KUMAIT IBN ZAID (679–743), Arabian poet, was born in the reign of the first Omayyad caliph and lived in the reigns of nine others. He was, however, a strong supporter of the house of Hāshim and an enemy of the South Arabians. He was imprisoned by the caliph Hishām for his verse in praise of the Hāshimites, but escaped by the help of his wife and was pardoned by the intercession of the caliph’s son Maslama. Taking part in a rebellion, he was killed by the troops of Khālid ul-Qasrī.
His poems, the Hāshimīyyāt, have been edited by J. Horovitz (Leiden, 1904). An account of him is contained in the Kitāb ul-Aghāni, xv. 113–130. (G. W. T.)