What were the ages of the wives of the prophet Mohammad when they married him?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Mohammed had between 11 and 13 wives:

1. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was 40

2. Sawda bint Zama was 55

3. Aisha bint Abu Bakh was 9

4. Hafsa bint Umar was 24

5. Zayhab bint Khuzayma

6. Umm Salam bint Abi Umayya was 29

7. Raihanah bint Zaid (marriage disputed)

8. Zaynah bint Jahsh was about 33

9. Jiwayriya bint al-Harith was 20

10.Ramlah bint Abi-Sufyan was 30 or 35

11.Safiyya bint Huyayy was 19

12.Barra bint al-Harith was 36

13.Maria al-Qibtiyya (marriage disputed)

Answer 2

More Information:

The wives of the Prophet were of various ages. Remember that in the years when The Prophet walked the earth, "marriage" was a term which not only included the modern idea of marriage (e.g.: Living together, having and raising children, working, paying bills, washing the pots and pans after dinner and so forth) but also of political and tribal significance.

· "Tribal Significance" is an important aspect to this question: Much has been made of the story that one or more of the wives of The Prophet were as young as 11 or 12 years old. It is most likely that the marriages were significant in terms of tribal and familial terms, and without carnal knowledge.

· The Middle Eastern cultures are mostly tribal and family based and have been such for at least two thousand years. Whereas we may not even know the names of the people who live next door to us, Tribal Society not only knows their neighbors but also have a vested, emotional, and societal interest in the well-being of that neighbor.

· Finally, remember that each culture has it's own behavior patterns; just because one society may have practices which are unfamiliar or abhorrent to some of us, shouldn't make hold that society up for viewing through the lens of our own belief system. Sure thing, we can display our hate for an enemy or a stranger, using the usual words to debase an adversary (and we do all of the time), but that is human nature in the most part.

Some claim that Ayesha (or Aisha) was only 6 when her father signed the marriage contract but she was previously engaged to one another but the engagement was broken when her father and all family converted to Islam! However refer to question below about the right age of Ayesha when got married to the prophet that proves that she was 19 years old.

Answer 3

The early Muslim historians tried to record everyone's age at death. Their accounts show that most Arabs knew their age at least to the year and that some people knew it to the day. However, because many of them did not speak freely about their ages, the historians did not always have access to this information. Therefore some ages are only an approximation, while others are completely unknown.

Bear in mind that the lunar year is shorter than our solar year, so 33 years are 32, 66 years are 64 and 99 years are 96.

This is what we know about Muhammad's wives.

1. Khadija bint Khuwaylid. Her age is controversial. Her nephew said she was 40 when she married Muhammad (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 9-12), but he also said that his own age was 120 (Tabari/Landau-Tasseron vol. 39 pp. 41-42). Khadija bore Muhammad six children in ten years, so her nephew is unlikely to be accurate. Ibn Abbas said that Khadija married Muhammad when she was 28 and he was 25 (that's 27 and 24 by our way of counting). Ibn Kathir lists several other versions of Khadija's age, ranging from 25 to 46 (Ibn Kathir/Le Gassick vol. 1 pp. 190-191). The modern historian Kister (1993) prefers Ibn Abbas's version but does not give his reason.

2. Sawda bint Zamaa. Her age is never stated. She married Muhammad in 620 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 39); she reached menopause around 626 (p. 40); and she died in 674 (p. 43), so we can guess that she was 35-40 when she married Muhammad.

3. Aisha bint Abi Bakr. She seems to have known her age to the day. She says she was 6 or 7 when she was legally married to Muhammad in 620; that she was 9 when the marriage was consummated in April/May 623; and she was 18 when Muhammad died in June 632 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 54-55; Muslim 8:3311 (two versions); NASAï 4:26:3381 & 3259 ... and in fact many other traditions too). If all these dates and numbers are accurate, she must have been born in January or February 614 (i.e., she was nearly 19 lunar years old when Muhammad died) so she was 9 years and 2-4 months at the time her marriage was consummated. Some people find it odd that Aisha was engaged to someone else before she married Muhammad; but if it was not strange for her to marry Muhammad at six, it was not strange for her to be promised to someone else at an even younger age. In fact the Arabs sometimes married off hypothetical daughters who had not yet been born, and this was legally binding (see Abu Dawud 11:2098).

4. Hafsa bint Umar. She was born in the year between February 605 and February 606 and she married Muhammad in January/February 625, so she was 19 or perhaps only just 20 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 56--58).

5. Zaynab bint Khuzayma. She was "about thirty" when she died, only eight months after her marriage, so she was probably 28 or 29 solar years old at her wedding in February/March 625 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 82).

6. Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya. She died in September 679 at the age of 84 lunar years, so she was 28 or 29 solar years when she married Muhammad in April 626 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 61, 67).

7. Zayanb bint Jahsh. She died in mid-641 at the age of 53 lunar years, so she was 36 or 37 solar years when she married Muhammad in March 627 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 80-81). However, an alternative tradition (p. 81) says she was only 35 (34 solar) when she married Muhammad.

8. Rayhana bint Zayd. Her age is not known. But she was certainly not less than 14, as she was a Jewish widow. Jewish girls did not marry before the age of 12.5, and her first marriage lasted at least two years (see the history of the Nadir tribe, e.g., Ibn Ishaq/Guillaume p. 436 and Rayhana's personal history in Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 92).

9. Juwayriya bint Al-Harith, according to her own report, was 20 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 85). That could be 19 or 20 in solar years.

10. Umm Habiba Ramla bint Abi Sufyan was 17 lunar years old in 610 (Ibn Hajar, Isaba vol. 7 #11185) so she was 34 solar years when she married Muhammad in April 628.

11. Safiya bint Huyayy knew her age to the month but not to the day. She married Muhammad just before or just after she turned 17, so she was 16.5 solar years old (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 92).

12. Maymuna bint Al-Harith died in 671 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 98. Ibn Hajar, Tahdhib vol. 12 #13898) at the age of 80 or 81 lunar years (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 99), which is 78 solar years. So when she married Muhammad in March 629 she was about 36.

13. Mariya bint Shamoon was sent to Muhammad as a concubine in 628. Her age is not recorded anywhere, but only young and beautiful women were selected as concubines. She was certainly of childbearing age as she produced a son two years later (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 148-149).

14. Mulayka bint Kaab is described "small" and "too young to know her mind" (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 106) but no exact age is recorded.

15. Fatima bint Al-Dahhak died in 680 (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 100) so she must have been young when she married Muhammad in March 630. However, no exact age is recorded.

Muhammad was legally married to several other women, but none of the marriages below was ever consummated.

16. Asma bint Al-Numan is described as "most beautiful and youthful" (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 103) but no exact age is recorded. She was a widow who had grieved "long" for her first husband (Tabari/Landau-Tasseron vol. 39 pp. 88-89), so she was probably in her late teens.

17. Amra bint Yazid's age is unknown. Muhammad married her soon after her divorce from a man who was then 16 (Guillaume (1960) p. 55), so she was presumably of a similar age.

18. Umm Sharik Ghaziya bint Jabir died in 671 (Ibn Kathir, Bidaya 8:50). Muhammad divorced her c.630 because she was too old for him, but she still had dependent children (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 p. 113). She was probably about 40.

19-22. No ages are recorded for Khawla bint Al-Hudhayl, Sana bint Asma ibn Al-Salt, Bint Jundub or Qutayla bint Qays, but the circumstances suggest they were eligible young virgins, i.e., teenagers (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 105, 106-107, 116).

23-24. Even less can be inferred about Sharaf bint Khalifa (Ibn Saad/Bewley vol. 8 pp. 116-117) and Al-Shanbaa bint Amr (Tabari/Poonawala vol. 9 p. 136). They might have been young girls or they might have been in their 20s or 30s. It is unlikely that they were older than this.

25-26. No exact age is known for Muhammad's other two concubines, but they were presumably young girls (Ibn Kathir/Le Gassick vol. 4 p. 435).

Refer to related link below