Aisha: The 9 Year Old Wife of Muhammad

Aishah bint Abī Bakr (613/614 – 678 CE) was one of Muhammad's wives and the daughter of the powerful Abu Bakr the first Caliph who succeeded Muhammad. Aisha was married to Muhammad at the age of six or seven, but she stayed in her parents' home until the age of nine when the marriage was consummated with Muhammad in Medina. Much ado is made of his age but he was only 53 years and looked younger as he regularly dyed his hair and beard with henna. One of the major criticisms of Muhammad made in the West today that he was by modern standards a paedophile. It's a hard one to defend.

One time Aisha was travelling with an army which departed without her as she had gone off looking for a lost necklace (she later claimed) without telling anyone. She was returned to the army's next camp the following day by the young and handsome warrior, Safwan bin al-Mu‘attal, who had come across her in the desert. Rumours that Aisha and Safwan had committed adultery quickly spread. What if she had? None of the Muslims were saying they really shouldn't have attacked, killed and robbed some harmless community just going about their business. They were carrying on about some maybe-it-happened, maybe-it-didn't harmless sex under the romantic desert night sky. Ali recommended that Muhammad divorce her but a month later Allah revealed all:

Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they produce not witnesses, they verily are liars in the sight of Allah. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you in the world and the Hereafter an awful doom had overtaken you for that whereof ye murmured. When ye welcomed it with your tongues, and uttered with your mouths that whereof ye had no knowledge, ye counted it a trifle. In the sight of Allah it is very great. Wherefore, when ye heard it, said ye not: It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to Thee (O Allah)! This is awful calumny. - Quran (24:11-16)

Muhammad habitually provided "revelations from Allah" that suited his purposes so there's no surprise that he exonerated Aisha with a particularly weird reason. Obviously there cannot be 4 witnesses to an event involving 2 people alone in the desert and this became Sharia for proving adultery or rape. It would appear that it is almost impossible to prove such an accusation as Sharia rejects forensic evidence (such as DNA).

Muhammad was sent an Egyptian Christian slave girl by the Byzantine Governor of Alexandria, she is usually known as Mary the Copt, and she must have been really hot. Muhammad just couldn't or wouldn't fuck his other wives as he'd promised to. He only wanted to fuck this Mary. Hafsa (daughter of the powerful Umar) and Aisha confronted him and were righteously pissed off and gave him a tongue lashing. Allah wouldn't stand for that and revealed that Muhammad could break his word any time he liked and fuck who he wanted, when he wanted and he could beat the shit out of his wives if they didn't shut the fuck up. - Quran (33:51), (66:1-5)

Aisha had a barbed wit and commented acerbically after Allah revealed the new rules to Muhammad:

"I feel that your Lord hastens in fulfilling your wishes and desires." - Bukhari Book 6 Volume 60 Hadith 311

Aisha had a powerful role in early Islam as the wife of Muhammad and the daughter of Abu Bakr. It appears she never forgave Ali and was instrumental in having him deposed and murdered after he was appointed the 4th Caliph and was part of the plot against Uthman as well. Aisha hated Ali and went to war against him. She probably hated him even more when he forgave her after winning the Battle of the Camel and taking her prisoner. Ali was later killed by a poison-coated sword thrust while praying in a mosque at Kufa in Iraq. Real spiritual, those early Muslims.

Aisha died at the age of 65 having spent the years after the Battle of the Camel in enforced retirement in Medina.