Maysun 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. 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. Maysūn bint Jandal seems, however, to have been  a different woman, of the Fazārah. This Maisūn is apparently the author of the following celebrated poem, which has often been misattributed to Maysūn bint Baḥdal, enabling the characterisation of Mu‘āwiya I's wife as colourfully committed to country life; the story even circulates that Mu‘āwiya divorced Maysūn bint Baḥdal because of the offence he took at this poem and that she took her young son with her to grow up in the desert. As paraphrased by H. W. Freeland, the poem runs as follows: This poem is part of a wider trend of women's verse expressing nostalgia for  the desert in the context of an increasingly urbanising society.