Mary (Arabic: مَرْيَم‎, Maryam), the mother of Isa (Jesus), holds a singularly exalted place in Islam as the only woman named in the Quran, which refers to her seventy times and explicitly identifies her as the greatest of all women,[1][2][3] stating, with reference to the angelic saluation during the annunciation, "O Mary, God has chosen you, and purified you; He has chosen you above all the women of creation."[4] In the Quran, her story is related in three Meccan chapters (19, 21, 23) and four Medinan chapters (3, 4, 5, 66), and the nineteenth chapter (sūrah) of the scripture, titled "Mary" (Maryam), is named after her. The Quran refers to Mary more often than the Bible.[5]

Mary and Jesus in a Persian miniature[6]
According to the Quran, divine grace surrounded Mary from birth, and, as a young woman, she received a message from God through the archangel Gabriel that God had chosen her, purified her, and had preferred her above all "the women of the worlds."[7] This event, according to the same narrative, was followed by the annunciation of a child who was to be miraculously conceived by her through the intervention of the divine spirit while she was still virgin, whose name would be Jesus and who would be the "anointed one," the Promised Messiah. As such, orthodox Islamic belief "has upheld the tenet of the virgin birth of Jesus,"[7] and although the classical Islamic thinkers never dwelt on the question of the perpetual virginity of Mary at any great length,[7] it was generally agreed in traditional Islam that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life, with the Quran's mention of Mary's purification “from the touch of men” implying perpetual virginity in the minds of many of the most prominent Islamic fathers.