Ḥalīma Bint Abī Ḏh̲uʾayb

foster-mother of the prophet Muḥammad. She and her husband belonged to the tribe of Saʿd b. Bakr, a subdivision of Hawāzin. Muḥammad was given to her to suckle from soon after his birth until he was two years old. Well-to-do families thought desert-life healthier for infants than that in Mecca. Some modern scholars have doubted the whole episode, but Muḥammad probably lived with this tribe for a time. After the battle of Ḥunayn he honoured his fostersister al-S̲h̲aymā, and r…