Khadijah had been much sought after by the men of Mecca, both for her riches and for her beauty, but she had preferred to remain independent, and continued her orderly life among her maidens, attending to her household, and finding enough occupation in the supervision of her many mercantile ventures.  She was about forty, fair of countenance, and gifted with a rich nature, whose leading qualities were affection and sympathy.  She seems to have been pre-eminently one of those receptive women who are good to consult for the clarification of ideas.  Her intelligence was quick to grasp another’s thought, if she did not originate thought within herself.  She was a woman fitted to be the helper and guide of such a man as Mahomet, eager, impulsive, prone to swiftly alternating extremes of depression and elation.  A subtle mental attraction drew them together, and Khadijah divined intuitively the power lying within the mind of this youth and also his need of her, both mentally and materially, to enable him to realise his whole self.  Therefore as she was the first to awaken to her desire for him, the first advances come from her.

She sent her sister to Mahomet to induce him to change his mind upon the subject of marriage, and when he found that the rich and gracious Khadijah offered him her hand, he could not believe his good fortune, and assured the sister that he was eager to make her his wife.  The alliance, in spite of its personal suitability, was far from being advantageous to Khadijah from a worldly point of view, and the traditions of how her father’s consent was obtained have all the savour of contemporary evidence.

The father was bidden to a feast, and there plied right royally with wine.  When his reason returned he asked the meaning of the great spread of viands, the canopy, and the chapleted heads of the guests.  Thereupon he was told it was the marriage-feast of Mahomet and Khadijah, and his wrath and amazement were great, for had he not by his presence given sanction to the nuptials?  The incident throws some light upon the marriage laws current at the time.  Khadijah, though forty and a widow, was still under the guardianship of her father, having passed to him after the death of her husband, and his consent was needed before she married again.

The marriage contracted by mutual desire was followed by a time of leisure and happiness, which Mahomet remembered all his life.  Never did any man feel his marriage gift (in Mahomet’s case twenty young camels) more fitly given than the youth whom Khudijah rescued from poverty, and to whom she gave the boon of her companionship and counsel.  The marriage was fruitful; two sons were born, the eldest Kasim, wherefore Mahomet received the title of Abu-el-Kasim, the father of Kasim, but both these died in infancy.  There were also four daughters born to Mahomet—­Zeineb, Rockeya, Umm Kolthum, and Fatima.  These were important later on for the marriages they contracted with Mahomet’s supporters, and indeed his whole position was considerably solidified by the alliances between his daughters and his chief adherents.