Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad

(Paperback)

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Untold demystifies the most influential women present at the dawn of Islam and introduces us to Muhammad's wives.They are presented in all their variety, among them a successful merchant, the leader of an army, two Jewish war captives, and a Coptic Christian diplomat. Here we see them, beautiful in their humanity, wily and wise, giving love advice, thwarting a rival's marriage, serving the poor, and saving a vital peace treaty.

'Finally, we get to meet the first women of Islam. Thank you for this brave book.' Coleman Barks

'Brilliant and illuminating . . . awesome in the depth of its research, the grace of its prose, and the beauty of its poetic voices.' Alicia Ostriker

Reviews

Huffington Post Tamam Kahn, a Sufi, has written a remarkable book. Just as Anita Diamant gave us the Jewish matriarchs in The Red Tent, and just as Marion Zimmer Bradley gave us the perspective of the women of the Arthurian legends in The Mists of Avalon, Tamam Kahn teases out, uncovers and re-imagines the women who surrounded Muhammad... Kahns book goes a long way toward peace and surrender to the truth that Islam is a religion of the Book, just as are Judaism and Christianity. Read Untold, learn about these strong, miraculous women and weep for the years of peace that we have all lost--Dr. Susan Corso, The Huffington Post Publisher's Weekly A practicing Sufi, poet, and speaker, Kahn tells the little-known stories of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad in this brief book. Usually ignored or used as salacious fodder, the stories are pieced together by the author, using the few and disparate sources on the lives and personalities of the wives. Kahn also employs the prosimetrum technique, which intersperses narrative text with short poems that recreate, in fictional, imagined terms, some event in a particular wifes life. The unorthodox device becomes, as only poetry can, an illustrative window into early Islam and everyday Arabian life 1,400 years ago. Kahn points out that many of Muhammads reforms were unique for their time and benefited women. Kahn also doesnt shy away from the controversial, acknowledging that Muhammads marriage to the beautiful Zaynab, the ex-wife of the Prophets own adopted son, may not have had the purest motivations; she also addresses the practice of veiling. With onl y a few exceptions, the Prophet mainly married widows and did so largely to form political alliances. Quite open-minded in his spouses, Muhammad even had converted Jewish wives and had a son (who died as a baby) with an Egyptian Christian woman. Even talking back to the influential Prophet, each of the women influenced Muhammad in her own way. Tikkun Khadija was Muhammads first and only wife for the first twenty-five years that he was a married man. Traditional stories of Khadija portray her as calm, fearless, loving, and free of doubt. According to Tamam Kahn, author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, Khadija was the rock upon which Muhammad built his family and religion. She was older than Muhammad. She was a wealthy businesswoman and widow, having borne children with her previous husbands. Khadija and Muhammad had four daughters. The youngest, and favorite, was Fatima. They also had one or possibly two sons who died very young. The open hand symbol we call hamsa which means five in Arabic is, according to Kahn, a defining symbol of protection for Muslim women, who call it The Hand of Fatima. Khadija died at sixty-five and her death was closely followed by the death of Abu Talib, Muhammads uncle who loved him like a son. Muhammads relationship with Abu Talib was especially important because Muhammads father died before he was born, and his mother died while he was very young. After Khadija died, Muhammad took twelve more wives. Ten were also widows. According to Kahn, being a widow in Arabia was difficult, and marriage to Muhammad gave each woman protection, affection, and spiritual community. Untold employs prose and short lyric poems to bring the wives of Muhammad into a new light. The format called prosimetrum includes prose narrative with poems embedded in it. Kahns prose carries authentic historical information from traditional Muslim sources, while her poetry adds texture and imagination. Tamam Kahn has created a new genre of Islamic literature, writes Islamic scholar Arthur Buehler. Her poetry gives us reason to linger, while the prose keeps us on the information highway. Muhammad had two Jewish wives among the twelve he married after Khadijas death. Kahn begins her chapter about them by comparing the stories of Sarah and Hagar as they are told in the Torah and the Quran. She then shares her research about the Jewish communities in Arabia in the seventh century. Following an early battle during which Muhammad is betrayed by a Jewish tribe, he chooses Rayhana from among the captives as a wife, and he begins to learn from Rayhana about Jewish customs. When Muhammad brings home Safiyya, his next Jewish wife from the family of Sarah, Safiyya takes an unfortunate spill off Muhammads camel just as she rides through a crowd of Hagars descendents. Kahn described the scene in poetry: They keep looking at the unconcealed woman, spilled out, bruised. They stare at her ankle, cheek, leg, shoulder, arm, neck, all the shock of luxurious curls, at the trickle of blood down her arm. Safiyya will spend the rest of her life dusting herself off, getting up again and again as if tripped by the shadow Sarahs words to Hagar Ill stay, you have to go. The last line of the poem refers to Sarah, who asks her husband Abraham to send away Hagar, his other wife or concubine, together with Abraham and Hagars son Ishmael. The story of the Hebrew Sarah and her son Isaac, and the Egyptian Hagar and her son Ishmael, are recounted in both Torah and Quran and figure prominently among the stories of the founders of Judaism and Islam. In Kahns poem, she reverses the image, alluding to two of Muhammads Muslim wives who apparently taunted Safiyya for being Jewish. In the prose surrounding the poetry, Kahn writes that she suspects that Safiyya nevertheless created friendships with other wives of Muhammad and with Muhammad and Khadijas daughter Fatima. As evidence of this, Kahn recounts that Safiyya is said to have offered Fatima precious gold earrings. Kahn quotes author Reza Aslan from his book No god but God in which he states: If Muhammads biographers reveal anything at all, it is the anti-Jewish sentiments of the prophets biographers, not of the Prophet himself. In fact, positive stories about Muhammads Jewish wives seem to be missing from theHadith a compilation of stories from the community that expound on the Quran and the life of Muhammad and his wives and others important to the founding of the Muslim faith. Nevertheless, according to Kahn, Moroccan Sufis regard Safiyya as a murshida (spiritual teacher), who taught Torah to the women and girls in the inner circle of Muhammads family. With ease and beauty, Untold gives readers a different perspective of Islam and its beginnings. As author Alicia Ostriker writes: Untold should be read with joy by any reader who hopes to transcend current stereotypes about Islam. It is a bridge between worlds. Rabbi Pamela Frydman, the director of the Holocaust Education Project, Academy for Jewish Religion, California, helped to found Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco and OHALAH, international trans-denominational Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.
Huffington Post Tamam Kahn, a Sufi, has written a remarkable book. Just as Anita Diamant gave us the Jewish matriarchs in The Red Tent, and just as Marion Zimmer Bradley gave us the perspective of the women of the Arthurian legends in The Mists of Avalon, Tamam Kahn teases out, uncovers and re-imagines the women who surrounded Muhammad... Kahns book goes a long way toward peace and surrender to the truth that Islam is a religion of the Book, just as are Judaism and Christianity. Read Untold, learn about these strong, miraculous women and weep for the years of peace that we have all lost--Dr. Susan Corso, The Huffington Post Publisher's Weekly A practicing Sufi, poet, and speaker, Kahn tells the little-known stories of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad in this brief book. Usually ignored or used as salacious fodder, the stories are pieced together by the author, using the few and disparate sources on the lives and personalities of the wives. Kahn also employs the prosimetrum technique, which intersperses narrative text with short poems that recreate, in fictional, imagined terms, some event in a particular wifes life. The unorthodox device becomes, as only poetry can, an illustrative window into early Islam and everyday Arabian life 1,400 years ago. Kahn points out that many of Muhammads reforms were unique for their time and benefited women. Kahn also doesnt shy away from the controversial, acknowledging that Muhammads marriage to the beautiful Zaynab, the ex-wife of the Prophets own adopted son, may not have had the purest motivations; she also addresses the practice of veiling. With onl y a few exceptions, the Prophet mainly married widows and did so largely to form political alliances. Quite open-minded in his spouses, Muhammad even had converted Jewish wives and had a son (who died as a baby) with an Egyptian Christian woman. Even talking back to the influential Prophet, each of the women influenced Muhammad in her own way. Tikkun Khadija was Muhammads first and only wife for the first twenty-five years that he was a married man. Traditional stories of Khadija portray her as calm, fearless, loving, and free of doubt. According to Tamam Kahn, author of Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad, Khadija was the rock upon which Muhammad built his family and religion. She was older than Muhammad. She was a wealthy businesswoman and widow, having borne children with her previous husbands. Khadija and Muhammad had four daughters. The youngest, and favorite, was Fatima. They also had one or possibly two sons who died very young. The open hand symbol we call hamsa which means five in Arabic is, according to Kahn, a defining symbol of protection for Muslim women, who call it The Hand of Fatima. Khadija died at sixty-five and her death was closely followed by the death of Abu Talib, Muhammads uncle who loved him like a son. Muhammads relationship with Abu Talib was especially important because Muhammads father died before he was born, and his mother died while he was very young. After Khadija died, Muhammad took twelve more wives. Ten were also widows. According to Kahn, being a widow in Arabia was difficult, and marriage to Muhammad gave each woman protection, affection, and spiritual community. Untold employs prose and short lyric poems to bring the wives of Muhammad into a new light. The format called prosimetrum includes prose narrative with poems embedded in it. Kahns prose carries authentic historical information from traditional Muslim sources, while her poetry adds texture and imagination. Tamam Kahn has created a new genre of Islamic literature, writes Islamic scholar Arthur Buehler. Her poetry gives us reason to linger, while the prose keeps us on the information highway. Muhammad had two Jewish wives among the twelve he married after Khadijas death. Kahn begins her chapter about them by comparing the stories of Sarah and Hagar as they are told in the Torah and the Quran. She then shares her research about the Jewish communities in Arabia in the seventh century. Following an early battle during which Muhammad is betrayed by a Jewish tribe, he chooses Rayhana from among the captives as a wife, and he begins to learn from Rayhana about Jewish customs. When Muhammad brings home Safiyya, his next Jewish wife from the family of Sarah, Safiyya takes an unfortunate spill off Muhammads camel just as she rides through a crowd of Hagars descendents. Kahn described the scene in poetry: They keep looking at the unconcealed woman, spilled out, bruised. They stare at her ankle, cheek, leg, shoulder, arm, neck, all the shock of luxurious curls, at the trickle of blood down her arm. Safiyya will spend the rest of her life dusting herself off, getting up again and again as if tripped by the shadow Sarahs words to Hagar Ill stay, you have to go. The last line of the poem refers to Sarah, who asks her husband Abraham to send away Hagar, his other wife or concubine, together with Abraham and Hagars son Ishmael. The story of the Hebrew Sarah and her son Isaac, and the Egyptian Hagar and her son Ishmael, are recounted in both Torah and Quran and figure prominently among the stories of the founders of Judaism and Islam. In Kahns poem, she reverses the image, alluding to two of Muhammads Muslim wives who apparently taunted Safiyya for being Jewish. In the prose surrounding the poetry, Kahn writes that she suspects that Safiyya nevertheless created friendships with other wives of Muhammad and with Muhammad and Khadijas daughter Fatima. As evidence of this, Kahn recounts that Safiyya is said to have offered Fatima precious gold earrings. Kahn quotes author Reza Aslan from his book No god but God in which he states: If Muhammads biographers reveal anything at all, it is the anti-Jewish sentiments of the prophets biographers, not of the Prophet himself. In fact, positive stories about Muhammads Jewish wives seem to be missing from theHadith a compilation of stories from the community that expound on the Quran and the life of Muhammad and his wives and others important to the founding of the Muslim faith. Nevertheless, according to Kahn, Moroccan Sufis regard Safiyya as a murshida (spiritual teacher), who taught Torah to the women and girls in the inner circle of Muhammads family. With ease and beauty, Untold gives readers a different perspective of Islam and its beginnings. As author Alicia Ostriker writes: Untold should be read with joy by any reader who hopes to transcend current stereotypes about Islam. It is a bridge between worlds. Rabbi Pamela Frydman, the director of the Holocaust Education Project, Academy for Jewish Religion, California, helped to found Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco and OHALAH, international trans-denominational Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

Author Bio

Tamam Kahn, poet, journal editor and conference speaker is a regular presenter at Sufi Symposiums on both coasts. She has taught for the Sufi Ruhaniat International for over twenty-five years and with her husband, Pir Shabda Kahn, has led pilgrims to sacred sites in Morocco, India, Syria and Andalusia.