and there was no one to protect them. All three were savagely tortured by Abu Jahl and the other infidels. Sumayya, Yasir's wife, died while she was being tortured. She thus became the First Martyr in Islam. A little later, her husband, Yasir, was also tortured to death, and he became the Second Martyr in Islam. Quraysh had stained their hands with innocent blood! In the roster of martyrs, Sumayya and her husband, Yasir, rank among the highest. They were killed for no reason other than their devotion to Allah and their love for Islam and Muhammad Mustafa. Those Muslims who were killed in the battles of Badr and Uhud, had an army to defend and to support them. But Yasir and his wife had no one to defend them; they bore no arms, and they were the most defenseless of all the martyrs of Islam. By sacrificing their lives, they highlighted the truth of Islam, and they built strength into its structure. They made the tradition of sacrifice and martyrdom an integral part of the ethos of Islam."''}}</ref> On one occasion she was put inside a pitcher full of water and lifted so that she could not escape. She, Yasir and Ammar were also forced to stand in the sun in the heat of the day dressed in [[Chain mail|mail-coats]].<ref name=Ishaq/>{{rp|145}}<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|178}}

Although described as "a very old and frail woman", Sumayyah remained steadfast and refused to abandon Islam.<ref name=Ishaq/>{{rp|145}}<ref name=Saad8/>

==Death==
One evening [[Amr ibn Hisham]] (commonly known as Abu Jahl), a chief of the Makhzum clan and permanent enemy to Muslims, began to torture and verbally abuse Sumayyah and Yasir in front of a large crowd, pressuring them to recant their faith. When they refused and continuously praised Allah, he tortured them to the brink of death. Abu Jahl then taunted Sumayyah by saying, "You are probably waiting for Yasir to die so you can marry Muhammad." Despite being barely conscious and severely wounded, she replied: "You are smaller in my eyes than a beetle on the ground I would [accidentally] step on."<ref name=":0" /> Infuriated, Abu Jahl impaled her with his spear, killing her and making her the first martyr in Islam.<ref name=Ishaq/> Some sources claim he impaled her through her genitalia, while others state her midsection. Afterwards, her son Ammar was made to stand in the hot sun with the same intention of forcing him to leave Islam.<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|145}}<ref name=Saad8/>{{rp|178}}

When Abu Jahl was killed in the [[Battle of Badr]], Muhammad said to Ammar, "Allah has killed your mother's killer."<ref name="Saad8" />{{rp|186}}

[[Al-Tabari]] mentions an alternative account of Sumayyah's life. He says she married a [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] slave named Azraq after Yasir's death. They had a son named Salamah and their bloodline eventually married into the [[Umayyad dynasty|Banu Umayya]]. Tabari also notes some stories as a case of possible confusion between two Meccan women named Sumayyah.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ztahJV58oLcC&dq=Azraq+sumayyah&pg=PA29 History of al-Tabari Vol. 39, The: Biographies of the Prophet's Companions] p.29-30, SUNY Press, 07-Jul-2015, {{ISBN|9781438409986}}</ref>

==Historical references==
The earliest reference to the murder of Sumayya is found in [[Ibn Ishaq]]'s (died 761)<ref>Robinson 2003, p. xv</ref> biography of Muhammad, [[Ibn Ishaq#Biography of Muhammad (Sīrat Rasūl Allāh)|''Sirat Rasul Allah'']] ("Biography of the Messenger of God").<ref name=Ishaq/>{{rp|143}}<ref>[http://insideislam.wisc.edu/2012/01/important-figures-sumayyah-bint-khayyat/ University of Wisconsin-Madison]</ref> Her name ''Sumayyah'' is not explicitly mentioned in Ibn Ishaq; it is a deduction from the reference to her son as ''Ammar "son of" Sumayya''.<ref name=Ishaq/>{{rp|229}} However, she is named as ''Sumayyah'' in the accounts of [[Ibn Sa'd|Ibn Saad]]<ref name=Saad3/>{{rp|178,188}}<ref name=Saad8/> and [[Al-Tabari|Tabari]].<ref name=Tabari39/>

==See also==
* [[Khadija bint Khuwaylid]]
* [[Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb]]
* [[Cain and Abel in Islam|Islamic perspective on the first martyr of mankind]]
* [[People of the Ditch|The martyrs of ''al-Ukhdud'']] ("the Ditch", or a place near [[Najran]])

==References==
{{notelist}}
{{Reflist|2}}

{{Islam topics|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumayyah bint Khayyat}}
[[Category:Women companions of the Prophet]]
[[Category:Sahabah martyrs]]
[[Category:550s births]]
[[Category:615 deaths]]
[[Category:Non-Arab companions of the Prophet]]
[[Category:7th-century slaves]]