Madam Aishah, a Study of her age at the time of her marriage with Prophet Muhammad

The ancient historical references:

Though historians differ regarding Aishah’s exact year of birth, some facts are available hidden in historical references, which can bring us to various conclusions.

One early historian who gave a precise statement was Ibn Sa’d, who recorded in his ‘Tabaqat’ that Aishah was born in the fourth year of the Prophethood (ie 614 CE). Thus, she would indeed have been six years old if her nikah took place in 620.

This tally precisely with such hadiths as these two recorded in the collection of al-Bukhari:

5.43. 234. Narrated Aishah: The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Madinah and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell out. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Umm Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became normal, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, “Best wishes and Allah’s Blessing and a good luck.” Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah’s Messenger came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.

5.43. 236. Narrated Hisham’s father: Khadijah died three years before the Prophet departed to Madinah. He stayed there for two years or so and then he married Aishah when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consummated that marriage when she was nine years old.

However, there is considerable evidence produced by other biographers that is not compatible with the theory that she married at the age of six. Indeed, other narratives of Ibn Sa’d himself contradict this view.