Aisha

{ah'-i-sha}

Aisha, b. 614, d. July 678, was the third and favorite wife of Muhammad and daughter of the caliph Abu Bakr. After the Prophet's death in 632, she opposed the fourth caliph, Ali. When her army was defeated by him in the "Battle of the Camel" (656), she retired to Medina.

Aisha

Aisha or Ayeshah (circa 614-78), favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad after the death of his first wife, Khadija. In order to strengthen ties with Abu Bakr, his chief adviser, Muhammad married Aisha, Abu Bakr's daughter, when she was about nine years old. (He was about 53 years old at the time.) Even after subsequent marriages of the Prophet, she remained devoted to him; she is known among Muslims as Mother of the Believers. After the death of Muhammad in 632, Aisha, a childless widow of 18, helped her father become first caliph, or ruler, of the Muslims. She remained politically inactive during his caliphate (632-34), but she later opposed the succession of Ali as fourth caliph (656-61) and incited an unsuccessful revolt against him.