Editing Openai/6904db40-b7e4-8006-ba0a-a4dc114cebef (section)

=== Assistant: Excellent question — and yes, you’re right that there are two main historical lines about ʿĀʾishah’s Aisha’s age at mar… ===
Excellent question — and yes, you’re right that there are two main historical lines about ʿĀʾishah’s (Aisha’s) age at marriage, and they differ depending on which early sources we follow. Let’s unpack everything carefully and see what’s out there beyond just Bukhārī and Ibn Isḥāq / early Sīrah.

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The Sīrah of Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150 AH) — later transmitted and edited by Ibn Hishām — is one of the earliest narrative sources on the Prophet’s life.

According to early historians (and cross-checked with other reports), ʿĀʾishah:
* Accepted Islam early, right after her father Abū Bakr.
* Asmaʾ, her older sister, was about 10 years older than her.
* Asmaʾ died at 100 years old in 73 AH, which means she was born around 27 BH (before Hijrah).
* That would place ʿĀʾishah’s birth around 17 BH.

Since the marriage was contracted around 2 BH and consummated around 1–2 AH, that would make her roughly 15–18 years old at consummation, not 9.

✅ This calculation is based on early biographical logic, not a single hadith. It’s consistent with:
* Ibn Kathīr’s historical math in al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah.
* Al-Ṭabarī’s generational references.
* Al-Nawawī’s note that ʿĀʾishah was among the “first to accept Islam” (which wouldn’t fit if she was born 4 years before the Hijrah).

===== Narrated by Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, from his father ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr (ʿĀʾishah’s nephew): =====

: 

This narration appears in:
* Bukhārī (5134, 3896, etc.)
* Muslim (1422)
* Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, etc.

⚠️ However, it’s important to note:
* All versions trace back to one single narrator chain: Hishām ibn ʿUrwah → from Iraq.
* Hishām’s narrations after moving to Iraq (late in life) were questioned by scholars such as Mālik ibn Anas, Yaʿqūb ibn Shaybah, and Ibn ʿAdī, who said his memory declined in old age.

Thus, this specific report is solitary (āḥād) — not mutawātir — and not the Prophet’s direct saying but a biographical recollection attributed to ʿĀʾishah.

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In Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk, al-Ṭabarī mentions:

: 

If she was born before Islam, that means she must have been at least 14–15 years old by the time of Hijrah.

===== In Fatḥ al-Bārī (his commentary on Bukhārī), he repeats the Bukhārī narration but also notes: =====

: 

He doesn’t deny the report but acknowledges inconsistencies between chronological evidence and the 9-year claim.

===== If Asmāʾ was 10 years older and ʿĀʾishah was born 10 years later, and Asmāʾ was 27 at Hijrah, then: =====

: 

This was also the position of:
* Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah
* Shibli Nomani
* Maulana Muhammad Ali
* Ghamidi (modern Islamic scholar)

===== “Tazawwajahā wa hiya bint sitt” (married her when she was six) — the word bint (daughter) in Arabic could denote stage of life, not precise age. =====
Some scholars have argued that “bint sitt” could refer to being in her sixth stage (adolescent) rather than literally six years old — though this interpretation is minority.

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==== 1. Early historians like Ibn Isḥāq wrote chronologically, not by isnād chains — their focus was events and ages. ====
# Later hadith compilers like Bukhārī collected isnād-based reports, even if solitary.
# Memory issues and oral transmission differences caused inconsistencies in numerical details, which are the most error-prone type of transmission in Arabic hadith science.

==== - The 9-year-old report is authentic in isnād but solitary, from one transmitter late in life. ====
* The historical evidence (Asmaʾ’s age, early Islam participation, etc.) points more strongly to an age of 16–18 at consummation.
* There’s no verse or prophetic saying stating her age — only retrospective reports.
* Islamically, this does not affect ʿĀʾishah’s honor nor the Prophet’s, but it’s essential to understand source variety and historical context rather than rely on one chain.

Would you like me to show you the exact Arabic text from al-Ṭabarī and Ibn Isḥāq / Ibn Hishām that supports the older-age calculation? I can quote it directly in Arabic and translate it for you.