Al-Khansa

Died: after 630

One of the greatest Arab poets, Al-Khansa was famous for her elegies. The deaths of two of her kinsmen-her brother Mu’awiyah and her half-brother Sakhr, both of whom had been tribal heads and had been killed in tribal raids sometime before the advent of Islam-threw al-Khansa’ into deep mourning. Her elegies on these deaths and that of her father made her the most celebrated poet of her time. When her tribe as a group accepted Islam, she went with them to Medina to meet the Prophet Muhammad, but she persisted in wearing the pre-Islamic mourning dress as an act of devotion to her brothers. When her four sons were slain in the Battle of Qadisiyah (637), the caliph ‘Umar is said to have written her a letter congratulating her on their heroism and assigned her a pension.
The collected poetry of Al-Khansa, the Diwan (published in an English translation by Arthur Wormhoudt in 1973), reflects the pagan fatalism of the tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia. The poems are generally short and imbued with a strong and traditional sense of despair at the irretrievable loss of life. The elegies of Al-Khansa were highly influential, especially among later elegists.

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