Seerah · About 595 CE · Makkah

Marriage to Khadijah

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a merchant who engaged agents to trade on her behalf. She employed the young Muhammad for a journey to Syria, and the report she received of his honesty and conduct led her to propose marriage. He was about twenty-five.

The marriage lasted about twenty-five years, until her death, and he took no other wife during it. All his children except Ibrahim were born to her. Her role at the beginning of revelation was decisive, and is recorded in the earliest account of it.

Commentary

Khadijah's age at marriage is usually given as forty, but this is a report rather than a record, and other figures, notably twenty-eight, appear in the sources. Given that she bore several children afterwards, the lower figures have been thought more plausible by some scholars. The honest position is that her age is not established.

On the sources: His age of twenty-five is the standard report. Khadijah's age is disputed in the sources and should not be stated as settled.