Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad

by Tamam Kahn

Overview

"Finally, we get to meet the first women of Islam. Thank you for this brave book." –Coleman Barks, author of Essential Rumi, and other books on the great Persian Language poet

"Brilliant and illuminating . . . awesome in the depth of its research, the grace of its prose, and the beauty of its poetic voices." Alicia Ostriker, author, poet, and Professor Emerita of English at Rutgers University

"Poet, historian and mystic, Tamam Kahn captures the voices and hearts of women you will never forget. I would gladly sit at these women's feet night after night to hear their stories. " -Elizabeth Cunningham, author of The Maeve Chronicles

Untold demystifies the most influential women at the dawn of Islam: Prophet Muhammad's wives. They are presented in all their variety, among them, Khadija, a successful merchant and his only wife for twenty-five years; Umm Salama, who helped forge an important peace treaty; Rayhana and Safiyya, two Jewish captives; and there are others. This unusual book combines short biographies with meticulous research. The reader enters seventh century Arab culture and the first moments of what came to be a new religion. This book is powerful women's storytelling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781939681058
Publisher:	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/02/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Tamam Kahn, poet, journal editor and conference speaker is a regular presenter at Sufi Symposiums on both coasts. She has taught for the Sufi Ruhaniat International for over twenty-five years and with her husband, Pir Shabda Kahn, has led pilgrims to sacred sites in Morocco, India, Syria and Andalusia.

Table of Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Who do you think you are? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Marrakesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
heart not dog (qalb not kalb) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A thousand and one nights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
reading the Arabian Nights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Mawlud and the treasure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
at the Zaki Hotel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
the zikr room on Norwich Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
instructions for Jahiliyya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Khadija, the white shade cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Khadija . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
the visitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
brocade (al-dibaja) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Muhammad comes to collect his salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Th e Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Umm Kulthum: “mother-of-the-round-faced-one” . . . . 21
Ruqiyya, wakened by the words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
throw a lucky man in the sea,
and he will come up with a fi sh in his mouth . . . . . . . . 24
Khadija’s lying-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
seeing more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Khadija visits Uncle Waraqa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Khadija’s hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
the ban . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Aisha, matchfi re in the backlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
slander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Before Widowhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
fl ame, Aisha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
“My wives are like the brothers of Joseph.” . . . . . . . . . . 38
Aisha sees Juwayriyya. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
wanting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Aisha: Widow and Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
owner’s manual: the howdah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Aisha discovers how war can be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
honeycomb: after the year 632 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Zaynab, the beautiful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
unwrapped (al-kishaf ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Zaynab’s wedding meal: a sonnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
swaying lamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Zaynab and the people of the bench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Zaynab and the honey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Umm Salama, mother of peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Abyssinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Hind in Africa: leaving the Red Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Hind’s vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Mecca and Medina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Umm Salama at Hudaybiyya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Umm Salama tells of breaking the idols . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Umm Salama’s Mourning Ghazal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
calamity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Th e Jewish Wives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
People of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
lament for Hagar’s daughters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
the munafi qin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Rayhanna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Rayhanna, pouring out the wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
gold coin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Muhammad’s sigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Safi yya bint Huyayy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Safi yya’s cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
in the tent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Safi yya’s fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
interview with Safi yya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Mariya, from among the Christians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Muhammad and Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
locution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Mariya leaves Egypt for Medina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
between . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Mariya’s needle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Mariya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
why they complain about the Egyptian . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
in her garden Mariya has a vision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
outliving him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Th e Other Wives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Mother-in Law of Muhammad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Sawda: the stamp of approval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
laughter in the dark of the moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
up until the Day Of Rising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Zaynab bint Khuzayma, mother of the poor . . . . . . . . . . . 107
the other Zaynab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Hafsa, the Prophet’s Librarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
defi ance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Hafsa’s Qur’an . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Juwayriyya, the little jewel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
the thirst-quenching well (al-muraysi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Umm Habiba, married by a king . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Watching Her . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Exile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Her Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Abu Sufyan scolds Ramla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
no black mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Umm Habiba’s room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Muhammad’s marriage challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
on the porch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Asma’, the unfortunate one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Mrs. Muhammad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Maymuna, the last Wife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Maymuna and Muhammad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Wife of the Prophet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
The Closing Poem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
how the story goes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Muhammad’s wives and the year of marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Companions, people, and deities mentioned in this book . . . 140
Works Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Editorial Reviews

A practicing Sufi, poet, and speaker, Kahn tells the little known stories of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad in this brief book. Usually ignored or used as salacious fodder, the stories are pieced together by the author, using the few and disparate sources on the lives and personalities of the wives. Kahn also employs the "prosimetrum" technique, which intersperses narrative text with short poems that recreate, in fictional, imagined terms, some event in a particular wife's life. The unorthodox device becomes, as only poetry can, an illustrative window into early Islam and everyday Arabian life 1,400 years ago. Kahn points out that many of Muhammad's reforms were unique for their time and benefited women. Kahn also doesn't shy away from the controversial, acknowledging that Muhammad's marriage to the beautiful Zaynab, the ex-wife of the Prophet's own adopted son, may not have had the purest motivations; she also addresses the practice of veiling. With only a few exceptions, the Prophet mainly married widows, and did so largely to form political alliances. Quite open-minded in his spouses, Muhammad even had converted Jewish wives and had a son (who died as a baby) with an Egyptian Christian woman. Even talking back to the influential Prophet, each of the women influenced Muhammad in her own way. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Huffington Post
Tamam Kahn, a Sufi, has written a remarkable book. Just as Anita Diamant gave us the Jewish matriarchs in “The Red Tent,” and just as Marion Zimmer Bradley gave us the perspective of the women of the Arthurian legends in “The Mists of Avalon,” Tamam Kahn teases out, uncovers and re-imagines the women who surrounded Muhammad... Kahn’s book goes a long way toward peace and surrender to the truth that Islam is a religion of the Book, just as are Judaism and Christianity. Read “Untold,” learn about these strong, miraculous women and weep for the years of peace that we have all lost—Dr. Susan Corso, The Huffington Post

Publisher's Weekly
A practicing Sufi, poet, and speaker, Kahn tells the little-known stories of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad in this brief book.

Usually ignored or used as salacious fodder, the stories are pieced together by the author, using the few and disparate sources on the lives and personalities of the wives. Kahn also employs the “prosimetrum” technique, which intersperses narrative text with short poems that recreate, in fictional, imagined terms, some event in a particular wife’s life. The unorthodox device becomes, as only poetry can, an illustrative window into early Islam and everyday Arabian life 1,400 years ago. Kahn points out that many of Muhammad’s reforms were unique for their time and benefited women. Kahn also doesn’t shy away from the controversial, acknowledging that Muhammad’s marriage to the beautiful Zaynab, the ex-wife of the Prophet’s own adopted son, may not have had the purest motivations; she also addresses the practice of veiling. With onl y a few exceptions, the Prophet mainly married widows and did so largely to form political alliances. Quite open-minded in his spouses, Muhammad even had converted Jewish wives and had a son (who died as a baby) with an Egyptian Christian woman. Even talking back to the influential Prophet, each of the women influenced Muhammad in her own way.

Tikkun

Khadija was Muhammad’s first and only wife for the first twenty-five years that he was a married man. Traditional stories of Khadija portray her as calm, fearless, loving, and free of doubt. According to Tamam Kahn, author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, Khadija was “the rock upon which Muhammad built his family and religion.” She was older than Muhammad. She was a wealthy businesswoman and widow, having borne children with her previous husbands.

Khadija and Muhammad had four daughters. The youngest, and favorite, was Fatima. They also had one or possibly two sons who died very young.

The open hand symbol we call hamsa — which means five in Arabic — is, according to Kahn, a defining symbol of protection for Muslim women, who call it “The Hand of Fatima.”

Khadija died at sixty-five and her death was closely followed by the death of Abu Talib, Muhammad’s uncle who loved him like a son. Muhammad’s relationship with Abu Talib was especially important because Muhammad’s father died before he was born, and his mother died while he was very young. After Khadija died, Muhammad took twelve more wives. Ten were also widows. According to Kahn, being a widow in Arabia was difficult, and marriage to Muhammad gave each woman protection, affection, and spiritual community.

Untold employs prose and short lyric poems to bring the wives of Muhammad into a new light. The format — called prosimetrum — includes prose narrative with poems embedded in it. Kahn’s prose carries authentic historical information from traditional Muslim sources, while her poetry adds texture and imagination. “Tamam Kahn has created a new genre of Islamic literature,” writes Islamic scholar Arthur Buehler. Her poetry gives us reason to linger, while the prose keeps us on the information highway.

Muhammad had two Jewish wives among the twelve he married after Khadija’s death. Kahn begins her chapter about them by comparing the stories of Sarah and Hagar as they are told in the Torah and the Qur’an. She then shares her research about the Jewish communities in Arabia in the seventh century. Following an early battle during which Muhammad is betrayed by a Jewish tribe, he chooses Rayhana from among the captives as a wife, and he begins to learn from Rayhana about Jewish customs. When Muhammad brings home Safiyya, his next Jewish wife “from the family of Sarah,” Safiyya takes an unfortunate spill off Muhammad’s camel just as she rides through a crowd of “Hagar’s descendents.” Kahn described the scene in poetry:

…They keep looking at the unconcealed
woman, spilled out, bruised. They stare at her ankle, cheek,
leg, shoulder, arm, neck, all the shock of luxurious curls,
at the trickle of blood down her arm. Safiyya will
spend the rest of her life dusting herself off, getting up
again and again as if tripped by the shadow –
Sarah’s words to Hagar — I’ll stay, you have to go.

The last line of the poem refers to Sarah, who asks her husband Abraham to send away Hagar, his other wife or concubine, together with Abraham and Hagar’s son Ishmael. The story of the Hebrew Sarah and her son Isaac, and the Egyptian Hagar and her son Ishmael, are recounted in both Torah and Qur’an and figure prominently among the stories of the founders of Judaism and Islam. In Kahn’s poem, she reverses the image, alluding to two of Muhammad’s Muslim wives who apparently taunted Safiyya for being Jewish. In the prose surrounding the poetry, Kahn writes that she suspects that Safiyya nevertheless created friendships with other wives of Muhammad and with Muhammad and Khadija’s daughter Fatima. As evidence of this, Kahn recounts that Safiyya is said to have offered Fatima precious gold earrings.

Kahn quotes author Reza Aslan from his book No god but God in which he states: “If Muhammad’s biographers reveal anything at all, it is the anti-Jewish sentiments of the prophet’s biographers, not of the Prophet himself.” In fact, positive stories about Muhammad’s Jewish wives seem to be missing from theHadith — a compilation of stories from the community that expound on the Qur’an and the life of Muhammad and his wives and others important to the founding of the Muslim faith. Nevertheless, according to Kahn, Moroccan Sufis regard Safiyya as a murshida (spiritual teacher), who taught Torah to the women and girls in the inner circle of Muhammad’s family.

With ease and beauty, Untold gives readers a different perspective of Islam and its beginnings. As author Alicia Ostriker writes: “Untold should be read with joy by any reader who hopes to transcend current stereotypes about Islam. It is a bridge between worlds.”

Rabbi Pamela Frydman, the director of the Holocaust Education Project, Academy for Jewish Religion, California, helped to found Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco and OHALAH, international trans-denominational Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

From the Publisher