Wives of the Prophet (s): Difference between revisions

There is a disagreement over the number of the Prophet’s wives: according to Ibn Hisham in his ''[[al-Sira al-nabawiyya]]'', the Prophet had thirteen wives:<ref>Ibn Hishām, ''al-Sīra al-nabawīyya'', vol. 2, p. 647.</ref> [[Khadija (a)]], [[Sawda]], [[Aisha]], [[Zaynab bt. Khuzayma]], [[Hafsa bt. Umar]], [[Umm Salama]], [[Zaynab bt. Jahsh]], [[Juwayriyya]], [[Umm Habiba]], [[Safiyya]], [[Maymuna]], Umra bt. Yazid Kilabiyya, and Asmaʾ bt. Nuʿman al-Kindiyya. When the Prophet (s) passed away, all his wives were alive except Khadija (a) and Zaynab bt. Khuzayma.

According to a hadith from [[Imam al-Sadiq (a)]], the Prophet (s) had fifteen wives. Moreover, [[Ali b. al-Husayn al-Mas'udi]] and Shams al-Din Dhahabi believe that the Prophet’s wives were fifteen. In some [[hadith]]s, the number amounts to eighteen. Prophet Muhammad (s) had only one wife for twenty-five years; that is, until Khadija (a) was alive. It was after Khadija’s demise and his [[migration to Medina]] that he married other women.

It is said that the disagreement over the number of the Prophet’s wives is because some historians count as the Prophet’s wives his handmaids as well as women who did not actually live with the Prophet (s) for one reason or another. In some sources, [[Mariya al-Qibtiyya]] and Rayhana bt. Zayd are mentioned among the Prophet’s wives.

*Abū l-Qāsim Zādih, Majīd and Kāẓim Nizhād, Mihrī. [http://ensani.ir/fa/article/69571/ Kankāshī Darbāra-yi ʿIlal-i Taʿaddud-i Hamsarān-i payāmbar(a)]. (Research on the causes of Multiplicity of the Prophet's tabwives (persian)) Maʿrifat 108 (1385 sh). Accessed: 2022/05/19.

*Ḥākim al-Nayshābūrī. Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-. ''Al-Mustadrak ʿala l-ṣaḥīḥayn''. Edited by Musṭafā ʿAbd al-Qādir ʿAṭā. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyya, 1411 AH.