Note 585 — Chapter XLVIII · YEZID APPOINTED HEIR APPARENT.—HEREDITARY NOMINATION BECOMES A PRECEDENT. A.H. LVI. A.D. 676.
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Yezîd was the only fit son Muâvia had. He was also born of a noble mother belonging to the Beni Kalb, who amid the luxuries of the court pined for the freedom of nomad life. Another son was decrepid; and a third the son of a slave-girl. By the letter of the Mahometan law, the son of the bond-woman is equally legitimate with the son of the free. But amongst the Arabs, the son of a noble mother took precedence over the lower born; and so noble birth became naturally one of the elements of fitness in the choice. And the same we see to the present day, even in such petty principalities as that of Afghanistan.
The history of Yezîd’s mother has attractions for the Arab writers. She gave vent to her longing for a return to desert life in verse, which coming to Muâvia’s ears, he dismissed her with her son to live in the encampment of her tribe; and there Yezîd acquired the tastes of the Bedouins, and his love for the chase and a free life, which he ever after retained. His mother’s verses were such as these:
A tent fanned by the desert breeze is dearer far to me than the lofty palace. I should ride more joyously on the young camel than on the richly caparisoned steed. The whistling of the gale across the sandy plain is sweeter to me than the flourish of royal trumpets. A crust of bread in the corner of a Bedouin tent has a better relish to me than that of choicest viands. The noble Arab of my tribe is more comely in my sight than the obese and bearded men around me. O that I were once again in my desert home! I would not exchange it for the most gorgeous hall.