Maysoon & Mu`awiya

Mu`awiya ibn Abu Sufyan, the first Umayyad Caliph, married Maysoon, a beautiful bedouin woman from the tribe of Kalb. After a few months of living under the strictures of city-dwelling nobility, which to her meant being confined like a domesticated animal, she composed the following lines:

لبيت تخفق الأرياح فيه----------أحب الي من قصر منيف
ولبس عباءة وتقر عيني--------- أحب اليّ من لبس الشفوف
وأكل كسيرة في كسر بيتي-------أحب الي من اكل الرغيف
وأصوات الرياح بكل فجٍ---------أحب الي من نقر الدفوف
وكلب ينبح الطراق دوني---------أحب الي من قط اليف
وبكر يتبع الاضعان صعب-------أحب الي من بعل زفوف
وخرق من بني عمي نحيف------أحب الي من علج عنوف
خشونة عيشي في البدو أشهى-----الى نفسي من العيش الطريف
فما أبغى سوى وطني بديلا------وما أبهاه من وطن شريف

A house that winds rattle in
Is more beloved to me than a lofty castle.

Wearing a `abaya while being content
Is more beloved to me than refined raiment.

Eating a small scrap of bread in a nook of my house
Is more beloved to me than eating a loaf.

The voices of winds in every gorge
ٍAre more beloved to me than the beating of drums.

A dog that barks away night visitors
Is more beloved to me than a house cat.

A difficult camel calf that follows sheep
Is more beloved to me than a swift-footed husband.

An emaciated oaf from among my cousins
Is more beloved to me than a rough lout.

The coarseness of my livelihood in open country is more desirous
To my soul than exquisite livelihood.

So I do not desire other than my homeland as a substitute
And what a magnificent, honourable homeland it be!

Upon hearing these verses, Mu`awiya divorced Maysoon, who returned to her family. It turns out that Maysoon was pregnant with Yazeed ibn Mu`awiya; she breastfed him in the desert for two years and then sent him to live with his father.