How many wives did the Prophet Muhammad have?

Despite the emotive style of his commentary, Noam Kaiser's answer is absolutely correct.
The reason for the dispute over the number of Muhammad’s wives depends on how we define a “wife”. Only eleven of his wives are officially known among Muslims as “Mother of the Faithful”, which is why the number eleven appears so frequently among their answers. However, Muhammad was legally married to at least twelve other women, although nine of these marriages were never consummated. He also had three concubines, which is the opposite situation - sexual partners who did not hold the status of wife. These 11 + 3 + 9 + 3 add up to a total of 26. Here are their names.
1. Khadija, Mother of the Faithful. She was about 27 when Muhammad married her in 595, when he was 24. Khadija was the mother of six of his children and she remained his only wife as long as she lived. At her death in 620, he was distraught.
2. Sawda, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her within three weeks of Khadija's death, when he was 49 and she was about a decade younger. He later considered divorcing her but did not do so.
3. Aisha, Mother of the Faithful. She was the favourite wife (after Khadija). She was 6 when Muhammad married her legally and 9 when the marriage was consummated (he was 52). Incidentally, Aisha was not fatherless at that time: it was her father, a wealthy cloth-merchant, who pressed Muhammad into consummating the marriage so early. Muhammad died when Aisha was 18, having forbidden his widows to remarry. Aisha's father succeeded him as leader of the Muslim community and died when Aisha was 20.
4. Hafsa, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 625 when he was 53 and she was 19. He later considered divorcing her but did not do so.
5. Zaynab (Hilal tribe), Mother of the Faithful. She was in her late 20s when Muhammad married her, a month after Hafsa. It was at this point that he decreed that a Muslim should not have more than four wives. Zaynab died after only eight months.
6. Umm Salama, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 626 when he was 55 and she was 28 or 29. She was one of his favourites.

7. Zaynab (Asad tribe), Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 627 when he was 55 and she was about 37, soon after receiving a revelation from Allah that the limit of four wives did not apply to prophets. Zaynab was another of his favourites.

8. Rayhana, a Jewish slave. Her status is controversial. Some say that she was not a wife but only a concubine. Others say that Muhammad manumitted, married and divorced her. A third variant is that he manumitted her and sent her back to her family. It is certain, however, that he had killed her first husband.

9. Juwayriya, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 628 when he was 56 and she was 19 or 20, the same day as he killed her first husband.

10. Umm Habiba, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 628, when he was 57 and she was 34. This marriage had a clear political motive, as she was a devout Muslim, while her father, Abu Sufyan, was the leader of the opposition to Muhammad in Mecca.

11. Safiya, Mother of the Faithful, a Jewish slave. Muhammad married her in 628, when he was 57 and she was 16, on the same day as he killed her second husband. He had previously killed her first husband, father, brother, three uncles and several cousins.

12. Maymuna, Mother of the Faithful. Muhammad married her in 629, when he was 57 and she was about 36.

13. Mariya, an Egyptian concubine. She gave birth to Muhammad’s last son, Ibrahim, in March 630.

14. Mulayka. Muhammad married her in 630 when he was 58 and she was about 13, within a fortnight of having killed her father. He divorced her a few months later, and she died soon afterwards.
15. Fatima “al-Aliya”. Muhammad married her in 630 and divorced her about six months later. She too seems to have been a teenager. She lived until 680, longer than all Muhammad's other wives.

16. Jundub’s Daughter. This marriage was never consummated, but the details are unknown.

17. Asma, a noblewoman from southern Arabia. Muhammad married her in 630, when he was 59 and she was in her late teens. He divorced her on the wedding night.

18. Umm Sharik. Muhammad married her not earlier than 629 and divorced her on the wedding day. She seems to have been about 40 years old.

19. Sana or Saba. The record is awkwardly worded; it is not clear whether Muhammad divorced her or whether she died; but the marriage was never consummated. She seems to have been a teenager.

20. Khawla, a princess from Mesopotamia. She died on the way to the wedding, so Muhammad never met her.

21. Sharaf, aunt of Khawla and a noblewoman from northern Arabia. She also died before Muhammad could meet her, immediately after the wedding contract was finalised.

22. Amra. Muhammad married her in late 630 or early 631, when he was 59 and she was about 15. He divorced her on the wedding night.

23. Tukana, a concubine from the ill-fated Qurayza tribe.

24. Al-Shanbaa. Muhammad married her in 632, when he was 60 and she was of childbearing age, but he divorced her on the wedding day.

25. Qutayla, a princess from Yemen. Muhammad married her legally in April 632, when he was 61 and she was apparently about 13. He never met her because he died while she was still on the way to the wedding.

26. Another concubine, taken less than a month before his death. Not much is known about her.

We cannot be certain that there were not other wives; historians had a hard time keeping track of so many. But these are the ones mentioned by important historians like Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, Waqidi, Ibn Saad, Bukhari, Tabari, Dhahabi, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Hajar.

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