Al-Najāshī al-Ḥārithī (d. c.40/660 or 49/669) is the sobriquet of Qays b. ʿAmr, a renowned Yemeni poet who sided with the fourth Muslim caliph, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (r. 35–40/656–61), against the ruler of Syria and future caliph Muʿāwiya b. Abī Sufyān (r. 41–60/661–80). He was born into the al-Ḥārith b. Kaʿb b. ʿAmr tribe of Yemen from the Najrān region of southwest Arabia (Kaḥḥāla, 1:231). His nickname, najāshī, comes from the Ge’ez word for ‘king’ (used in early Islam for the Ethiopian ruler) because his mother was Ethiopian and also, apparently, because of his d…