Maisun bint Bahdal

Maysun bint Bahdal was a wife of caliph Mu'awiya I , and as mother of his successor and son Yazid I . She belonged to a ruling clan of the Banu Kalb, a tribe which dominated the Syrian steppe. 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 Syrian steppe and led the wider Quda'a tribal confederation. Old confederates of the Byzantine Empire, they took a neutral position during the Muslim conquest of Byzantine Syria. The tribe established links with the Umayyad family, first through Caliph Uthman , who married a woman of the Kalb. Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, 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, Yazid I. 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. 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.

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)