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al-Khansa' (Tumadir bint Amr)

الخنساء (تماضر بنت عمرو)

The elegiac poet of Banu Sulaym (Qays 'Aylan), famous for her laments for her brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiya killed before Islam; she embraced Islam with her sons and gave them to the cause — the four were martyred at al-Qadisiyya, and she was heard saying that God's honouring her with their martyrdom comforted her.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Companion · Poet
Counted among
Sunni
Era
The Prophetic Era · The Rashidun Caliphate
Region
Arabia
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Women

Place in the story

  • PoetTradition
  • CompanionTradition

Sunni (transmitted)

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Overview

Tumadir daughter of Amr ibn al-Harith ibn al-Sharid al-Sulamiyya, titled al-Khansa. A poet of the Banu Sulaym, known before Islam for her lament over her two brothers Sakhr and Mu'awiya. She and her sons embraced Islam, and her four sons were martyred on the day of al-Qadisiyya. The museum's data say that she sent them off to the battle. 1

Al-Mas'udi says that al-Asma'i quoted her to al-Rashid in the report of the horse race at al-Raqqa. 2

Connections

Explore the connections

Parent of
Abu Shajara Amr ibn Abd al-Uzza al-Sulami
Participated in
The battle of al-Qadisiyya

People and things also explored

The Ridda Wars· Al-Qadisiyya· The battle of al-Qadisiyya· Abu Shajara Amr ibn Abd al-Uzza al-Sulami· Obstructing a marriage (adl): the guardian and the husband· Fleshy growth in the wife's womb and the right to annul (afal)· The Arab woman and the international conventions· Family businesses

Sources

  1. Nisa' Hawl al-Rasul: Tarajim wa Qisas — al-Maktaba al-Asriyya , p.288-289
  2. Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi , p. 350
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “al-Khansa' (Tumadir bint Amr)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/al-khansa/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Wing

People

Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story. Related

The Ridda Wars

In al-Baladhuri: when Abu Bakr succeeded, groups of the Arabs apostatized and withheld the alms, some saying 'we keep the prayer but will not pay the zakat', whereupon Abu Bakr said 'if they withheld from me a hobbling-cord — some say a she-goat kid — I would fight them', the 'iqal being a year's alms; Abdullah ibn Masud said the Muslims had stood after the Prophet at a station where they nearly perished had God not graced them with Abu Bakr: they had all agreed not to fight over a young she-camel or a weaned camel 'and to eat the Arab villages' yield and worship God until certainty came to us', but God resolved him to fight, and he accepted from them only the humiliating condition or the annihilating war — the first that they confess their slain are in the Fire and return what they took of Muslim property, the second that they leave their homes; in Tariq ibn Shihab's report he offered the Buzakha delegation the choice of the annihilating war or the humiliating peace: surrender of armour and mounts, return of what was taken, blood-money for the slain Muslims, their own slain in the Fire; Aisha said 'when the Prophet died there befell my father what would have crushed the firm mountains — hypocrisy reared its head in Medina and the Arabs apostatized'; Abu Bakr went out to al-Qassa directing the columns against the apostates, was attacked by Kharija ibn Hisn and Manzur ibn Zabban the Fazaris who were routed with Talha ibn Ubaydillah pursuing them to lower Thaniyyat Awsaja, then appointed Khalid ibn al-Walid over the army and Thabit ibn Qays over the Ansar, beginning with Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid at Buzakha, followed by the affairs of Yamama, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Hadramawt, Mecca, Tihama and Iraq.