Muhammad's Marriages: Difference between revisions

The following lists of women in Muhammad’s life are based on the Islamic sources. Because there were so many women, some of whom had only a very brief association with him, it is possible that this number still falls short of the real total.

As a general commentary on the social problems in the Muslim community, it should be noted that at this early date, the Muslims had not fought a single battle. No Muslim “died in the wars” before the [[Islam Undressed: The Battle of Badr|Battle of Badr]] in 624,<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 289ff.</ref> an event that, in all likelihood, no one could have foreseen in 620. In fact, the only Muslim who had so far died violently was a woman.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 145.</ref> So it is equally difficult to maintain that there was a problem with finding enough men to take care of the numerous widows. On the contrary, the gender imbalance appears to have been in the opposite direction. The Egyptian scholar Al-Suyuti compares different traditions about Umar’s conversion in 616: “He embraced the faith early — after the conversion of 40 men and 10 women — or as some say, after 39 men and 23 women, and others, 45 men and 11 women.”<ref>Al-Suyuti, ''Tarikh al-Khulafa''. Translation by Jarrett, H. S. (1881). ''History of the Caliphs'', p. 112. Caclutta: The Asiatic Society.</ref> All these numbers appear to be incorrect, however, for [[Ibn Ishaq]]’s list of Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia in 615 includes 83 men and 18 women.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 146-148.</ref> His list of Muslims converted by Abu Bakr has 41 men and 9 women.<ref>Guillaume/Ishaq 115-117.</ref> One consistency among all these lists, however, is that the early Muslims seemed to comprise ''far'' more men than women, at least twice (and perhaps ''four times'') as many. Moreover, many of the Muslim women whose names are missing from these early lists<ref>There is no mention of Khadijah and her daughters, nor of Umm Ruman, nor of the numerous sisters of Lubabah bint Al-Harith ({{Tabari|39|p. 201}}).</ref> were married to [[Pagan Origins of Islam|pagan]] men; so even if they had been “numerous” (although they likely were not), there could have been no such pervasive problem of “homeless widows”.