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Draft:Marriage of the Prophet with Aisha

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Template:Related Articles The Marriage of the Prophet with Aisha is a controversial historical subject that has been used, particularly by some Orientalists and contemporary writers, as a pretext to raise allegations against the personality of the Prophet (s). Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, is introduced in famous Sunni reports as the only virgin wife of the Prophet (s) after Lady Khadija (a), and in some sources, she is considered his most beloved wife; however, a number of researchers have expressed doubts regarding the authenticity of these claims. This marriage took place after the passing of Lady Khadija (a) and after the Prophet's marriage to Sawda, and some evaluate it within the framework of the Prophet's (s) social and political goals, including strengthening ties with the Banu Taym tribe.

The most important point of contention among historical researchers regarding this event in the Prophet's (s) life is Aisha's age at the time of marriage. The famous Sunni view considers her age at the time of the marriage contract (nikah) to be six or seven years and at the time of the consummation (zifaf) to be about nine years; but a group of contemporary researchers, by re-examining historical data, have rejected this report and estimated Aisha's age to be between thirteen and eighteen or even nineteen years. To refute the theory of Aisha's young age at marriage, evidence such as a comparison of her age with her sister Asma, reports about all of Abu Bakr's children being born during the Time of Ignorance, and the fact that most narrations regarding Aisha's age originate from her own accounts or those of Urwa b. al-Zubayr, has been cited.

Some research suggests that the motivation for portraying Aisha as very young was to create a sort of privilege and exclusive characteristic for her among the wives of the Prophet. The time of this marriage is considered to be two or three years before the Hijra.

Importance

The marriage of the Messenger of Allah (s) at approximately 55 years of age with the young Aisha is one of the historical propositions that has led some writers, especially Orientalists, to direct accusations against the Messenger of Allah (s).[1] Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, is considered the only virgin wife among the wives of the Prophet after Lady Khadija,[2] who according to some Sunni sources, was the most beautiful and beloved of the Prophet's (s) wives.[3] However, some, citing reports from Sunni writers,[4] have doubted Aisha's virginity[5] as well as her being the most beloved.[6] Aisha was wedded to the Prophet (s) after the passing of Khadija (a) and after the Prophet's marriage to Sawda.[7][8]

It is said that most of the Prophet's (s) marriages were to gain tribal support and strengthen the political influence of Muslims, and the marriage with Aisha from the Banu Taym tribe is also evaluated in this light.[9]

Aisha's Age at the Time of Marriage

Aisha's age at the time of marriage is reported to be between six and nine years.[10] The famous view is that she was six or seven years old at the time of the contract (nikah)[11] and about nine years old at the time of consummation.[12] However, some researchers, analyzing historical data, have considered her age to be about eighteen years,[13] and others thirteen to seventeen years.[14]

Arguments have been mentioned to refute Aisha's young age:

  • Aisha the nineteenth Muslim: Sayyid Jafar Murtada al-Amili, a biographer and scholar from Lebanon, does not accept Aisha's young age and, citing historians who considered Aisha the nineteenth person to embrace Islam,[15] concludes that she was about seven years old at the beginning of the Mission (Bi'tha) and about seventeen at the time of the contract.[16]
  • The narrator of the traditions is Aisha herself: It is said that in no narration from the Holy Prophet (s) is anything mentioned regarding Aisha's age, and the majority of these narrations are from Aisha herself; certainly, feminine nature in portraying oneself as younger has influenced these accounts.[17]
  • Comparing Aisha's age with her sister: Some, by comparing the age of Asma (Aisha's sister)—who was born 27 years before the Hijra—[18] with the statement of historians that Asma was ten years older than Aisha,[19] have concluded that Aisha was born 17 years before the Hijra and was nineteen years old in the second year AH when she married the Prophet.[20]
  • The birth of all of Abu Bakr's children during Jahiliyya: Some, noting the account of the historian al-Tabari that all of Abu Bakr's children were born during the Time of Ignorance,[21] and those who considered Aisha's age at the time of death (year 57 or 58 AH)[22] to be seventy years,[23] have claimed that the nine-year-old theory is called into question.[24]

Motivation for Portraying Aisha as Young at Marriage

The motivation for portraying Aisha as young at the time of marriage to the Prophet (s) by herself or her nephew (Urwa b. al-Zubayr) is considered to be the creation of a special and exclusive feature for her among the wives of the Prophet.[25] According to some researchers, Aisha, to achieve this goal, claimed to be the only virgin wife of the Prophet who married him at a young age, and portrayed Khadija as an older widowed woman.[26] This is while regarding Khadija's virginity, there is a dispute; some Sunni historical sources portray her as a widow,[27] but many Shi'a scholars believe Khadija was a virgin when she married the Prophet.[28]

Time of Marriage with Aisha

Regarding the time of this marriage, some have placed it two or three years before the Hijra.[29] According to the famous report, the Prophet (s) married Aisha in the eleventh year of the Mission (Bi'tha)[30] and set her dowry (mahr) at four hundred dirhams.[31] Sayyid Murtada Askari, author of the book The Role of Aisha in Islam, believes the contract took place in the eleventh year of the Mission in Mecca and the consummation occurred in Medina after the Battle of Badr (the second year AH) at the insistence of Abu Bakr.[32] The shared life of the Prophet and Aisha lasted nine years and five months.[33]

Monographs

The discussion of the Prophet's (s) marriage with Aisha has been raised within historical books;[34] however, fewer independent books have been written on this subject, among which two books can be mentioned: Difāʿ az Payāmbar-i Maẓlūm (Guftārī pīrāmūn-i izdūvāj-i Payāmbar-i Akram bā ʿĀʾisha) written by Mohsen Ibrahim (Ebtekar-e Danesh Publishing) and Taḥlīlī bar Izdūvāj-i Rasūl-i Khudā (s) bā ʿĀʾisha Umm al-Muʾminīn written by Amir Sadeq Tabrizi (Kurdistan Publishing).[35]

Notes

  1. ↑ Ṣamīmī, Muḥammad dar Urūpā, 1382 SH, pp. 419-421; Anṣārī, Bāz-shināsī-yi Qurʾān, 1378 SH, pp. 362-363.
  2. ↑ Balādhurī, Ansāb al-Ashrāf, 1417 AH, vol. 1, p. 406.
  3. ↑ Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, vol. 8, p. 68; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa l-Nihāya, 1408 AH, vol. 8, p. 99.
  4. ↑ Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 8, p. 47; ʿAsqalānī, al-Iṣāba, 1415 AH, vol. 8, p. 232.
  5. ↑ "Jubayr b. Muṭʿim ham-sar-i awwal-i ʿĀʾisha", Lady Khadija (a) Specialized Portal.
  6. ↑ Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Ṭarāʾif, 1400 AH, vol. 1, p. 290; Taqīzādih Dāwarī, Taṣwīr-i khānivādih-yi Payāmbar dar Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Islām, 1387 SH, pp. 97–104.
  7. ↑ Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 8, p. 46; Ibn Qutayba, al-Maʿārif, 1410 AH, pp. 133-134.
  8. ↑ Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb, 1412 AH, vol. 4, p. 1881.
  9. ↑ Qadirdān Qarāmalikī and Muḥarramī, Pāsukh bih Shubuhat-i Kalāmī: Dar bāriy-i Payāmbar-i Aʿẓam, 1393 SH, p. 298.
  10. ↑ Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣāba, 1415 AH, vol. 8, p. 232; Majlisī, Biḥār al-Anwār, 1403 AH, vol. 22, p. 191.
  11. ↑ Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 8, pp. 47–48.
  12. ↑ Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, Dār al-Maʿrifa, vol. 2, p. 644; Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 8, pp. 47–48.
  13. ↑ Taqīzādih Dāwarī, Taṣwīr-i khānivādih-yi Payāmbar dar Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif-i Islām, 1387 SH, pp. 92–93.
  14. ↑ ʿĀmilī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ min Sīrat al-Nabī al-Aʿẓam, 1426 AH, vol. 3, pp. 285-287.
  15. ↑ Ibn Isḥāq Hamadānī, al-Siyar wa l-Maghāzī, 1398 AH, vol. 1, p. 143.
  16. ↑ ʿĀmilī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ min Sīrat al-Nabī al-Aʿẓam, 1426 AH, vol. 3, pp. 285-287.
  17. ↑ ʿĀmilī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ min Sīrat al-Nabī al-Aʿẓam, 1426 AH, vol. 3, p. 287; Jalālī Līqiwān and Mīrsipāh, "Bāz-pazhūhishī dar sinn-i ʿĀʾisha hingām-i izdūvāj bā Payāmbar (s)", Tārīkh-i Islām dar Āyinih-yi Pazhūhish, p. 33.
  18. ↑ Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq, 1419 AH, vol. 69, p. 9; Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, 1414 AH, vol. 2, p. 288.
  19. ↑ Ṭabarānī, al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr, 1404 AH, vol. 24, p. 77; Ibn al-Athīr, Usd al-Ghāba, 1417 AH, vol. 7, p. 11.
  20. ↑ Jalālī Līqiwān and Mīrsipāh, "Bāz-pazhūhishī dar sinn-i ʿĀʾisha hingām-i izdūvāj bā Payāmbar (s)", Tārīkh-i Islām dar Āyinih-yi Pazhūhish, p. 34.
  21. ↑ Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī, 1387 AH, vol. 3, p. 426.
  22. ↑ Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa l-Nihāya, 1408 AH, vol. 8, p. 101; Ibn Ṭāwūs, al-Ṭarāʾif, 1400 AH, vol. 2, p. 503.
  23. ↑ Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, al-ʿIqd al-Farīd, 1404 AH, vol. 5, p. 7.
  24. ↑ Jalālī Līqiwān and Mīrsipāh, "Bāz-pazhūhishī dar sinn-i ʿĀʾisha hingām-i izdūvāj bā Payāmbar (s)", Tārīkh-i Islām dar Āyinih-yi Pazhūhish, p. 33.
  25. ↑ Jalālī Līqiwān and Mīrsipāh, "Bāz-pazhūhishī dar sinn-i ʿĀʾisha hingām-i izdūvāj bā Payāmbar (s)", Tārīkh-i Islām dar Āyinih-yi Pazhūhish, p. 36.
  26. ↑ Jalālī Līqiwān and Mīrsipāh, "Bāz-pazhūhishī dar sinn-i ʿĀʾisha hingām-i izdūvāj bā Payāmbar (s)", Tārīkh-i Islām dar Āyinih-yi Pazhūhish, p. 36.
  27. ↑ Balādhurī, Ansāb al-Ashrāf, 1417 AH, vol. 1, p. 406; Ibn Ḥabīb, al-Munammaq, 1405 AH, p. 247.
  28. ↑ Ibn Shahrāshūb, Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib, 1376 AH, vol. 1, p. 159; Kūfī, al-Istighātha, 1373 SH, vol. 1, p. 70; ʿĀmilī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ min Sīrat al-Nabī al-Aʿẓam, 1426 AH, vol. 2, p. 212.
  29. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-Anwār, 1403 AH, vol. 22, p. 235; Ibn Ḥajar, al-Iṣāba, 1415 AH, vol. 8, p. 232.
  30. ↑ Ibn Sayyid al-Nās, ʿUyūn al-Athar, 1414 AH, vol. 2, p. 368.
  31. ↑ Suhaylī, al-Rawḍ al-Unuf, 1412 AH, vol. 7, p. 534.
  32. ↑ ʿAskarī, Naqsh-i ʿĀʾisha dar Islām, 1390 SH, vol. 1, p. 45.
  33. ↑ Ibn Ḥazm, Jawāmiʿ al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, p. 27.
  34. ↑ For instance: Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrat al-Nabawiyya, Dār al-Maʿrifa, vol. 2, p. 644; Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, 1410 AH, vol. 8, pp. 47–48; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāya wa l-Nihāya, 1408 AH, vol. 8, p. 99; ʿĀmilī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ min Sīrat al-Nabī al-Aʿẓam, 1426 AH, vol. 3, pp. 285-287.
  35. ↑ "Taḥlīlī bar izdūvāj-i Rasūl-i Khudā (s) bā ʿĀʾisha Umm al-Muʾminīn", Gisoom.

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