Abū Qays Yazīd ibn ʿAmr ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nufayl ibn ʿAmr ibn Kilāb, commonly known as Yazid ibn al-Sa'iq, was a chieftain, warrior, and poet of the Amr branch of the

Banu Kilab The Banu Kilab () was an Arab tribe in the western Najd (central Arabian Peninsula, Arabia) where they controlled the horse-breeding pastures of Dariyya from the mid-6th century until at least the mid-9th century. The tribe was divided into ten br ...

, the leading clan of the

Banu Amir The Banu Amir () was a large and ancient Arab tribe originating from Western Arabia that dominated Najd for centuries after the rise of Islam. It was an independent branch of the Hawazin confederation, and its original homeland was the border are ...

, one of the major Arab tribes in

pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ...

Life and career

Yazid was the son of Amr ibn Khuwaylid. His grandfather, Khuwaylid ibn Nufayl, called al-Sa'iq because he was killed by a lightning strike (''al-ṣaʿiq'') and Yazīd was commonly called Yazīd ibn al-Sa'iq after him. They were chiefs of the Amr branch of the

, the preeminent clan of the powerful

in the pre-Islamic period. Yazid commanded part of the Banu Amir during a raid against the tribe by the

Lakhmid The Lakhmid kingdom ( ), also referred to as al-Manādhirah () or as Banū Lakhm (), was an Arab kingdom that was founded and ruled by the Lakhmid dynasty from to 602. Spanning Eastern Arabia and Sawad, Southern Mesopotamia, it existed as a d ...

s led by the Lakhmid king al-Nu'man's brother Wabara ibn Rumanis at the Day of al-Qurnatayn before 585. During the fighting Yazid captured Wabara. He ransomed Wabara in exchange for half of Wabara's properties, 1,000 camels, and two singing girls. When he met with al-Nu'man in

al-Hirah Al-Hira ( Middle Persian: ''Hērt'' ) was an ancient Lakhmid Arabic city in Mesopotamia located south of what is now Kufa in south-central Iraq. The Sasanian Empire, Sasanian government established the Lakhmid state (Al-Hirah) on the edge of the ...

to collect the ransom and release Wabara, the king was said to have questioned how a man of Yazid's short stature could capture a stocky man such as Wabara. Yazid is Sa’id to have responded that it was because his own tribesmen had attended the battle while Wabara had depended on mercenaries rather than his maternal tribesmen from the

Banu Kalb The Banu Kalb () was an Arab tribe which mainly dwelt in the desert and steppe of northwestern Arabia and central Syria. It was involved in the tribal politics of the Byzantine Empire's eastern frontiers, possibly as early as the 4th century. ...

. Yazid recited a verse in one of his poems that "They he Amirleft the brother of al-Nu'man walking in hackles as a captiveand mutilated the troops of the king".

Death

During a raid by the Banu Amir against the

Banu Tamim The Banū Tamīm () are an Arab tribe that originated in Najd and Hejaz in the Arabian Peninsula. It is mainly present in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon, and has a strong presence in Algeria, and Morocco, Palestine, ...

at a place called Dhu Najab near

Wadi al-Rummah Wadi al-Rummah or ar-Rummah () is one of the Arabian Peninsula's longest river valleys, at a length of almost . Now mostly dry and partly blocked by encroaching sand dunes, the wadi rises near Medina at Jibāl al Abyaḑ (the White Mountain). It ...

, Yazid was struck in the head by an opposing tribesman and died of his wound. For this a Tamimi poet Aws ibn Ghalfa satirized Yazid. He was also satirized by

al-Nabigha Al-Nābighah (), al-Nābighah al-Dhubiyānī, or Nābighah al-Dhubyānī; real name Ziyad ibn Muawiyah (); was one of the last pre-Islamic Arabian poets. "Al-Nabigha" means genius or intelligent in Arabic. Biography His tribe, the Banu Dh ...

, a prominent pre-Islamic poet. A son of Yazid ibn al-Sa'iq, Mu'adh, opposed the defection of his tribesmen from the early Muslim state during the

Ridda wars The Ridda Wars were a series of military campaigns launched by the first caliph Abu Bakr against rebellious Arabian tribes, some of which were led by rival prophet claimants. They began shortly after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in ...

. Among Yazid's other descendants were

Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi Abu al-Hudhayl Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi (; died ) was a Muslim commander, a chieftain of the Arabian tribe of Banu Amir, and the preeminent leader of the Qays tribal–political faction in the late 7th century. During the First Muslim ...

, a leader of the Banu Amir and the larger

Qays Qays ʿAylān (), often referred to simply as Qays (''Kais'' or ''Ḳays'') were an Arab tribal confederation that branched from the Mudar group. The tribe may not have functioned as a unit in pre-Islamic Arabia (before 630). However, by the ea ...

confederation in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

in the late 7th century. Another descendant, his grandson Yazid ibn Qays ibn Yazid, was cited by the historian

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (; 18 February 1372 – 2 February 1449), or simply ibn Ḥajar, was a classic Islamic scholar "whose life work constitutes the final summation of the science of hadith." He authored some 150 works on hadith, history, ...

as a transmitter of information about Yazid's war against the Lakhmids.

References

Bibliography

* * * *{{cite book , last1=Sezgin , first1=Fuat , title=Geschichte des arabischen schriftums, Band II, Poesie bis ca. 430H , date=1975 , publisher=Brill , location=Leiden , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrraNpIVn3gC , language=German 6th-century Arab people 6th-century Arabic-language poets Bedouin tribal chiefs Banu Kilab People killed in action