Ages of Muhammads Wives at Marriage: Difference between revisions

Ages of Muhammads Wives at Marriage (view source)

Revision as of 20:27, 16 April 2013

27 bytes removed , 16 April 2013

m

→‎Aisha's Age

[checked revision]

Sahab

Bureaucrats, Editors, em-bypass-2, Reviewers, rollback, Suppressors, Administrators

48,466

edits

@@ Line 163: / Line 163: @@
 ===Aisha's Age===
-This question has already been adequately answered [[Refutation of Modern Muslim Apologetics Against Aisha's Age|here]] and [[Responses to Apologetics: Muhammad and Aisha|here]]. In sum, there is absolutely no reason to doubt Aisha’s own statements.
+This question has already been adequately answered [[Refutation of Modern Muslim Apologetics Against Aishas Age|here]] and [[Responses to Apologetics: Muhammad and Aisha|here]]. In sum, there is absolutely no reason to doubt Aisha’s own statements.
 {{Quote|Bewley/Saad 8:44.|The Messenger of Allah married me when I was six and consummated the marriage when '''I was nine'''. I was playing on a see-saw … I used to play dolls.}}
@@ Line 185: / Line 185: @@
 {{Quote|Ibn Majah 3:1877|Abdullah narrated. The Holy Prophet married Aisha while she was a seven-year-old girl and took her to his house as a bride '''when she was nine years old''' and he parted with her when she was 18 years old.}}
-These two narratives offer a variant for Aisha’s age when she was legally married, but this is an uncertainty about ''the date of the contract'' (two rather than three years before the consummation). It does not reflect any uncertainty about Aisha’s date of birth, since they confirm that the marriage was consummated when she was nine. The real discrepancy can be missed by a Western reader, but it is obvious to anyone familiar with the Islamic calendar.
+These two narratives offer a variant for Aisha’s age when she was legally married, but this is an uncertainty about ''the date of the contract'' (two rather than three years before the consummation). It does not reflect any uncertainty about Aisha’s date of birth, since they confirm that the marriage was consummated when she was nine. The real discrepancy can be missed by a casual reader, but it is obvious to anyone familiar with the Islamic calendar.
 Aisha was married in the ''first'' year AH (19 July 622 - 7 July 623) and widowed in the ''eleventh'' (1 April 632 - 20 March 633). Since she was married at nine, she should have been 19, not 18, when Muhammad died. This is possibly just careless counting by some person other than Aisha: “Nine and a bit plus nine and a bit is still only 18.” But it could also mean that on the day when Muhammad died, Aisha had not yet passed her birthday. Muhammad died on 12 Rabi-Awwal 11 AH (i.e., in the middle of the third month) (10 June 632).<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 689</ref> If Aisha knew that she had been born on some date later in the year than 12 Rabi-Awwal, then she was still only 18 and not 19 when she was widowed.
-This gives us Aisha’s date of birth to within six weeks. It might have been as early as 13 Rabi-Awwal 9 BH (4 January 614). But it is unlikely that it was any later than 29 Rabi-Thani 9 BH (19 February 614), as any date later than the fourth month would not have been “early” in the year. So we can express Aisha’s birthday as '''27 January 614, plus or minus three weeks.'''
+This gives us Aisha’s date of birth to within six weeks. It might have been as early as 13 Rabi-Awwal 9 BH (4 January 614). But it is unlikely that it was any later than 29 Rabi-Thani 9 BH (19 February 614), as any date later than the fourth month would not have been “early” in the year. So we can express Aisha’s birthday as ''27 January 614, plus or minus three weeks.''
 Her marriage was consummated in the tenth month of the first year AH. This fell between 11 April and 9 May (median = 25 April 623). We can now take an informed estimate of her age at consummation.
-:::'''Aisha’s Median Age at Consummation = 9 years and 3 months.'''
+*''Aisha’s Median Age at Consummation = 9 years and 3 months.''
-:::'''Muhammad’s Age = 52 years and 0 months.'''
+*''Muhammad’s Age = 52 years and 0 months.''
-:::'''Age Difference = 42 years and 9 months.'''
+*''Age Difference = 42 years and 9 months.''
-The exact age or age difference down to the day or even to the year do not matter, of course. The real points are that (1) Aisha was a prepubescent child, and (2) Muhammad was old enough to be her grandfather.
+The exact age or age difference down to the day or even to the year do not matter. The real points are that (1) Aisha was a prepubescent child, and (2) Muhammad was old enough to be her grandfather.
 Aisha was the youngest bride whom Muhammad married. It does not follow that she was the youngest wife in the household. Towards the end of his life, Muhammad acquired a few women whose age in years was even younger than Aisha’s.