Wives of Muhammad

Muhammad, the final Islamic prophet, is said to have had thirteen wives in total (although two have ambiguous accounts, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, as wife or concubine). As a sign of respect, Muslims refer to each of these wives with the title "Umm al-Muʾminīn" (Arabic: أُمّ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِين, lit. 'Mother of the Believers'; plural: أُمَّهَات ٱلْمُؤْمِنِين, romanized: Ummahāt al-Muʾminīn), which is derived from 33:6 of the Quran.

Sources give different numbers (11-19) based on narrations about Muhammad's marriages. Ali Dashti lists 23 wives of Muhammad, which he divides them into three categories. Two of these were concubines, and four were women who gave themselves to Muhammad, other than concubines and wives permitted for him by the last part of verse 49 of surah Al-Ahzab. Nine of Muhammad's wives survived after him. Aisha, who became known as Muhammad's favorite wife in Sunni tradition, survived him by decades and was instrumental in helping assemble the scattered sayings of Muhammad that form the hadith literature for the Sunni branch of Islam.

Muhammad's first marriage was to Khadija bint Khuwaylid in 595, when he was 25 and she was either 28 or 41. She was his only wife until her death in 619 (the Year of Sorrow) ended their 24-year-long marriage. After Khadija, Muhammad went on to marry ten women: Sawdah bint Zam'ah in 619; Aisha bint Abi Bakr in 620; Hafsah bint Umar, Zaynab bint Khuzayma, and Hind bint Abi Umayya in 625; Zaynab bint Jahsh in 627; Juwayriya bint al-Harith and Ramla bint Abi Sufyan ibn Harb in 628; and Safiyya bint Huyayy and Maymunah bint al-Harith in 629. Additionally, the statuses of Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya are disputed, as there has been disagreement among Muslim scholars on whether they were concubines or wives. With the exception of Aisha, all of these women were previously widowed or divorced. The common view among Sunni Muslims is that Muhammad had seven biological children (three sons and four daughters) and all but one of them were produced with Khadija between 598 and 611 or 615. Maria bore Muhammad a son in 630 (his seventh child), but none of his sons survived to adulthood.

Traditionally, two epochs delineate Muhammad's life and career: pre-Hijrah Mecca between 570 and 622; and post-Hijrah Medina between 622 and his death in 632. "Hijrah" refers to Muhammad's migration, alongside the early Muslims, from Mecca to Medina due to the Meccans' persecution of the early Muslims. All but two of his marriages were contracted after this migration.