Khalid ibn Safwan
خالد بن صفوان
The Arabs' orator at al-Saffah's court who answered the Qahtanite boast: 'a folk among whom is only a tanner of hides, a weaver of mantles, a driver of monkeys, a rider of goats — a rat drowned them, a woman ruled them, a hoopoe guided them' 1.
At a glance
- Era
- The Early Abbasid Caliphate
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
Khalid ibn Safwan al-Tamimi, whom al-Mas'udi describes as the orator of the Arabs. At the gathering of al-Saffah, some sons of Qahtan boasted over the sons of Nizar, and Khalid answered them with words that disparaged them. Then he went on to the story of the Abyssinians taking power and the Persians rescuing them. 1
With Umm Salama
Al-Mas'udi also relates a report of him with Abu al-Abbas. He described women and their kinds to him, and when his words reached Umm Salama she was angry. When he learned that she was listening from behind the curtain, he turned to describing the harm of co-wives, and she sent him ten thousand dirhams and gifts. 2
Sources
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p. 491
- Muruj al-Dhahab — al-Masʼudi, p. 247-250
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Khalid ibn Safwan”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/khalid-ibn-safwan/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-16.