Extracting the Historical Authenticity of Numbers in the Sīra: The Case of Khadījah’s Marriage to the Prophet Muḥammad

Abstract

There have been numerous studies devoted to examining the historical content of the Sīra. These studies have varied from being cautious of minute and specific details, such as the specifics of conquests, to full-blown scepticism of the entire tradition. This article seeks to contribute to this discussion by examining one of the most ubiquitously held positions on age, that of Khadījah marrying the Prophet Muhammad at the age of 40. Based on the earliest narratives and contextual information, we argue that this age is unlikely. Instead, this number serves more as a symbolic literary device because of the way it is used in contemporaneous Arabic literature. Aspects of her biography, such as the number of children she had with the Prophet, also make this older age less likely. However, this does not necessitate disregarding the Sīra tradition. On the contrary, we argue that by working closely with this tradition we are able to extract a far more likely age of 28.