A review of the article "aisha" in oliver leman's quran encyclopedia (regarding the prophet's marriages with khadija and aisha)

One of the most recent Qur'anic researches of Orientalists is the Encyclopedia of the Qur'an edited by Oliver Leman. The present article examines the article "Aisha" written by Oliver Leman in the Qur'an encyclopedia. In this article, regardless of other opinions, the author expresses the content regarding Aisha and Khadijah if they were virgins or widows when they married the Prophet, which should be examined the opposing opinions in every case. He considers Aisha to be the only virgin wife of the Prophet, and in his opinion, Khadija married the Prophet when she was 40 years old. After that, he has investigated the age of Aisha when she married the Prophet according to Sunni sources and considers Aisha to be a 6-year-old girl while marring the Prophet. In the present research, which was compiled by descriptive-analytical method, each of the cases of Aisha being a virgin, Khadijah being old when she married the Prophet, and the Prophet marrying a young child have been criticized. The findings of the research indicate that by referring to Sunni sources regarding the Prophet's marriages with Khadijah and Aisha, the Orientalists consider the issues in which there is a historical disagreement, so strong that in their opinion, there is no room for discussion about it. However, there are opposing opinions in this area that the author of the article should have mentioned.