Maysun bint Bahdal () was a wife of caliph

Mu'awiya I Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...

(), and as mother of his successor and son

Yazid I Yazid ibn Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan ( ar, يزيد بن معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn ʾAbī Sufyān; 64611 November 683), commonly known as Yazid I, was the second caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate. He ruled from ...

(). She belonged to a ruling clan of the

Banu Kalb The Banu Kalb ( ar, بنو كلب) was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert between northwestern Arabia and central Syria. The Kalb was involved in the tribal politics of the eastern frontiers of the Byzantine Empire, possibly as earl ...

, a tribe which dominated the

Syrian steppe The Syrian Desert ( ar, بادية الشام ''Bādiyat Ash-Shām''), also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert and steppe covering of the Middle East, including parts of s ...

. Mu'awiya's marriage to her sealed his alliance with the tribe. Maysun also enjoys a reputation as one of the earliest attested Arabic-language women poets. However, that reputation seems to belong to another woman of a similar name, Maysūn bint Jandal.

Life

Maysun belonged to the Bedouin tribe of Kalb. She was the daughter of the Kalbite chieftain Bahdal ibn Unayf. The Kalb dominated the

and led the wider Quda'a tribal confederation. Old confederates of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

, they took a neutral position during the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria. The tribe established links with the Umayyad family, first through Caliph

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish language, Turkish and Persian language, Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and nota ...

(), who married a woman of the Kalb.

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...

, who governed Syria under Uthman, furthered these ties. By marrying Maysun, perhaps in 645, he sealed his alliance with the tribe. He also married Maysun's paternal cousin Na'ila bint Umara, but divorced her soon after. The Kalb and the family of Bahdal had been Christians at the time of the conquests and it is not known if Maysun remained Christian following her marriage to Mu'awiya. The historian Moshe Sharon holds that it was "doubtful she converted to Islam". Maysun was the mother of Mu'awiya's son and nominated successor,

. She took a considerable interest in educating her son and took him to the desert encampments of the Kalb where Yazid spent part of his youth. She most likely died before Yazid's accession in 680. In the assessment of the historian Nabia Abbott,

Maisūn somewhat eludes us as a vivid personality. She seems to have been wrapped up in the life of her young son whom she delighted to dress up in fine clothing to gladden the eyes of his affectionate father. She is generally credited with taking an interest in the education of Yazid, whom she took with her to the deserts of the Kalb south of
Palmyra Palmyra (; Palmyrene: () ''Tadmor''; ar, تَدْمُر ''Tadmur'') is an ancient city in present-day Homs Governorate, Syria. Archaeological finds date back to the Neolithic period, and documents first mention the city in the early seco ...
. She at one time accompanied Mu'awiyah on an expedition into Asia Minor. All in all, she received Mu‘āwiyah's stamp of approval as maid, wife, and mother.

The poetry of Maysūn bint Jandal

Maysūn bint Baḥdal, wife of Mu‘āwiya I, is named in some secondary sources as Maysūn bint Jandal. Maysūn bint Jandal seems, however, to have been a different woman, of the Fazārah. This Maisūn is apparently the author of the following celebrated poem, which has often been misattributed to Maysūn bint Baḥdal, enabling the characterisation of Mu‘āwiya I's wife as colourfully committed to country life; the story even circulates that Mu‘āwiya divorced Maysūn bint Baḥdal because of the offence he took at this poem and that she took her young son with her to grow up in the desert. As paraphrased by H. W. Freeland, the poem runs as follows:

: I give thee all the treacherous brightness :: Of glittering robes which grace the fair, : Then give me back my young heart's lightness :: And simple vest of Camel's hair. : The tent on which free winds are beating :: Is dearer to the Desert's child : Than Palaces and kingly greeting? :: O bear me to my desert wild! : More dear than swift mule softly treading, :: While gentlest hands his speed control, : Are camels rough their lone way threading :: Where caravans through deserts roll. : On couch of silken ease reclining :: I watch the kitten's sportive play, : But feel the while my young heart pining :: For desert guests and watch-dog's bay. : The frugal desert's banquet slender, :: The simple crust which tents afford, : Are dearer than the courtly splendour :: And sweets which grace a monarch's board. : And dearer far the voices pealing :: From winds which sweep the desert round : Than Pomp and Power their pride revealing :: In noisy timbrel's measur'd sound. : Then bear me far from kingly dwelling, :: From Luxury's cold and pamper'd child, : To seek a heart with freedom swelling, :: A kindred heart in deserts wild.

This poem is part of a wider trend of women's verse expressing nostalgia for the desert in the context of an increasingly urbanising society.

Editions and translations

* * Theodor Nöldeke, ''Delectus veterum carminum arabicorum'' (Berlin: Reuther, 1890), p. 25, https://archive.org/details/delectusveterum00mlgoog (edition) * * ''Classical Poems by Arab Women: A Bilingual Anthology'', ed. and trans. by Abdullah al-Udhari (London: Saqi Books, 1999), 78-79 (edition and translation)

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Authority control 7th-century Arabs Arabic-language women poets Arabic-language poets Banu Kalb Women poets from the Umayyad Caliphate