ʿĀʾISHAH BINT ABĪ BAKR (d. AH 59/678 CE), child bride of the prophet Muḥammad and daughter of the first Islamic caliph, Abū Bakr. ʿAʾishah was born in Mecca several years before the community's emigration from Mecca to Medina in AH 1/622 CE. She was the second in the series of women whom Muḥammad married after the death of his first wife, Khadījah. Although the marriage was doubtless constructed to strengthen the alliance between the Prophet and his early supporter, Abū Bakr, ʿAʾishah soon became a favorite of her husband. Tales of his delight in her abound. In childhood, she spread her toys before him, and it was in her quarters that he chose to die and requested that his body be buried.

Before and after...