At a glance
- Roles
- Companion · Scholar
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Prophetic Era · The Rashidun Caliphate
- Region
- Arabia
- Identifiers
- Wikidata
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
Life in time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
WomenScripture and its sciences
Place in the story
- CompanionTradition
- Family of the Prophet · c. 625 CE · c. 4 AH† – 632 CE · 11 AH†Tradition
- Transmitter · c. 632 CE · c. 11 AH†Historical
Sunni (transmitted)
Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.
Brief
Hafsa bint Umar (may God be pleased with her) was a wife of the Prophet and a daughter of the second caliph. Sunni tradition remembers her above all as the keeper of the collected Qur'anic codex — the copy from which the standard text was made.
Life
Born about 605 CE, she married young, lost her husband to wounds after The Battle of Badr, and married the Prophet about 625 1. She lived in the Prophet's household in Medina until his death in 632.
Her lasting role came later. When the Qur'an was gathered under Abu Bakr al-Siddiq after the deaths of many reciters, the sheets were entrusted — in the traditional account — to Hafsa's keeping; when Uthman ibn Affan later ordered a standard recension, her copy was its base 1. She died in Medina in 665 CE.
Legacy
Between memory and manuscript, the tradition says the text passed through her house. That makes Hafsa a quiet but central figure in the history of the Qur'an as a written book.
For young visitors
Before printing, books existed as a few handwritten pages. Hafsa kept the pages of the Qur'an safe in her home — and the copies we have today go back to hers.
Connections
- Sibling of
- Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab
- Born in
- Mecca
- Died in
- Medina
- Child of
- Umar ibn al-Khattab· Zaynab bint Maz'un
- Spouse of
- Muhammad· Khunays ibn Hudhafa
- Member of
- Ahl al-Bayt· Mothers of the Believers
- Participated in
- The Hijra· The Farewell Pilgrimage· The Scribes of Quraysh and the Prophet's House· The Prophet's withdrawal from his wives· Uthman's standardization of the mushaf
- Mentioned in
- Bukhari 716 — Tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayer· Bukhari 4987 — Uthman's standard copies· Muslim 2479 — Abdullah is a righteous man; would that he prayed at night· Muwatta 336· Muwatta 363· Muwatta 368· Muwatta 473· Muwatta 1695· Muwatta 1750· Muwatta 1762· Muwatta 1769· Muwatta 2203· Muwatta 758· Muwatta 789· Muwatta 848· Muwatta 880· Muwatta 1168
People and things also explored
Aisha bint Abi Bakr· Muhammad· Umar ibn al-Khattab· Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab· Abu Bakr al-Siddiq· Umm Salama (Hind bint Abi Umayya)· Medina· Sawda bint Zam'a
Sources
- Ibn Sa'd, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir (Bewley translation, Ta-Ha)
- Ibn Ishaq / Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (1955)
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
- Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul: Tarajim wa Qisas — al-Maktaba al-Asriyya
- Sahih al-Bukhari
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Hafsa bint Umar”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/hafsa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-19.