Archaeology corroborates the Islamic tradition even further.
An early Arabic inscription reads:
“I am Khālid, the servant of Abiyyah bint al-Ḥasan ibn Usāmah ibn Zayd, the beloved one of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. O Allah, I ask You for Paradise.”
What makes this remarkable is that the inscription preserves the title “the beloved one of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ” for Sayyidunā Usāmah ibn Zayd (رضي الله عنه).
This is the very same title preserved in the hadith literature. In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, when Quraysh sought someone to intercede regarding the Makhzūmī woman who had committed theft, they said:
“Who would dare speak to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except Usāmah, the beloved one of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?”
The inscription and the hadith independently preserve the same appellation for Usāmah ibn Zayd (رضي الله عنه), providing a striking example of how early epigraphic evidence can corroborate details found in the transmitted Islamic tradition.