al-Ash'ath ibn Qays

Al-Ash'ath ibn Qays ibn Ma'dikarib al-Kindi, known by the kunya Abu Muhammad. His name was Ma'dikarib, and he was given the nickname al-Ash'ath. Muhammad ibn Yazid said: he was always dishevelled about the head, so he was called al-Ash'ath. ¹

Ibn Sa'd said he came to the Prophet in 10 AH at the head of seventy riders from Kinda. He was one of the kings of Kinda and held the mirba' of Hadramawt, according to Ibn al-Kalbi. Al-Bukhari and Muslim both recorded his hadith in their Sahih collections. ¹

Al-Ash'ath had apostatized with others among the Kindites. He was taken captive and brought to Abu Bakr; he became Muslim, and Abu Bakr released him and married him to his sister Umm Farwa, in a long account. ¹ Al-Waqidi reports from Zayd ibn Aslam, from his father, that he heard al-Ash'ath say to Abu Bakr when he was brought in during the Ridda: "Keep me for your war and marry me to your sister." Abu Bakr did so. ¹ In al-Tabarani's account, after Abu Bakr married him to his sister, al-Ash'ath drew his sword, entered the camel market and began hamstringing every camel and she-camel. The people cried out that al-Ash'ath had disbelieved. When he had finished, he threw down his sword and said that he had not disbelieved at all: this man had married him to his sister, and had they been in their own lands the feast would have been something else. He told the people of Medina to eat, and the owners of the camels to come and take their worth. ¹ In the account of Qays ibn Abi Hazim, from Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid, al-Ash'ath put Jarir forward to lead a funeral prayer and said: he did not apostatize, but I had apostatized. ¹

He witnessed the Yarmuk in Syria, al-Qadisiyya and other battles in Iraq, and settled in Kufa. He witnessed Siffin with Ali, and there are accounts of his dealings with him. ¹

Khalifa, Abu Nu'aym and more than one other said he died forty nights after Ali was killed, and that al-Hasan ibn Ali (may God be pleased with him) led the funeral prayer over him. It is also said he died in 42 AH. A report of al-Tabarani suggests he died later than that. ¹

Ibn Ishaq reports from al-Zuhri that he came with eighty riders from Kinda. They entered the Prophet's mosque with their hair combed and their eyes lined with kohl, wearing Hira-style robes edged with silk. The Prophet ordered them to remove the silk, and they tore it off and threw it away; see the delegation of Kinda. ² Al-Ash'ath said: "We are the sons of Akil al-Murar, and you are the son of Akil al-Murar." The Prophet smiled, attributed that claim to al-Abbas and Rabi'a ibn al-Harith, and said: "Rather, we are the sons of al-Nadr ibn Kinana. We do not slander our mother, nor do we disown our father." Al-Ash'ath said: "By God, I will not hear a man say it without striking him eighty times." ² Ibn Hisham says that al-Ash'ath descends from Akil al-Murar through his mothers. ²

Al-Ash'ath, Abu Muhammad Ma'dikarib ibn Qays, of the clan of al-Harith ibn Mu'awiya, was a chief of Kinda in Hadramawt, known by a name meaning "with unkempt hair". In 10 AH (631) he led the delegation that offered the submission of a section of Kinda to the Prophet at Medina; a marriage with the Prophet's sister Kayla was arranged, but he died before she arrived. After Muhammad's death he rose in revolt and was besieged at the castle of al-Nudjayr; he was pardoned by Abu Bakr, who married him to his own sister Umm Farwa. He fought at the Yarmuk, losing an eye, was at al-Qadisiyya, and settled at Kufa as chief of the Kindite sector. At Siffin he played a leading part in the fighting and in the negotiations, and is represented as having persuaded 'Ali to accept arbitration. He died at Kufa in 40 AH (661), in the time of al-Hasan ibn 'Ali. ³