dictated that girls not marry until puberty. But then
again, to have been married at the customary age would
have made Aisha normal, and that was the one thing she
was always determined not to be.
As she reminded everyone who would listen through
to the end of her life—an enviably long one compared to
the other main ɹgures in this story since she would
outlive them all—she was not only Muhammad’s
youngest wife but also the purest, the only one who had
been neither a divorcée nor a widow but a virgin at
marriage. And most important of all, she was
Muhammad’s favorite.
Humayra—“my little redhead”—he called her, though
she was almost certainly not a natural redhead. If she
had been, it would have led to much comment in dark-
haired Arabia; indeed she herself, never shy with words,
would have said a lot more about it. But a double
measure of henna would have made her hair glow dark
red, as was of course the purpose. It emphasized her
difference.
She had been the ɹrst of the nine wives Muhammad
had married after the death of Khadija—oʃered by her
father, Muhammad’s close friend and longtime supporter
Abu Bakr, as a means of distracting the Prophet in the
depth of his mourning. It was easy to see why. Bold and
irrepressible, she would bring him back to life. By her
own account, at least, she would tease and taunt him