A.H. 56.
was of noble birth, and as such her son took precedence.[1] The story of this lady has special attraction for the early Arab writers. Amid the courtly luxuries of Damascus, she pined for the freedom of the Desert, and gave vent to her longing in verse, of which the following famous and often translated lines may be taken as a specimen:—
"The tent fanned by desert breeze is dearer to me than these lofty towers.
I should ride more joyously on the young camel than on the richly caparisoned steed.
The wild blast over the sandy plain is sweeter far to me than flourish of royal trumpets.
A crust in the shade of the Bedawi tent hath better relish than these courtly viands.
The noble Arab of my tribe is more comely in my sight than the obese and bearded men around me.
O that I were once again in my desert home! I would not exchange it for all these gorgeous halls."
The lady’s verses, coming to Muʿāwiya's ears, displeased him. Like ʿAlī, he had become from luxurious living obese and portly, and felt the taunt of his wife aimed at himself. So he dismissed Yezīd with his mother to the tents of her tribe, the Beni Kelb, where in boyhood he acquired his Bedawi taste for the chase and a roving life.
- ↑ By Moḥammadan law, the son of the bondwoman is equally legitimate with the son of the free. But the Arab sentiment of noble birth prevailed; and it still prevails, as we daily see in such minor principalities as Afghanistan.
