The eminent ḥadīth master Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī reports—through the transmission of Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah from Qatādah—that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, married fifteen women. He consummated the marriage with thirteen of them, had eleven of them concurrently under his care, and passed away leaving nine. Qatādah then named those nine whom we have already listed.

(The same account was related by Baḥr ibn Kanīz from Qatādah on the authority of Anas, though the first chain is more reliable.)

Saif ibn ʿUmar al-Tamīmī likewise narrated it from Saʿīd, from Qatādah, on the authority of Anas and Ibn ʿAbbās, and he transmitted a parallel report from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Mulaykah, from ʿĀʾishah. She said:

“The two women with whom he did not consummate were ʿAmrah bint Yazīd al-Ghifāriyyah and al-Shanbāʾ. As for ʿAmrah, he was alone with her and had uncovered her, but when he noticed patches of leukoderma on her skin he returned her, granted her the dower, and she became unlawful for anyone else. As for al-Shanbāʾ, when she was brought in to him she proved ill-tempered, so he left her to see whether her disposition would improve. While she was still in that state, his son Ibrāhīm died in infancy. She remarked, ‘Had he truly been a prophet, his son would not have died.’ He thereupon divorced her, awarded her the dower, and she likewise became unlawful for any other man.

“The wives who did remain with him were: ʿĀʾishah, Sawdah, Ḥafṣah, Umm Salamah, Umm Ḥabībah, Zaynab bint Jaḥsh, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah, Juwayriyyah, Ṣafiyyah, Maymūnah, and Umm Sharīk.”

I say: In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī the report from Anas states that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, would visit his wives in one round while they were eleven in number. The well-known position, however, is that he never consummated marriage with Umm Sharīk, as will be clarified later. The eleven intended in the ḥadīth are therefore the nine wives already mentioned together with the two bondwomen, Māriyah and Rayḥānah.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān al-Fasawī narrated—from al-Ḥajjāj ibn Abī Manīʿ, from his grandfather ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Ziyād al-Ruṣāfī, from al-Zuhrī (and al-Bukhārī cites this report in muʿallaq form from that same al-Ḥajjāj), and Ibn ʿAsākir records portions of it—that the first woman the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, married was Khadījah bint Khuwaylid ibn Asad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn Quṣayy; her father conducted the marriage before revelation began. In another wording al-Zuhrī said: “At the time the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, married Khadījah…”