MAISUNA
was a daughter of the tribe of Calab; a tribe, according to Abulfeda,
remarkable both for the purity of dialect spoken in it, and for
the number of poets it had produced. She was married, whilst
very young, to the Khaliph Mowiah. But this exalted situation
by no means suited the disposition of Maisuna, and amidst all
the pomp and splendor of Damascus, she languished for the simple
peasures of her native desert.
These feelings gave birth to the previous
simple stanzas, which she took the greatest delight in singing,
whenever she could find an opportunity to indulge her melancholy
in private. She was unfortunately overheard one day by Mowiah,
who was of course not a little offended with such a discovery
of his wife's sentiments; and as a punishment for her fault,
he ordered her to retire from court. Maisuna immediately obeyed,
and taking her infant son Yezid with her, returned to Yeman:
nor did she revisit Damascus till after the death of Mowiah,
when Yezid ascended the throne. |