Salma bint Amr

Daughter of the chieftain of the Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār, a prominent clan of the Khazraj tribe of Yathrib. A remarkable woman by any standard: she was a businesswoman of standing, and she exercised an independence in marriage that was unusual even for Arabian society. She would marry and divorce men of her own choosing rather than being chosen. She had been divorced multiple times by her own preference before Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf encountered her.

When Hāshim, the Prophet ﷺ's great-grandfather and the most distinguished trader of the Quraysh, passed through Yathrib on his trading route to Syria, he was struck by her energy, intelligence, and independence. He sent a proposal through her father. She set her conditions: she would remain in Yathrib, any children born would stay with her in Yathrib, and she would not give up her business and independent life.

Hāshim agreed. They were together only briefly, he died in Gaza (Palestine) while trading, and Salmā was pregnant at the time of his death. She did not inform the Quraysh of the pregnancy, keeping the child with her in Yathrib. She raised him there. When her son was born, he had a white streak on his head, and she named him Shayba ("the grey one"). He grew up in Yathrib without the Quraysh knowing of his existence.

Years later, Hāshim's brother al-Muṭṭalib discovered Shayba, convinced the young man to return to Makkah, and brought him back, causing Shayba to become known forever as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (as people assumed he was al-Muṭṭalib's slave). This son, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, became the grandfather of the Prophet ﷺ.

Her bloodline thus created the direct maternal link between the Prophet ﷺ and the Khazraj tribe of Yathrib, making the Prophet ﷺ a second cousin to the Khazraj, and specifically making Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī (from the same Banū ʿAdī ibn al-Najjār) one of the Prophet's closest living relatives in Madinah.