Silly me :banghead: . I intended to write “Aisha was ‘prepubescent’ when the
marriage commuted” instead of “Aisha was ‘prepubescent’ when
married” in the previous post.
1- I meant to ask for narrations that specifically state the marriage commuted (i.e. sexual relations started) when Aisha was still ‘prepubescent’ (that is what the OP stated). In the sources you have provided it is stated that the marriage was commuted at the age of 9. Girls can easily reach the age of puberty at the age of ‘9’. There even multiple recorded instances of 9-10 year old girls giving birth (we even have a case of a 5 year old) :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers
I am only saying this to show that the ‘prepubescent’ commutation of marriage cannot be confirmed by any historical document. This does not mean I accept the numbers provided (i.e. ages six and nine that I believe are flase)
2- Girls marrying at very young ages was still culturally accepted not so long ago in the western world. In the mostly Christian United states of the 1800’s the age of consent for girls was 10 in most states and 7 in Delaware:
chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/primary-sources/24
Go back a thousand years and you’ll see that it was a culturally accepted norm in many communities for girls to marry at very young ages. I find it absurd that someone would make a fuss about a social norm that was acceptable from God knows when to even modern times, but is no longer acceptable now.
I am only saying this to show that historically and culturally early marriage for girls has not been a matter of controversy although it is now. Again, this does not mean I accept the numbers provided (i.e. age 9)
3- I have a whole bunch of historical Sunni evidence from Sunni books that clearly show Aisha was at least 19 when the Marriage was commuted. What you provided as evidence from Sahih Bukhari is unacceptable to a Shia. Sunnis believe Sahih Bukhari is very reliable and based on what has been narrated therein, it was commonly thought that Aisha was in fact six or nine when she married the Prophet even though there are many historical documents from Sunni sources that show the contrary.
So to answer the OPs question, historical evidence from Sunni sources show that Aisha was not six or nine when she married the Prophet but at least nineteen years old.
As I have previously stated, when speaking about Islam, make sure you make a distinction between Sunni and Shia beliefs.
