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

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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.