Mutammim ibn Nuwayra

متمم بن نويرة

A poet of Banu Hanzala ibn Malik of Tamim, brother of Malik ibn Nuwayra; he came to Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) after his brother's killing and when asked of his grief answered 'I wept for him a year until my failing eye aided my sound one', then described his generosity, and recited his elegy beginning 'we were like Jadhima's two drinking-companions for an age until it was said they would never be split'; when Umar said 'had I been good at verse I would have elegized my brother Zayd', he answered 'not equal, commander of the faithful — had my brother fallen where yours fell I would not have wept him', and Umar said 'no one has consoled me better than you consoled me'.

Overview

Mutammim ibn Nuwayra, a poet of Banu Hanzala ibn Malik of Tamim, and the brother of Malik ibn Nuwayra. He became known for lamenting his brother, and entered upon Umar ibn al-Khattab after his killing. ¹

With Umar

Al-Baladhuri relates that Umar asked him about his grief, and he answered that he had wept for his brother for a year. Then he described his brother as generous, and recited to Umar his elegy, which begins "We were like the companions of Jadhima". ¹

When Umar said that if he had been good at poetry he would have lamented his brother Zayd, Mutammim replied that the two situations are not equal. Umar said that no one had consoled him better than Mutammim. ¹

The killing of his brother is the subject of the killing of Malik ibn Nuwayra.

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.

Mutammim ibn Nuwayra

At a glance

Overview

With Umar

Connections

People and things also explored

Sources

The Ridda Wars