Muhammad's wives
Muhammad was monogamous for 25 years. After his first wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid died, he proceeded to marry the wives listed below, and most of them were widows. Muhammad's life is traditionally delineated as two epochs: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca, a city in western Arabia, from the year 570 to 622, and post-hijra in Medina, from 622 until his death in 632. All but two of his marriages were contracted after the Hijra (migration to Medina). Of Muhammad's thirteen wives, at least two, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, were referred to simply as concubines; however, there is debate among Muslims as to whether these two officially became his wives. Of his thirteen wives, only two bore him children, a fact which has been described as "curious" by Cornell University Professor of Near Eastern Studies David S. Powers.
Year of Sorrow
Khadija, Muhammad's first and only wife for the 25 years up to her death, died in 619 CE when she was about 65 years old. Muhammad was almost 50 at this time, and the death happened not long after the end of the boycott against Muhammad's clan. The boycott prohibited, among other things, trade with Muhammad's family. The food shortage that it caused probably contributed towards Khadija's death.