Art. V.—Gleanings from the Arabic. The Lament of Maisun, the Bedouin wife of Muâwiya

Abstract

Muâwiya, the sixth Khalif in succession after Muhammad, was the first of the fourteen Khalifs of the family which presided during a period of nearly a century over the destinies of the Saracenic Empire. His father, Abu-Sufian, was of the tribe of the Kuraish, a tribe to which Muhammad also belonged. Muawiya and his wife became followers of the Prophet on the same day as that on which the father of the former, who had previously commanded the forces of the enemy, announced his adherence to the new religion.