His master usually found him a slave-girl as wife (the children were then born slaves), often set him up in a house (with farm or business) and simply took an annual rent of him.
He could sell a slave-hostage, unless she 'were a slave-girl who had borne her master children.
The child of a slave girl by her master is born free, and the mother is usually raised to be a free wife.
But all others call his mother Somayya, who is said to have been a slave-girl of Hind, the wife of Abu Sofian, and who became later also the mother of Abu Bakra.
Many Omayyad princes considered Merwan as an upstart, his mother being a slave-girl; the Damascenes were angry because he had chosen Harran for his residence; the Kalbites felt themselves slighted, as the Qaisites predominated.
