Ages of Muhammads Wives at Marriage: Difference between revisions

{{QualityScore|Lead=3|Structure=3|Content=4|Language=4|References=3}}

The widows whom Prophet Muhammad married after Khadijah’s death do indeed fall into two distinct age-groups. But to label these two groups as “the middle-aged” and “the elderly” gives atypical definitions to these terms. The “elderly” group would refer to those brides between 28 and 40 while the “middle-aged” group would mean the teenagers.  

====Problems with the Chronology and Final Calculation====

{{Quote|Mughaltay, ''Al-Zahr al-Basim fi Sirat Abi’l-Qasim'', cited in Kister, M. J. (1993). The Sons of Khadijah. ''Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 16'', 59-95.|The Prophet returned with Maysara from Syria on the 14th night from the end of Dhu’l-Hijja in the 25th year from the Day of the Elephant [3 May 595] … The Prophet married Khadijah two months and 15 days after his return from Syria, at the end of Safar in the 26th year.}}

{{Quote|{{Tabari|39|p. 170}}.|The Prophet married Sawdah in Ramadan, in the tenth year after his prophethood. This was after Khadijah’s death and before his marriage to Aisha.}}

====Sawdah’s Father was Still Alive====

{{Quote|Bewley/Saad 8:43.|Sawdah bint Zamaa died in Medina in Shawwal of 54, during the caliphate of Muawiya.}}

====Sawdah had Not Reached Menopause====

The fourth ''[[surah]]'' of the [[Qur'an]] is long and was probably not written all at once. But it all belongs to the same general period. It covers many family issues, including inheritance rights. {{Quran-range|4|7|11}} was written to answer the complaint of an Uhud widow,<ref>{{Abudawud|18|2885}}; [http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=711&Itemid=59/ Ibn Kathir, ''Tafsir'' on Q4:7]; [http://www.qtafsir.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=707&Itemid=59/ Ibn Kathir, ''Tafsir'' on Q4:11].</ref> so it must date from after 22 March 625. This same incident confirmed the limitation of the number of wives to four,<ref>{{Quran|4|3}}.</ref> so it must have been written before Muhammad was given permission to take a fifth concurrent wife<ref>{{Quran|33|50}}.</ref> on 27 March 627.<ref>{{Tabari|8|pp. 1-4}}; {{Tabari|39|p. 182}}; Bewley/Saad 8:72-73, 81.</ref> The ''surah'' is also full of invectives against the Jews<ref>{{Quran-range|4|46|59}}; {{Quran-range|4|150|175}}.</ref> and “hypocrites,”<ref>{{Quran-range|4|60|68}}; {{Quran-range|4|136|149}}.</ref> who were supposedly no longer a problem after April 627 according to the tradition (although in point of fact, according to the non-Islamic sources Jews were working with the Arab invaders well into the conquest period, and Muhammad may not have died until after he had personally conquered Jerusalem).<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 466.</ref> So the episode in which Sawdah “became old” and pleaded with Muhammad to not divorce her occurred between mid-625 and early 627.

If Sawdah was menopausal in 626, or perhaps 625, this suggests she was then aged about 45, making her around 40 when she married Muhammad.

{{Quote|{{Tabari|39|p. 173}}.|Aisha died on Tuesday night, the 17 Ramadan 58 AH [16 July 678], and she was buried the same night after the night prayer. She was then 66 years old.}}

{{Quote|Bewley/Saad 8:55.|Aisha was born '''at the beginning of the fourth year''' of prophethood, and she married the Messenger of Allah in the tenth year, in Shawwal, when she was six.}}

===Hafsah's Age===

{{Quote|Bewley/Saad 8:56.|Hafsah was born when the Quraysh were building the House, five years before the Prophet was sent.}}

This was the month between 20 October and 17 November 665, which is a contradiction. If Hafsah died at the age of 60 Islamic years, she would have been born in 607 (median = 4 July 607), two years later than Ibn Saad claims. However, the date “when the Quraysh were rebuilding the House” is precise, and so is the mention of Shabaan as the month of death. If both these details are correct, it is possible that “she was then 60” was only meant as an approximation.

{{Quote|{{Tabari|39|p. 174}}.|The Prophet married Hafsah in Shabaan 30 months after [the ''Hijra''], before the battle of Uhud.}}

{{Quote|[http://www.questionsonislam.com/question/could-you-give-information-about-prophet%E2%80%99s-wives-and-his-polygamy/ Hussein (2011). “Could you give information about the Prophet’s wives and his polygamy?”] in ''Questions on Islam''.|Zainab bint Huzaima … was 60 years old … Of course, it is impossible for a marriage with a sixty-year old woman to have passion. The only aim of this marriage was to help someone who was left alone.}}

{{Quote|{{Tabari|39|164}}.|I asked, “How old was she when she died?” He said, “'''Thirty years''' or so.”}}

If Juwayriyah was 20 years old in 6 AH, she must have been born in 15 BH (between 29 December 607 and 17 December 608). That would make her only 64, not 65, at her death in 50 AH. This is not a serious discrepancy, but it does mean that one of these ages is only an approximation. On balance, the younger age is more likely to be correct. Young people are usually accurate about their ages (“When my husband was killed, I was definitely 20, not 19 or 21”) whereas the elderly are more likely to use round numbers (“I think this will be my final illness, for I’m already in my mid-60s”).

*Juwayriyah’s Median Age = 20 years and 0 months.

*Age Difference = 22 years and 8 months.

===Maymunah's Age===

{{Quote|[http://www.islamawareness.net/Muhammed/ibn_kathir_wives.html/ Ibn Kathir, “Maymunah”] in ''The Wives of the Prophet''.|After the Prophet's death, Maymunah continued to live in Medina for another forty years, dying at the age of 80, in 51 AH [21 January 671 - 10 January 672], being the last but one of the Prophet's wives to die.}}

*Maymunah's Median Age at Marriage = 35 years and 2 months.

*Age Difference = 22 years and 8 months.

===Mulaykah's Age===

If they expected Mohammed to believe that “she is too young to think for herself,” they were suggesting that she was barely an adult – someone whose body had so recently reached puberty that her mind had not yet caught up.

Since the mean age of menarche was 12½ years,<ref>[http://www.mum.org/menarage.htm/ Finley, H. (2003). “Average age at menarche in various cultures.”]</ref> this indicates that Mulaykah was about 13, plus or minus a couple of years. As for the date of the wedding:

===Amrah's Age===

If Al-Fadl was 13 in 627, he was born in late 613 or 614 – that is, he was exactly the same age as Aisha. His family emigrated to Medina three years later,<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 202}}.</ref> and soon afterwards, Al-Fadl petitioned Muhammad to arrange a marriage for him. Muhammad found him a wife on the same day, but it was not Amrah bint Yazid. The girl whom Al-Fadl married in 630 was his cousin, Safiya bint Mahmiyah.<ref>{{Muslim|5|2347}}.</ref>

However, Al-Fadl divorced Amrah within a matter of months, and she was afterwards married to Muhammad. While the date of this marriage is unknown, there would scarcely have been time for all these events to have occurred before January 631. Since Muhammad fell ill and then died in early June 632,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 689</ref> the latest possible date for his marriage to Amrah would be May 632. So the median wedding date is September 631. We do not know how old Amrah was in 631, but Al-Fadl was 17, so it is reasonable to suggest that Amrah was about 15 – a couple of years younger than Aisha.

*Age Difference = around 45 years and 5 months.

==Ages Unknown==

==="Al-Jariya" and Tukanah===

==Mean Ages==

===Skewed Statistics===

A more serious skew of the statistics is caused by the fact that these 14 wives were not the only women whom Muhammad married. He also had four known concubines and at least one other full wife. While we do not know the ages of any of these women, we can infer a definite trend. They all seem to have been teenagers – significantly younger than the mean. If their ages could be added to the calculation, the mean age of Muhammad’s brides would be even lower, perhaps around 22 years.

Muhammad acquired these five women in the last five years of his life, so his mean age as bridegroom has to be raised. While we don’t know all of his wedding dates or the dates where he first sexually assaulted his slaves, the new figure would probably come to about 55 years – making the age difference between Muhammad and his “average wife” a grand mean of 33 years.

==See Also==