Maisūn

Maisūn ( Arabic ميسون بنت بحدل, DMG Maisūn bint Baḥdal ; † around 680) from the tribe of the Banū Kalb was the favorite wife of the first Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiya I and the mother of his successor Yazid I. She became famous above all for a poem attributed to her, in which Bedouin and urban life were mockingly juxtaposed and the longing for the desert is expressed:

“
I prefer a swaying tent, blown by the wind, than a castle that stands out. I prefer a
rough skirt that pleases my eyes
to a soft dress ... I prefer a
pack camel, its heavy step,
than the easy step of the mule.
And
I prefer a noble, slender one of my cousins to a fat city dweller. "

According to a medieval anecdote, Muʿāwiya is said to have referred the verse about the fat townspeople to himself, then separated from Maisūn and sent her back to her family in the desert south of Palmyra . Together with her son Yazid, she then spent the next few years there and raised him according to the old traditions.

The poem attributed to Maisūn was received extensively, especially in the 19th century, through several translations into English. The Ottoman author Ziya Pascha included it in his three-volume collection of poems, Hârâbat . However, the authorship of Maisūn as well as the authenticity of the stories about their alleged repudiation were questioned early on.

Maisūn came from a Christian family; it is not known whether she retained her faith or gave up when she married Muʿāwiya. Presumably she died before Yazid became caliph. In the Überliefererketten the Akhbar -literature they sometimes releases as Tradentin in appearance.

literature

Henri Lammen : Maysūn . In: Encyclopaedia of Islam . Second Edition, Volume 6, 1991.

swell

^ Translation after Renate Jacobi: The Arabic Qaṣīde . In: Wolfhart Heinrichs: New manual of literary studies. Oriental Middle Ages . Aula, Wiesbaden 1990, p. 219. The complete Arabic text can be found in Theodor Nöldeke : Delectus veterum carminum arabicorum . Reuther, Berlin 1890, p. 25.
↑ Compare, for example, the translation of Humphrey William Freeland: Gleanings from the Arabic. The Lament of Maisun, the Bedouin Wife of Muâwiya . In: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series 18/1, January 1886, pp. 89-91.
↑ James Redhouse: Observations on the Various Texts and Translations of the so-called “Song of Meysūn”; An Inquiry into Meysūn's Claim to Its Authorship; and an Appendix on Arabic Transliteration and Pronunciation. In: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series 18/2, April 1886, pp. 268–322, in particular pp. 278 ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Maisūn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Maysun; Meysun; Maisūn bint Baḥdal; ميسون بنت بحدل (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Favorite consort of the Umayyad caliph Muʿāwiya I.
DATE OF BIRTH	7th century
DATE OF DEATH	around 680

[1] Translation after Renate Jacobi: The Arabic Qaṣīde . In: Wolfhart Heinrichs: New manual of literary studies. Oriental Middle Ages . Aula, Wiesbaden 1990, p. 219. The complete Arabic text can be found in Theodor Nöldeke : Delectus veterum carminum arabicorum . Reuther, Berlin 1890, p. 25.

[2] Compare, for example, the translation of Humphrey William Freeland: Gleanings from the Arabic. The Lament of Maisun, the Bedouin Wife of Muâwiya . In: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series 18/1, January 1886, pp. 89-91.

[3] James Redhouse: Observations on the Various Texts and Translations of the so-called “Song of Meysūn”; An Inquiry into Meysūn's Claim to Its Authorship; and an Appendix on Arabic Transliteration and Pronunciation. In: The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, New Series 18/2, April 1886, pp. 268–322, in particular pp. 278 ff.