Ages of Muhammads Wives at Marriage: Difference between revisions

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 Huwaytib died in the year 54 AH (673-674)<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 40}}.</ref> so he should have converted to Islam in the year 7 BH (615–616). The problem is, he openly admits that he did not convert until the conquest of Mecca in 8 AH (January 630)! He gives a long list of excuses for the tardiness of his conversion<ref>{{Tabari|39|pp. 43-46}}.</ref> but he never checks his arithmetic. If he became a Muslim in 8 AH, this was only 46 years before his death and not 60. This makes his age at death no more than 106. Of course, even this age assumes that he really was as old as 60 at the time of his conversion, which we now have licence to doubt. Huwaytib ibn Abduluzza lived to be elderly, but he was probably not entitled to his chapter in Yahya ibn Mandah’s book.
-Muhammad’s poet, Hassan ibn Thabit, also claimed to be 120 years old. He said he was 60 at the time of the ''Hijra'' and that he lived another 60 years afterwards.<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 72}}.</ref> This means he should have been born in 60 BH (seven years before Muhammad) and should have died in 61 AH. Tabari vaguely states that he died “in the caliphate of Muawiya,”<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 72}}</ref> which was between 41 and 60 AH. Modern historians usually give his death-date as 54 AH, seven years too early.<ref>[http://archive.org/details/diwanofhassantha00hassuoft/ ''The Diwan of Hassan ibn Thabit''.]</ref>
+Muhammad’s poet, Hassan ibn Thabit, also claimed to be 120 years old. He said he was 60 at the time of the ''Hijra'' and that he lived another 60 years afterwards.<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 72}}.</ref> This means he should have been born in 60 BH (seven years before Muhammad) and should have died in 61 AH (680-681). Tabari vaguely states that he died “in the caliphate of Muawiya,”<ref>{{Tabari|39|p. 72}}</ref> which was between 40 and 60 AH (February 661 - April 680). Modern historians usually give his death-date as 54 AH, which is seven years too early.<ref>[http://archive.org/details/diwanofhassantha00hassuoft/ ''The Diwan of Hassan ibn Thabit''.]</ref>
 Not included in Yahya ibn Mandah’s book is the poet Abu Afak, who was said to be 120 years old in 624 when he was assassinated for criticising Muhammad.<ref>Ibn Saad, ''Tabaqat'' vol. 2 p. 31.</ref> Of course, no records have survived from pre-Islamic Medina; it was only hearsay that attributed this great age to Abu Afak. Yet even his enemies were willing to go along with the hearsay.
-Is it really plausible that so many persons (all of them male) lived to be 120? Assuming it is not, is it even fair to accuse them of lying about their ages? More likely, there was some culturally understood convention attached to the number 120. People who boasted of reaching this age did not expect to be taken literally. They were simply saying, “I’m really, really old.”
+Is it really plausible that so many persons (all of them male) lived to be 120? Assuming it is not, is it even fair to accuse them of lying about their ages? More likely, there was some culturally understood convention attached to the number 120. People who boasted that, “I was already 60 before Event X and I have survived another 60 years since,” did not expect to be taken literally. They were simply saying, “I’m really, really old.”
 If Hakim ibn Hizam was not literally 120, nor is it necessarily true that Khadijah (or any other person) was the age he claimed for her.