According to Tabari (also according to Hisham ibn %u2018Urwah, Ibn Hunbal and Ibn Sad), Ayesha was betrothed at seven years of age and began to cohabit with the Prophet at the age of nine years.
However, in another work, Al-Tabari says: %u201CAll four of his [Abu Bakr%u2019s] children were born of his two wives during the pre-Islamic period%u201D (Tarikhu%u2019l-umam wa%u2019l-mamlu%u2019k, Al-Tabari (died 922), Vol. 4, p. 50, Arabic, Dara%u2019l-fikr, Beirut, 1979).
If Ayesha was betrothed in 620 CE (at the age of seven) and started to live with the Prophet in 624 CE (at the age of nine), that would indicate that she was born in 613 CE and was nine when she began living with the Prophet. Therefore, based on one account of Al-Tabari, the numbers show that Ayesha must have born in 613 CE, three years after the beginning of revelation (610 CE). Tabari also states that Ayesha was born in the pre-Islamic era (in Jahiliya). If she was born before 610 CE, she would have been at least 14 years old when she began living with the Prophet. Essentially, Tabari contradicts himself.
