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.
Women in the Quran
With the exception of Aisha, as she was only nine at the time, Muhammad only married widows and divorced women. Aisha bint Abi Bakr is often thought of as the Prophet's favorite wife. She is linked to the Qur'an's injunctions against slander in Sura 24:11-26, for her involvement in "the affair of the lie [or, slander]" (al-ifk), in which she was falsely accused of "being with" another man, Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal al-Sulami. She is considered to be the first woman to choose "God and His Prophet" over "the world and its adornment"; in Sura 33:28-29, God ordered Muhammad's wives to make this decision of preference, after the Prophet was annoyed by the wives growing desire for material possessions. Aisha is also important to the Sunni sect of Islam.