Asma bint Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun ( ar, أسماء بنت خمارويه بن أحمد بن طولون), known as Qatr al-Nada ( ar, قطر الندى, Qaṭr al-Nadā, Dew Drop), was a

Tulunid The Tulunids (), were a Mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin who were the first independent dynasty to rule Egypt, as well as much of Syria, since the Ptolemaic dynasty. They were independent from 868, when they broke away from the central authority ...

princess and the principal wife of the sixteenth

Abbasid caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came t ...

al-Mu'tadid Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa al-Muwaffaq ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد بن طلحة الموفق), 853/4 or 860/1 – 5 April 902, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaḍid bi-llāh ( ar, المعتضد بالله, link=no, ...

Life

Qatr al-Nada was offered by her father,

Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun Abu 'l-Jaysh Khumārawayh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn ( ar, أبو الجيش خمارويه بن أحمد بن طولون; 864 – 18 January 896) was a son of the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, Ahmad ibn Tulun. His father, the autonomous ruler ...

, as part of a marriage alliance to seal an agreement with the Caliph al-Mu'tadid. The agreement, concluded in spring 893, put an end to years of rivalry and fighting between the

Tulunids The Tulunids (), were a Mamluk dynasty of Turkic origin who were the first independent dynasty to rule Egypt, as well as much of Syria, since the Ptolemaic dynasty. They were independent from 868, when they broke away from the central authori ...

and the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

court, and recognized Khumarawayh as the hereditary ruler of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, and autonomous from Baghdad, in exchange for an annual

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...

. Qatr al-Nada was originally intended for one of the Caliph's sons, Ali (the future

al-Muktafi Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن أحمد; 877/78 – 13 August 908), better known by his regnal name al-Muktafī bi-llāh ( ar, المكتفي بالله, , Content with God Alone), was the Caliph of the Ab ...

), but al-Mu'tadid chose to marry her himself. Qatr al-Nada brought with her a million

gold dinars The gold dinar ( ar, ﺩﻳﻨﺎﺭ ذهبي) is an Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in AH 77 (696–697 CE) by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The weight of the dinar is 1 mithqal (). The word ''dinar'' comes from the La ...

as her dowry, which according to the historian

Thierry Bianquis Thierry Bianquis (3 August 1935 – 2 September 2014) was a French Orientalist and Arabist. His main interest was the medieval Islamic Middle East, most notably the Fatimid era of Egypt and Syria, which was the subject of his dissertation. Born i ...

was a "wedding gift that was considered the most sumptuous in medieval Arab history". The Caliph married her by proxy, the jewelry broker Abu Abdallah al-Jawhari ibn al-Jassas, while she was still in Egypt, and she was escorted from there to Baghdad by Ibn al-Jassas and her paternal uncle Abu al-Karadis. She arrived in Baghdad on 3 March 895, an event marked by the luxury and extravagance of her retinue, which contrasted starkly with the impoverished caliphal court. The 13th-century Baghdadi scholar

Taj al-Din Ali ibn Anjab ibn al-Sa'i Taj may refer to: Buildings *Taj Mahal, a medieval mausoleum in the Indian city of Agra *Taj Palace, an Abbasid palace in medieval Baghdad *Taj-ul-Masajid, mosque in Bhopal * Taj building, Nowshera, Pakistan *Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, inte ...

calls her "one of the most intelligent and regal women who ever lived", and records this anecdote of her wit: when her husband remarked that she had had the good fortune to have married the Caliph, and had no higher achievement to ask God for, she responded that the good fortune was al-Mu'tadid's, for their marriage made her father the Caliph's subject, and that ''he'' had nothing more to thank God for. She died on 8 July 900, and was buried in the caliphal palace at al-Rusafa. In 906, one of her half-sisters, who had probably accompanied her to Baghdad, married al-Mu'tadid's son and successor al-Muktafi.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Qatr al-Nada 9th-century births 900 deaths Year of birth unknown Wives of Abbasid caliphs 9th-century women from the Abbasid Caliphate Tulunids 9th-century Egyptian people