The Byzantine theologians on Muhammad and Zaynab b. Jahsh: Marriage or adultery?

Abstract

The marriage of Muhammad to the divorcee of Zayd Ibn Harithah, Zaynab b. Jahsh, was a favorite subject for the Byzantine polemicists. The Byzantine theologians criticized the way by which Muhammad married her and proclaimed that he committed adultery with her. The rationale for this paper stems from a pressing need to examine the primary sources, Byzantine, Armenian, and Arabic, a lot of which were edited and published recently, to search for whether the relation of Muhammad with Zaynab was a legal marriage or adultery. By the end of this article it will be concluded that there was confusion among the Byzantine polemicists and a contradiction among the Arabic sources, too, and that the adultery of Muhammad with Zaynab is a false or invented story.